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Big Picture

New Zealand rarely go into an away series without a gameplan. When they toured South Africa for a two-Test series last year, they had a discernible strategy: use the bouncer frequently to scuff up the ball to produce reverse-swing earlier than usual. Against India in the Test series in 2016, coach Mike Hesson stressed that their focus was on getting off strike to negate India’s spinners. Both those strategies worked to a degree, but didn’t translate into wins.For this ODI series against India, New Zealand made room for an aggressive middle-order batsman, Colin Munro, to face the new ball, while pushing down a natural opener in Tom Latham to No. 5. The experiment was trialed in a warm-up game, with acceptable results. Free of error, they stuck with that plan in the first ODI in Mumbai. Although scratchy, Munro blunted a potent new-ball attack, and Latham’s technical efficiency – using his feet, the depth of the crease, and cross-batted strokes against spin – produced a match-winning hundred. Australia came into the ODI series with a formulaic plan, and New Zealand a flexible, horses-for-courses blueprint. Which one worked?In the recent past, India have not been in a position where they have needed to win to force a decider. Their personnel did not fail in Mumbai, but were undone by New Zealand. Wristspinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were dealt with with incredible ease, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar weren’t penetrative, and their batsmen, apart from Virat Kohli, were kept in check. Against a confident team, India may just need to step up their own game a notch.

Form guide

India: LWLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)New Zealand: WLLLW

In the spotlight

In his last 10 ODI innings, Rohit Sharma has hit three fifties and three hundreds. Even in favourable batting conditions, that’s exceptional form. Maybe that made him a little complacent in the first ODI in Mumbai, where his innings of 20 ended with a heave across the line against Trent Boult. Rohit has built his ODI career around stability in the first half of an innings, and could switch back to that template in Pune.Kane Williamson is New Zealand’s best batsman. He may have misread Kuldeep Yadav’s wrong’un in Mumbai, where he sliced a drive to cover, and this could mean a more watchful approach for the rest of the series. He has made only two hundreds in his last 37 ODI innings, but has struck 14 fifties in that period. Improving that conversion rate could just help New Zealand seal the series.

Team news

India are unlikely to change their XI, but could rejig the batting order, moving Dinesh Karthik up a position to No. 4, after a steady comeback innings in Mumbai.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 MS Dhoni(wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Jasprit BumrahNew Zealand, barring fitness issues, have no reason to tinker with their winning combination from the first game.New Zealand (probable): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Henry Nicholls, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Tim Southee

Pitch and conditions

The last international match in Pune was a Test that didn’t last three days. The ODI, prior to that, saw 351 chased down by Kohli and Kedar Jadhav. Runs are usually freely available at this ground, especially with short boundaries. There is no chance of rain.

Stats and trivia

• Trent Boult has taken the most wickets in the first 10 overs of ODIs since January 2015 – 30 wickets in 42 innings.
• The previous instance of India losing successive home ODIs in a bilateral series was back in 2013, against Pakistan.

Quotes

“We look at it (trailing 1-0) as a big challenge right now. New Zealand compete exceptionally well. It is a bigger challenge for us to come back”
“We were lucky enough to be here last year, so we knew a little bit how India played and watching them against the Australian team, so lot of work was done in terms of spin and playing in the middle”

Few would have predicted a decider at Lord’s after the thrashing at Edgbaston but West Indies captain Jason Holder believes the confidence born out of their performance at Headingley could lift his side to victory in a “momentous” match.Only two members of this West Indies squad – Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel – have played a Test at the home of cricket, adding to the sense of occasion for Holder’s men.”It’s obviously a momentous game for everybody,” Holder said, speaking at Lord’s on the eve of the match. “Especially in our group. A number of us are playing our first Test match here at Lord’s, our first series in England. There’s a lot to play for, and our guys are really up for it.”West Indies haven’t won a Test series in England for 29 years but go into the final match having beaten their opponents in two of their last three Tests (going back to Barbados in 2015). Victory at Headingley was West Indies’ first in England in 17 years and further history beckons.It is a rare challenge for Holder, still relatively callow in his captaincy. In some ways, his side has already surpassed expectations and inspired hope for the future. Should they acquit themselves well at Lord’s, no matter the result, they will have gained the respect of many who perhaps underestimated their qualities. But they would gain so much more with victory.”It would be great to win the series in England, but there’s a process towards going about that,” Holder said. “We can’t focus on the end result.”Our focus is our process. I spoke about consistency a lot on this tour, and that’s the main objective for me. Once we’re consistent and do the small things well, that end result should be more or less in our favour.”There have been unforeseen and unfortunate distractions in the build-up to the final Test. Bowling coach Roddy Estwick has returned to Barbados after the death of his mother and in his absence former Middlesex, Sussex and Yorkshire swing bowler Paul Hutchison has temporarily stepped into the role. Holder hopes Hutchison’s local knowledge will prove invaluable.Shai Hope chats with Brian Lara during West Indies training•Getty Images

“We’ve tried to get as much information as possible coming into this game,” Holder said. “We’ve got the luxury of having an outsider, Paul Hutchison, give us some tips about how to bowl here at Lord’s. He’s had some experience of bowling here at Lord’s.”There’s a lot of talk about the slope and such and we’ve studied it and had a chance to formulate some plans about how we go it. But cricket is always played on the day. You may be faced with different dilemmas and you just have to adjust and cope with it. That’s the nature of professional sport.”The threat of devastation from Hurricane Irma throughout the Caribbean has also loomed large in the thoughts of the players, particularly for Antiguan Alzarri Joseph, whose island was originally feared to be in the direct path of the storm.”I understand it hasn’t done major damage to Antigua, where Alzarri is from,” Holder said. “It’s gone further up north. We just hope the islands it is going to affect, the people prepare well and hopefully they are not hurt too badly.”We send our prayers back home, we have everybody back home in our thoughts and prayers. There’s not much we can do from here but sit and pray and wish them all the best.”West Indies declined to name a team before the toss, deciding to take another look at the pitch. It will, no doubt, have surprised them to see it displaying odd markings, known as ‘fairy rings’, caused by fungus spores below the turf. One perfect ring sits just short of a length for batsmen at the Pavilion End – perfectly positioned as a ‘bullseye’ for short balls coming from the Nursery End.But who will bowl them for West Indies remains unclear. It could be the case that Devendra Bishoo misses out on the final Test – he bowled 31 overs at Headingley, compared to the 44 bowled by Roston Chase – giving West Indies the option of including an extra seamer. Miguel Cummins and Joseph played in the first Test at Edgbaston while Raymon Reifer was particularly impressive in the nets at Lord’s on Wednesday.But whoever walks out at Lord’s will have the opportunity to create their own history, the challenge put to them by their coach, Stuart Law, at the start of the series. Some have already done so, with Shai Hope becoming the first batsman to score two centuries in a first-class match at Headingley. But, for a team which – more than any other international side – seems to have the ghosts of the past constantly hovering, making history at Lord’s would quieten talk of past legends and garner hope that last week’s victory was no false dawn.”It has done a lot,” Holder said of the Headingley win. “The first game, pretty much everybody wrote us off. Our heads were a bit down after how we got defeated in the first Test match.”To pick ourselves back up and come back and respond how we did at Headingley was remarkable. It’s obviously given us some new life. We’ve got a chance to win this series so we are going out in this last Test match to win it.”

In another damning indictment of the BCCI, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has asked the Supreme Court to remove the three office bearers of the board with immediate effect.The CoA felt such a blunt measure was necessary only because the three office bearers – CK Khanna (acting BCCI president), Amitabh Choudhary (secretary) and Anirudh Chaudhry (treasurer) – had failed to ensure the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations despite having given a written undertaking in January.The CoA said the court had already set the precedent in January when it had removed the two senior-most BCCI office bearers – Anurag Thakur (president) and Ajay Shirke (secretary) – after the pair had failed to implement the reforms, thus violating the court’s order delivered on July 18 last year. Simultaneously, the court stated that if Khanna, Choudhary and Chaudhry wanted to continue as office bearers, they would need to make written submissions saying they would help the BCCI implement the reforms. The CoA said that it has been more than six months and the three office bearers are “not in a position to make good” on their undertakings and hence should be sacked.”The current office bearers of the BCCI have demonstrated scant regard for the directions issued by the Committee of Administrators and continue to flout the same with impunity,” the CoA noted in its fifth status report, which is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court on August 18. “There is a need to direct that the existing office bearers of the BCCI shall forthwith cease and desist from being associated with the working of BCCI.”The report also said that with fresh BCCI elections scheduled for September, the running of the board should be entrusted “exclusively” with the COA, which would work closely with the board’s professional management led by its CEO Rahul Johri. “The governance, management and administration of the BCCI may be entrusted exclusively in the hands of the Committee of Administrators along with the professional management of the BCCI headed by the CEO until elections are held in accordance with the New BCCI Constitution and a new set of office bearers take charge.”The stonewalling by the BCCI and majority of the state associations against implementing the reforms has finally started to test the patience of the CoA. Vinod Rai, the committee’s chairman, admitted in an interview last month that his “consensus-building” efforts paid no dividends. Disappointed but not disheartened, the CoA asked the court in the fourth status report to issue an order under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution that would enforce the implementation of reforms.Without mincing words, the CoA has once again said unless the court did not issue the directives as requested in last two status reports, its judgment would never see the “light of the day”. “The Judgment of this Hon’ble Court will remain a writ in sand and the implementation of reforms mandated by this Hon’ble Court will never see the light of the day.”In its latest status report, the CoA presented various examples, which exposed the “willful disobedience” and the “resistance” put forth by majority of the BCCI members, which are the state associations. The CoA was annoyed that the three office bearers had just remained ineffective, instead of imposing themselves.The latest instance, the COA said, came around the BCCI’s last special general meeting, on July 26. Two days before the SGM, the court, responding to the “urgent” intervention sought by the COA, had directed that only qualified office bearers/representatives from state associations could attend the meeting.The CoA’s fifth status report is likely to be heard by the Supreme Court on August 18•AFP

In an interim order on July 24, the court had also indicated that it was willing to reopen debate over some of the reforms. “All concerned (BCCI and state associations) shall implement the recommendations of the Justice Lodha Committee Report as far as practicable, barring the issues which have been raised pertaining to membership, number of members of the selection committee, concept of associate membership, etc.”At the SGM, the BCCI agreed unanimously to implement all but five broad reforms: membership status which includes the one-state-one-vote reform, disqualification of office bearers, ministers and government officials based on eligibility criteria such as the age cap, tenure and cooling off period, the strength of the Apex Council – which replaces the existing working committee, the division of powers between the office bearers and the professional management, and strength of the national selection committee.Barring the recommendations concerning one-state-one vote and the strength of the selection panel, the other three “identified” by the BCCI form the “fundamental core” of the reforms that were approved by the court in its original order last July. “Describing these issues as ‘impracticable’ or ‘difficult’ is nothing short of gross abuse/contempt,” the CoA said. “It is obvious that the whole idea was to stonewall the fundamental core of the reforms mandate by this Hon’ble Court and make the same a dead letter.”The CoA was disgruntled with the office bearers also because they did not send it the minutes of the July 26 SGM despite being asked to. The CoA also took strong exception to the BCCI’s decision, asking Johri and the BCCI administrative staff, including the board’s legal team, to leave the SGM, which it said was “pre-planned and orchestrated.”When the CoA checked with the office bearers as to why they did not “reprimand” the BCCI members who asked Johri to leave the SGM, their response was “ingenious”, saying he had “left of his own accord.” “The conduct of the office bearers is such as to demonstrate that they are unfit to continue and ought to removed.”

Ross Whiteley’s six-hitting prowess continued at Trent Bridge•Getty Images

Six-hitting Ross Whiteley supercharged Worcestershire Rapids as they completed their first victory of the season in the NatWest T20 Blast by defeating Notts Outlaws by 13 runs at Trent Bridge.Whiteley, who hit six sixes in an over against Yorkshire on Sunday, cleared the ropes on five occasions in making 42 from just 16 balls.Three came in one over from Harry Gurney which went for 24. Gurney finished with an analysis of none for 57, the most expensive in the county’s T20 history.His assault stunned Notts, one of the favourites to take the trophy, and underlined the call from his director of cricket Steve Rhodes for England to take him seriously as a candidate for their Twenty20 side.The loss was the first sustained at home by the Outlaws since May last year, a run of seven wins and two abandonments, which leaves them on six points from as many matches in this campaign, whilst the Rapids’ win lifts them up to three points.The home side had been set to score 209 for their fourth consecutive win but found themselves pegged back after an aggressive start and could only post 195 for 5.Riki Wessels made 49 and Alex Hales scored 44 in the chase but John Hastings proved to be an effective matchwinner for the Rapids, taking 3 for 31.Earlier, 60 from Joe Clarke and a punishing sixth wicket partnership of 60 in just 4.2 overs helped push the Rapids up to 208 for 8, after being asked to bat first.Clarke scored his runs from only 27 deliveries and hit seven fours and three sixes to get the visitors off to a flying start, which took them past 50 inside just four overs. Clarke took 28 off a single over from Luke Wood.After Notts had fought back strongly, Whiteley and Mitchell Santner took it away from them again with some destructive hitting.Santner also showed his big-hitting prowess with three maximums of his own in making 35 from 20 balls.Santner clubbed one of his rope-clearing blows off countryman Ish Sodhi, who took 2 for 41, including the prized scalp of Whiteley, who skewed the leg-spinner to point.Jake Ball had earlier removed Clarke and then added some lustre to his final figures of 3 for 34 by removing both Santner and Joe Leach as the innings drew towards a close.Notts had never chased down a target as large as 208 before but enjoyed an explosive Powerplay to set them on track, rattling up 76 without loss. Hales scored 50 of them, reaching the landmark in just 22 balls, with 12 fours – seven of them coming from eight consecutive deliveries bowled at him by Jack Shantry.With the game moving decisively away from them they were given a lifeline when Hales went after Brett D’Oliveira but failed to clear Ed Barnard on the deep midwicket fence, with the score on 92.When Brendan Taylor found 18-year old debutant Pat Brown on the midwicket fence, off Daryl Mitchell for 25, Notts still needed 80 from 46 balls.Outlaws captain Dan Christian made only two, hoisting fellow-Australian Hastings down to Clarke at long leg.The required run-rate rose to more than over 13, with 66 needed from the last five overs and home chances dipped further as Samit Patel became Hastings’ second victim, pulling to midwicket for 10.On 44 Wessels reached 4,000 runs in T20 cricket but he perished shortly afterwards and despite Tom Moores and Steven Mullaney throwing the bat in the closing overs the damage had already been done.

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals have completed their suspensions of two years from the IPL on Friday and were “welcomed back” by the BCCI.The suspension on the owners of the two franchises – India Cements and Jaipur IPL – was imposed by the Lodha Committee exactly two years ago, effectively ruling out the participation of the two teams. They will now be able to feature in 11th IPL edition next year.The committee had also banned for life Gurunath Meiyappan, a former official of Super Kings, and Raj Kundra, a co-owner of Royals, from any involvement in cricket matches for bringing “disrepute” to the game.The BCCI later decided to bring in two new franchises for a two-year term. In December 2015, the New Rising consortium and Intex won the ownership rights of the new franchises Rising Pune Supergiant (home base: Pune) and Gujarat Lions (home base: Rajkot).Super Kings had won the IPL twice, in 2010 and 2011, while Royals won the inaugural edition in 2008.

Match Facts

June 12, 2017
Start time 10.30am local (0930 GMT)

Big Picture

And so, it has transpired that two fundamentally flawed sides – seventh and eighth on the ODI rankings – now have the chance to scramble over the other into the semi-final of the most competitive one-day tournament around.How this came about deserves a brief recap. Pakistan, who barely strung together five overs of competence against India, choked South Africa’s top order with spin, before the quicks came back to wipe out the middle order with reverse swing. The next day, Sri Lanka, who had been swatted away like a gnat by South Africa, ran down India’s 321 for 6 with ease – Angelo Mathews so cool in the final overs, he practically had a cigar between his lips, and a drink in one hand.Even just two games in, both teams have put together such colourful campaigns. Sri Lanka’s old warhorse, Lasith Malinga, has been sporadically effective with the ball, but has been more entertaining in the field, where his slow-motion dives have brought to mind the keeling over of a ship. If you squint, you can just about see seismic ripples in the turf. Elsewhere, Sri Lanka have attempted singles advisable only on low-gravity planets, have committed batting hara-kiri against high-quality wrist spin, and players have strived en masse to rule themselves out of this game – Chamara Kapugedara, Kusal Perera and Upul Tharanga already unavailable, before a blow to Thisara Perera’s head at training also put him in doubt, though, thankfully, he appears to be fine now.Pakistan, meanwhile, had lost Umar Akmal to fitness concerns a week before the tournament, have seen ace bowler Mohammad Amir go wicketless in both matches, while other bowlers in the attack lurched from abysmal to dominant in the space of three days. Sarfraz Ahmed’s new captaincy has also been eventful. Mohammad Hafeez delivered ten overs and contributed the vital wicket of Quinton de Kock in Pakistan’s win over South Africa, but had not been bowled at all in the previous match, prompting much head-scratching, not least from Pakistan’s own coach.Look, these previews are often an occasion for considered analysis; a platform for weighing up relative strengths, and figuring out which side has the upper hand. But is there really a point with these two teams? When they play as they have, they are impervious to any kind of meaningful dissection. There is so little consistency from one game to the next, the whole exercise loses its value.And a Sri Lanka v Pakistan knockout has so much tragicomic potential that to discuss it beforehand is like giving out spoilers. This preview may already have said too much.

Form guide

Sri Lanka WLWLL (completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WLWWL

In the spotlight

Babar Azam, one of the brightest young batting talents on the planet, has five hundreds and six fifties in 28 innings, a rocking average of 54.44, and – crucially for a Pakistan batsman of the last two years – a 21st-century strike rate of 89. He had just been warming up when the rains came down in Birmingham – his last stroke having been a regal on-drive off Kagiso Rabada. Having had a modest tour of England last year, Babar will be eager to cross fifty for the first time on English soil, and Sri Lanka’s limited attack may be the opposition to do it against.Also in possession of a potentially devastating payload of talent is another 22-year-old, Kusal Mendis, whose crinkle-free 89 on Thursday helped set Sri Lanka on track to victory. There are still flaws in his game – Pakistan might be wise to pack their slip cordon early in his innings, for example. But 26 innings in, there is a scientific composure to his game that has been the cause of quiet excitement for Sri Lanka fans. Only Joe Root has hit more ODI fifties than Mendis’ 11, since the latter’s debut almost a year ago.Kusal Perera’s hamstring injury may mean a straight entry into the XI for Dhananjaya de Silva•Associated Press

Team news

Kusal Perera’s exit from the tournament due to a hamstring injury means Sri Lanka’s batting will be in flux again. They have flown in Dhananjaya de Silva and, given Tharanga remains suspended for another match, de Silva may have to walk straight into the middle order. There is a chance Sri Lanka will play Lakshan Sandakan instead of Thisara Perera, but the selectors have generally been conservative, so Thisara could stay. De Silva and Gunathilaka both provide offspin options.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt.), 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Dhananjaya de Silva, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Nuwan PradeepThere is a chance of fast-bowling allrounder Faheem Ashraf debuting, in place of Mohammad Hafeez. However, Pakistan will perhaps be unwilling to mess with a winning combination.Pakistan (possible): 1 Azhar Ali, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt, wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Shadab Khan, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Junaid Khan

Pitch and conditions

The weather is forecast to be cloudy but dry, with temperatures around the mid-teens. A fresh pitch is being used for this match. Scores of 280-300 have seemed about par in the two matches played in Cardiff so far.

Stats and trivia

• The last time these two teams met in an ODI outside Asia was back in 2002. Of their ten most recent encounters – each of which has been in Asia – Sri Lanka have won six.
• Angelo Mathews, who hit 52 not out against India, has averaged an outstanding 50.08 since the start of 2014, with a strike rate of nearly 88
• Since his debut in August last year, Hasan Ali has taken 33 wickets at an average of 25.9 and strike rate of just under 27 – better, by a distance, than any of his team-mates to have played more than one match during that period

Quotes

“We are not trying to get too far ahead. We just want to take one game at a time. We’re not thinking about the semi-final as of now. We’re just taking on Pakistan tomorrow. We’ve got to play really good cricket to beat them, and we all know that they’re a very dangerous team.”
“I think it’s an achievement. Everyone wanted to do well in this competition. I believe, and we believe as a team, we are moving towards the right direction. We know as a team we are gelling together.”

Scorecard”I don’t like things messy,” said the girl in the refreshments outlet as she wiped down the surfaces with uncommon zeal. It is fortunate she did not have a view of the cricket. “Messy” barely begins to sum up a second day at Taunton in which 18 wickets fell and a succession of batsmen were in suicidal mood.The upshot is that Essex, 10 for 0 at the close, need another 245 with all their second-wickets intact. It is by no means impossible, because this pitch is far better than the scores suggest, although an Essex victory would require no more of the batting tomfoolery that saw those 18 wickets tumble for 253 runs.Neil Wagner, New Zealand’s adopted South African, was the chief beneficiary of a haphazard day in which his persistent use of the short ball reaped more dividends than he could fairly expect even on a wicket which the batsmen had concluded was two-paced and did not trust as a result. But hell, if it keeps working, keep doing it. As he so often has for New Zealand.Wagner has found little swing in Taunton with his new-ball spells, when he pitches the ball up, but his old-ball tactic of bashing the ball into the middle of the pitch has brought untold joy. His burst of 5 for 17 in 34 balls saw Somerset decline to 124 for 9 before a last-wicket stand of 50 between Craig Overton and Jack Leach restored at least a semblance of responsibility. Wagner returned to end that, drawing Overton into an uppercut to third man, and finished with 6 for 48.Somerset’s batting coach Chris Rogers said; “I think a lot of the batsman will feel they have left a lot of runs out there. However, I do think this wicket is playing tricks. It is two-paced and it has become a bit of a lottery. But still, we could have tried to have seen Wagner off and we will need to address. The last pair valued their wicket and that will be a big lesson for the other guys.”A more pressing question is why Somerset dealt with it in such a ham-fisted fashion. Wagner, as a skiddy left-armer, is difficult to leave when he hammers the ball into a somewhat unreliable surface because of the angle he bowls and the height – or lack of it – he generates, but that barely begins to build a defence.Such tactics – as Wagner himself signalled afterwards – are exhausting and cannot be pursued with success before long. Five overs, 30 balls, 15 balls each, to see him off. Against an Essex side only fielding two frontline pace bowlers. Finally, it seems, the Internet age where nobody can concentrate for longer than two minutes has reached Taunton.Wagner’s assault began with Steve Davies, whose square drive off the back foot flew at catchable height to point. Peter Trego was strangled down the leg-side and, further down the scorecard, the shots got worse. Roelof van der Merwe attempted a one-legged whip and was caught at midwicket and Lewis Gregory top-edged a pull to long leg.That left Jamie Overton. Before lunch, Overton had bounced out Wagner: fast bowler bouncing fast bowler to warn him that fire could be fought with fire. Wagner therefore stepped up his short-ball assault and removed Alastair Cook from slip to strengthen the leg-side with the same intent. Blow me, if Overton did not top-edge a hare-brained pull straight up in the air. Perhaps an early contender for the daftest shot of the season. Utterly self-indulgent. There again, these days there is a lot of it about.Essex had not been much better. Resuming on their overnight total of 60 for 2, they lost eight wickets in barely doubling their score with only Cook providing any real resistance. Even Cook lacked his frolicsome approach of the first evening before he played on, 13 added in an hour to his overnight 39, pushing limply at Gregory.Left-arm spin will play a major part in Somerset’s attempt to win the game on the third day. Leach’s solidity will persuade Somerset that his simplified action – following the ECB analysis that deemed his action as illegal – will gradually pose the same threat that was such a central part of their Championship challenge last season. He took two wickets in Essex’s first innings, bowling Ravi Bopara behind his legs on the sweep in a solid introduction to the season. A simplified action looks as if little go wrong, but what he needs are the bowling figures to follow.Van der Merwe, his fellow slow left-armer, bowled the best deliveries of all, none better than the delivery which turned to strike Adam Wheater’s off stump. Perhaps he could have been further forward, but on a day of such batting inadequacies it would be harsh to complain too much.

Centuries from opener Rassie van der Dussen (102 off 138 balls) and Dwaine Pretorius (115 off 79 balls) went in vain for Lions as they fell five short of the 312 target set by Knights in Kimberley. The win kept the Knights’ knockout chances alive.David Miller’s unbeaten 86-ball 123, his third one-day hundred since February, had propelled Knights to 311 for 6 after they had elected to bat. Shadley van Schalkwyk then defended 16 off the last over, despite conceding a six first ball, to seal their win.Van der Dussen had lost four partners by the 23rd over of the chase, and with Lions needing 210 runs off 167 deliveries, the opener was joined by Pretorius. They added 144 runs off 138 balls to keep the visitors in contention before van der Dussen was trapped in front by Dillon du Preez. Mulder (30* off 15) joined Pretorius – who struck eight fours and four sixes during his maiden List A century – and brought the equation down from 61 from 25 to 24 off the last two overs. Pretorious’ dismisal in the 49th over dented the chase, however, and van Schalkwyk conceded only a single when six were required off the last ball.Earlier, useful partnerships at the top helped Knights amass a challenging total. Opener Keegan Petersen hit five fours and a six in his patient knock of 75 but it was Miller whose rapid century – studded with seven fours and six sixes – helped them power past 300 with some support from the lower order. While he reached 50 in as many balls, he took only 28 deliveries more to bring up his eighth List A hundred. Pretorius and Wihan Lubbe were the only two of seven Lions bowlers who conceded less than six per over.Chris Morris earned the Player-of-the-Match award for his 3 for 30•Getty Images

Chris Morris and AB de Villiers made resounding returns to Momentum One Day Cup, as they helped Titans thump Warriors by seven wickets in the penultimate round-robin match of the tournament at Willowmoore Park in Benoni. Morris’ 3 for 30 set the tone for Titans as they bowled Warriors out for 147 and Titans chased it down with 131 balls to spare, led by de Villiers’ unbeaten 75, and claimed the top spot from Dolphins with six wins from nine matches ahead of the final set of games on Thursday.Morris made his presence felt at the very outset, bowling Warriors opener Gihahn Cloete off the second ball of the match. Fellow fast bowler Lungi Ngidi (3 -32) further compounded Warriors’ poor start, removing the two Colins – Ingram and Ackermann – with a double-strike in the sixth over. Captain JJ Smuts (39), the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament, resisted Warriors’ slide with a 66-run fourth-wicket partnership with Yaseen Vallie, whose 61-ball 44 pushed Warriors to 113 before Morris had him caught behind in the 30th over. Jerry Nqolo (26) and Andrew Birch (16) were the only two other batsmen to get into double figures as Warriors folded in 41.2 overs, with the last three wickets falling for seven runs.In reply, Titans suffered the early loss of Jonathan Vandiar (1), but Aiden Markram and Heino Kuhn added 23 each, before de Villiers made short work of the chase, clobbering ten fours and one six on his way to a 62-ball 75. His unbeaten 87-run stand for the fourth wicket with Farhaan Behardien (24*) helped Titans chase down the target in 28.1 overs.Titans are now placed at the top of the table, a spot that will guarantee a home final should they stay there after the last round of matches.

The majority of England’s centrally contracted players (who are not otherwise engaged at the IPL) have been made available to play for their counties in the early rounds of the Specsavers County Championship and the Royal London One-Day Cup next month.The player availability, which was confirmed by the ECB on Friday, means that Essex’s return to Division One of the Championship, against Lancashire at Chelmsford on April 7, could provide some intriguing individual match-ups.In particular, England’s former Test captain, Alastair Cook, will face up to his long-term attack leader, James Anderson, in his first first-class outing since relinquishing the captaincy, while Cook’s likely opening partner for July’s Test series against South Africa, Haseeb Hameed, will be fronting up at the top of Lancashire’s batting.Joe Root, the new Test captain, will sit out Yorkshire’s opening Championship fixture against Hampshire at Headingley, as will his Yorkshire team-mate, Jonny Bairstow, who might have been playing in the IPL during the same period had he not gone unsold at the auction. Moeen Ali and Jake Ball will also miss the opening round of matches, for Worcestershire and Nottinghamshire respectively, following their busy winter schedules.However, those players will be made available for at least one of the opening three rounds of the Championship, before attention returns to white-ball cricket with the impending ODI series against Ireland and South Africa, followed by the Champions Trophy.Several other players who have featured in England’s Test plans in the past 12 months will also be available to their counties in that period, including Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Alex Hales, Steven Finn, Mark Wood, Keaton Jennings, Liam Dawson, James Vince, and Root and Bairstow’s Yorkshire team-mates, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid and David Willey.The list, naturally, excludes the eight England players who will be on IPL duty in India, including the allrounders Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, the one-day captain Eoin Morgan, and the one-day opener, Jason Roy.All England players who are currently with their counties, however, have been made available for the opening three rounds of matches in the Royal London One-Day Cup, which has been brought forward in the season this year building to a final at Lord’s on July 1.

Central Districts confirmed a third-place finish to the league stage of the Ford Trophy after beating Auckland by seven wickets at Pukekura Park. Auckland crashed out, collapsing spectacularly to hand Central Districts the advantage.Having chosen to bat, Auckland were well placed to gun for a big total when they were 203 for 3 in the 33rd over, courtesy contributions from Jeet Raval (46), Sean Solia (60) and Colin Munro (62 off 43). Ajaz Patel’s dismissal of Solia, to end a 36-run fourth-wicket stand with Colin de Grandhomme (37 off 23 balls), triggered Auckland’s slide: they lost their last seven wickets for 34 runs and were bowled out in the 44th over. Left-arm spinner George Worker was the wrecker in chief, with figures of 4 for 22 in six overs.Central Districts took only 39.1 overs to romp home, thanks to an unbeaten 106 by their captain Will Young (104b, 15×4) and his partnerships of 81 with Jesse Ryder (54) for the second wicket and an unbroken 137 for the fourth wicket with Tom Bruce (70* off 53 balls).Central Districts finished on 16 points, while Auckland ended up on 15. Auckland were knocked out despite having the same points total and a better net run rate (+0.001) than Northern Districts (-0.307) or Otago (-0.448), since Northern Districts had earned more bonus points.Northern Districts, as a result, finished in fourth place and qualified for the playoffs despite losing their last match to Otago, by two wickets at University Oval.An unbeaten 143 (85b, 11×4, 8×6) by Anaru Kitchen helped Otago blaze through their chase in just 34.1 overs, though their frequent wicket losses kept Northern Districts in the game. Northern Districts may have fancied themselves when Otago slipped to 191 for 6, but Kitchen added 67 for the seventh wicket with Josh Finnie (32 off 16) to keep the match in the balance. Finnie and Derek de Boorder fell in quick succession to Ish Sodhi, who finished with figures of 4 for 85), before Kitchen and Christi Viljoen steered Otago home with an unbroken 26-run stand for the ninth wicket.Kitchen also opened the bowling for Otago and bowled economically, finishing with 0 for 21 from six overs. That spell – along with James Neesham’s 3 for 58 and Michael Rippon’s 1 for 34 – helped restrict Northern Districts to 288 despite half-centuries from Bharat Popli (69), Nick Kelly (67) and Daryl Mitchell (72 off 48 balls).Wellington ensured a top-spot finish after beating Canterbury by two wickets at Hagley Oval. An unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 20 between Matt Taylor (48*) and Hamish Bennett (5*) dragged Wellington home after they had slipped to 229 for 8 in a chase of 247. Despite the regular loss of top- and middle-order wickets, Wellington had always stayed in touch with the target thanks to Hamish Marshall’s 100-ball 108. Marshall was one of three batsmen dismissed by the legspinner Todd Astle.Canterbury’s 246 for 9 was achieved on the back of an unbeaten 50 from their No. 6 Cole McConchie, who held one end together even as the lower order fell apart around him, with no one from Nos. 7 to 11 getting into double figures. Canterbury had made a solid start to their innings, thanks to Tom Latham (38), Henry Nicholls (64) and Peter Fulton (43), and were at one point 190 for 4 in the 40th over of their innings. Left-arm spinner Luke Woodcock was Wellington’s most successful bowler with figures of 4 for 50.