Earl, the tropical storm threatening Kingston, allowed for only 15.5 overs on the fourth day. In that time, India helped themselves to four wickets, suggesting all they needed was a session or two more to wrap up a Test victory

The Report by Alagappan Muthu02-Aug-2016
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMohammed Shami used the heavy cloud cover and swing with the new ball to his advantage•AFP

Earl, the tropical storm threatening Kingston, allowed for only 15.5 overs on the fourth day. In that time, India helped themselves to four wickets, suggesting all they needed was a session or two more to wrap up a Test victory. The forecast is better for cricket tomorrow and West Indies are trailing by 256 runs in their second innings.An early start – at 9.30 am – had been scuppered by overnight rain leaving the outfield rather wet. When the players finally got on the field at 10.45 am only three overs were possible before a couple of sharp showers forced them back into the dressing rooms. A good chunk of the session was played amid a mild drizzle, which at one point got strong enough to halt play for about a minute before it disappeared into thin air.West Indies felt tentative batting in these conditions. Not least because the heavy cloud cover was helping the new ball swing nicely. Mohammed Shami used it to his advantage, pitching one on middle and seaming it away to hit the top of Marlon Samuels’ off stump for a five-ball duck at his home ground. In his next over, with lunch only seconds away, Shami had Darren Bravo caught in the slips with a well-directed short ball.Bravo lasted 37 balls, most of which were looking to maim his nose. He did not look to attack them. He struggled to defend them. He often took his eyes off them. Eventually he fell to one of them.The weather was bad, which might have worried India but West Indies’ abysmal batting sent them to lunch with beaming smiles. There was no more play thereafter.Although not as wide as India’s smiles, there were cracks on this pitch now, around the short-of-a-length area. Ishant Sharma is naturally a hit-the-deck bowler. When he did so at the start of his second over, it stayed low. Two balls later, however, it gained some extra bounce, hit Rajendra Chandrika’s elbow as he was trying to leave the ball outside off and cannoned onto his stumps. Chandrika made 1; his Test average is currently 14 after 10 innings. No West Indian opener has been as bad.Kraigg Brathwaite had looked a lot better against the short ball. He cut and pulled at the first opportunity against the fast bowlers. Could he bat as well against spin? Virat Kohli brought Amit Mishra on in the 13th over. Mishra bowled one unintentionally short. Brathwaite played an awful pull shot – his feet not going back and across to generate power – and was caught excellently by KL Rahul running back from midwicket.Kohli ran up to his bowler, his mouth open, his eyes wide, laughing. Mishra hugged his captain, bemusement on his face. Rain that started one minute and left the next. Batsmen who didn’t really know what to do. And bowlers who were taking wickets as easily as they snapped their fingers. It was all just a little silly for Test cricket.

Australia are considering a triad of spinners for next year’s tour to India as a result of a Sri Lankan humiliation the coach Darren Lehmann dubbed “reasonably” embarrassing for the national side

Daniel Brettig18-Aug-2016Australia are considering a triad of spinners for next year’s tour to India as a result of a Sri Lankan humiliation the coach Darren Lehmann dubbed “reasonably” embarrassing for the national side.Sifting through the rubble of a campaign that resulted in a third consecutive series whitewash for the Australian side in Asia, Lehmann admitted it was going to be extremely difficult to improve in Asian conditions between now and the 2017 trip for four Tests in India, given the intervening months will be taken up by the home summer.However he declared that the team taken to India would likely be a radical departure from recent trips away, when the selectors have deemed two spinners sufficient slow-bowling cover. During this tour, even the second seamer Josh Hazlewood has at times looked redundant, with Nathan Lyon often sharing the new ball with Mitchell Starc.This means the likes of Adam Zampa, Fawad Ahmed, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson will come into calculations for next year’s India tour in addition to Lyon, Steve O’Keefe and Jon Holland.”The difference is we’ve got to change in the subcontinent. Results will say that with India, UAE and now Sri Lanka,” Lehmann said. “We’ve got to change the way we pick and shape up the squad for a subcontinent [tour]. We have to look at all different angles I suppose. The shape-up of the side, whether you need one quick, two quicks, three quicks, allrounders, and see how we play.”It certainly hasn’t worked the way we’ve played. We think we’ve had the right balance but our batters haven’t made enough runs. It’s pretty simple. When you look at [Sheffield] Shield cricket, it’s very hard to determine who’s going to be a good player of spin and not on Australian wickets. So for us somehow we’ve got to find a way.”Amid other conclusions from the tour, which took Australia to nine consecutive Test match defeats in Asia, despite a raft of investments in better performances in the region, Lehmann:- stated pitches for the IPL, where most of the Australian squad has spent time, did not provide relevant experience for Asian Test matches.- reiterated his call for the toss to be jettisoned from Test matches, with the away side being given the choice of whether to bat or bowl first.- argued that Test pitches have become more extreme for visiting teams since Australia’s most recent era of Asian successes from 1998 to 2006, with the ball turning sharply from day one. Lehmann did however concede the SSC pitch for the third Test was the best of the series.- said he would examine his own methods, including how he dealt with the team in times of defeat.”You always do that anyway,” Lehmann said. “We’re obviously reviewing every day and at the end of the game. That’s a process you always do regardless of the result, whether you win or lose. It is only a game, but still, that hurts. We should be reasonably embarrassed by our performance in this series and that’s OK. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not hiding the fact we didn’t play well enough and we’ve got to improve. That’s a simple fact. The guys will take that back and actually try to improve. And they’ve got to improve, simple.”Lehmann had previously stated that any players dropped for poor displays in Sri Lanka would not have that held against them for the home summer. However a hundred by Shaun Marsh at the SSC has complicated matters for Usman Khawaja, Joe Burns and even Adam Voges.”Adam has been fantastic for us since he has come in,” Lehmann said. “You always have those issues when you’re an older player. He’s got to make every post a winner. We just have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of months. We’ll just pick the best side we think is going to win in Perth against a quality side like South Africa, whatever that may be and whatever the pitch delivers. We’ll pick it appropriately like we normally do.”Having added Travis Head to the squad for the five ODIs and two Twenty20 matches that now roll on through Sri Lanka, Lehmann said the allrounder Mitchell Marsh would be flying home early to rest before the home summer. His role in the side will likely be taken by Moises Henriques. “It’s a big summer ahead for him,” Lehmann said of Marsh. “We’ve obviously got some quality allrounders in our one-day squad anyway, so we get a chance to freshen him up and ready to go for South Africa and moving forward.”

Northants are well placed for a fourth victory of the season after Richard Levi made one of his most important contributions of the Championship season

ECB Reporters Network14-Sep-2016
ScorecardRichard Levi’s 95 boosted Northants’ second innings•Getty Images

Richard Levi’s 95 helped put Northamptonshire on course for a fourth win of the season as they set Gloucestershire 442 to win at Wantage Road. The hosts were bowled out for 376 in their second-innings before Gloucestershire closed day three at 35 for 2.Gloucestershire were sent in for 16 overs to the close and they lost Gareth Roderick for 19, who edged a good length delivery from Ben Sanderson that just held its line, and Will Tavare, who tried to play a back-foot push and was caught at second slip for a nine-ball duck.Northants’ position was set up by Levi, whose only other innings of note in the County Championship came in the third match of his injury-hit season with a century against Derbyshire. He steered his side into control of the game with a confident 114-ball innings with 15 fours.At 155 for 4 shortly after lunch, Gloucestershire sensed a way back into the game but Levi shared a stand of 71 with Adam Rossington for the fifth wicket and 76 with Steven Crook for the sixth.Rossington missed a sweep at Jack Taylor and was lbw for 34 before Levi, five short of a pleasing century, pushed into the off side and called for a single that Crook disagreed with as Will Tavare dived to his left to make a sharp save. Levi was three-quarters of the way down the wicket and gave up any chance to recover his ground. Tavare had time for a cup of tea before returning a throw to Phil Mustard.Earlier in the day, Northants resumed 44 for 0 and Ben Duckett made his way to 70 in the final innings of a wondrous 2016 season.Having struck five fours to reach 31 not out by the close on day two, he began the third day in typically aggressive touch. An extra-cover drive against Liam Norwell was the stroke of the morning as he passed fifty in 59 balls with eight fours.But when a fifth hundred of the season looked possible, Matt Taylor made a ball jump and take the splice of the bat, providing a catch to George Hankins at point.Duckett walked off to a great ovation having scored 1,338 County Championship runs at 60.81 with four centuries – and two doubles – this season.Rob Newton was also out on the third morning, edging Matt Taylor to slip after an opening stand of 116 with Duckett and in the over before lunch Alex Wakely edged David Payne to second slip to keep Gloucestershire in the game. Levi’s afternoon ensured it was the hosts who took control.

Australia’s captain Steven Smith has not given up hope of a redemptive fourth-innings chase against South Africa at the WACA, particularly as South Africa have been shorn of Dale Steyn’s speed by a shoulder injury

Daniel Brettig in Perth05-Nov-2016Australia’s captain Steven Smith has not given up hope of a redemptive fourth-innings chase at the WACA, particularly as South Africa have been shorn of Dale Steyn’s speed by a shoulder injury.The hosts were sustained by thoughts of putting pressure back onto South Africa’s bowlers, even as JP Duminy and Dean Elgar made Smith’s side pay for their latest shuddering batting collapse on the second day. Smith conceded that his bowlers had been placed under undue pressure by the fact the batsmen “didn’t do the job”, but looked to day four for better tidings.”We let ourselves down yesterday, to only get two runs in front of their score wasn’t good enough,” Smith said. “After the start we got with Davey (David Warner) and Shaun (Marsh) we got a great opportunity to post a big first innings score and we weren’t good enough. Credit to the South Africa bowlers at the same time, they came out yesterday morning and bowled really well, but the batters didn’t do the job.”[No Steyn] is certainly going to help us, he’s a quality bowler, and this isn’t the traditional sort of WACA wicket. It’s been pretty slow, the ball’s got soft very quickly. We’ve got to get the wickets in the morning, then if we an keep them out there, tie their two fast bowlers down and be a little more positive against the spin, there’s no reason why we can’t chase down a total on that. So far the balls that have misbehaved have been quite wide, so it’s still a pretty good wicket.”Smith, speaking at the end of a difficult day that has piled further pressure on his team after their failures in Sri Lanka, spoke also about his first innings dismissal, an LBW well down the wicket to Keshav Maharaj that resulted in a stunned response from the captain – something the ICC match referee Andy Pycroft may yet pursue further.”I was a bit disappointed at the time,” Smith. “When you come down the wicket like that you kind of think you’re going to be okay, but Aleem (Dar) made the decision and it was backed up by the Hawk-Eye. Not much I can do about it, just going to have to use my bat in future.”There had also been suggestions that the umpires had spoken to South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis about the way the ball was being “looked after” on day two, and Smith said reverse swing had played an unusually large role in this match so far. That was his primary reason for ignoring Nathan Lyon until after lunch on day three.”It started to go pretty quick and the umpires handled it or whatever was going on out there,” Smith said of day two. “I think [reverse swing] has been a pretty big player during this game for both sides, very uncharacteristic of the WACA.”But when the ball’s reversing it’s a tough one, you want to bowl spin but the way he holds the ball can soften that side and stop the ball reversing. You’ve got to use the quicks as long as you can and make the most of the ball while it’s going.”Adam Voges appeared to suffer a hamstring strain midway through the day’s play, but Smith said he moved far more freely in the middle after going off the field briefly for strapping. “I’m sure the medical staff will be all over him,” Smith said, “and be able to get him okay.”

Former India seamer and Kerala bowling coach Tinu Yohannan has been given the team’s charge, and M Rajagopal, the coach of the state’s Under-23 side, has been named assistant coach

Arun Venugopal11-Nov-2016Kerala coach P Balachandran has been sacked midway through the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season after the state association felt the team’s performances had fallen short of expectations. Former India seamer and Kerala bowling coach Tinu Yohannan has been given the team’s charge, and M Rajagopal, the coach of the state’s Under-23 side, has been named assistant coach.There has also been a major overhaul in the team, with four players – senior batsman Robert Fernandez, wicket-keeper Nikhilesh Surendran, seamers U Manukrishnan and MD Nidheesh – being axed from the squad. Instead, five players from the Under-23 team – Fabid Farooq, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Salman Nizar, Akshay Chandran and KC Akshay – have been picked for Kerala’s remaining matches against Goa, Andhra, Tripura and Services.Kerala are one of two teams in Group C that have not yet registered a win after five rounds of the tournament, despite securing a first-innings lead in four of their five games. With 12 points, they are fifth in the standings and still in contention for a place in the knockouts, but the Kerala Cricket Association felt the time was apt for a change.”It isn’t [a kneejerk reaction]. For the last six or seven seasons, we are coming close but still missing out a place in the knockouts,” a KCA official told ESPNcricinfo. “We cannot spoil one more year.”According to the official, the association’s cricket development committee – which includes the chairman of the senior selection committee, K Jayaraman, and former cricketers KN Ananthapadmanabhan and Sunil Oasis – was not on the same page with Balachandran when it came to team selection. “Balachandran is a good human being, but we need results,” the official said. “When the junior teams are performing creditably, senior teams are not living up to their expectations. We want to reward good performances. That’s why we have brought in five youngsters.”Balachandran, who took over from Sairaj Bahutule as coach, said he was surprised by the decision. “I am not disappointed or upset though,” Balachandran said. “After the Haryana match, I got a message from the secretary [TN Ananthanarayanan] saying that my services were no longer required. I said ‘fine’. I did not ask for the reason.”Last year, our team did well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the association gave good support. I don’t have any grievance, because I have done my work. The association expected more from me which I couldn’t deliver; I keep it as simple as that.”Balachandran also admitted the signing of three professionals – Iqbal Abdulla and Bhavin Thakkar from Mumbai, and Jalaj Saxena from Madhya Pradesh – at the start of the season had possibly raised KCA’s expectations of the team.The KCA official said the decision to rope in professionals indicated the association’s desperation for a better showing this season.”We wanted an aggressive approach, that’s why we brought in some guest players,” the official said. “But, if they are going to be on the losing side all the time, it will affect their morale as well.”

Western Australia reached 3 for 186 on the second day against Queensland in Townsville

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2016
ScorecardCameron Bancroft finished the day on 88 not out (file photo)•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Western Australia opener Cameron Bancroft returned to form with an unbeaten 88 on the second day against Queensland in Townsville. The Warriors finished the day on 3 for 186, with Hilton Cartwright on 26 and Bancroft within sight of his first first-class century in nine months – a period during which he has played Sheffield Shield, county cricket and for Australia A.The morning began with the Bulls on 6 for 327 and they lost their last four wickets for 95 runs, with allrounder Jack Wildermuth adding only 4 to his overnight score before he was lbw to Simon Mackin for 93. Michael Neser managed 68 and there was some support from the lower order as the total was pushed along to 422.Bancroft and Jon Wells put on 85 for the first wicket before Wells was stumped by Chris Hartley off Mitch Swepson for 46, and Michael Klinger then fell to Swepson for 9. Axed Test allrounder Mitchell Marsh failed to grab his opportunity at the crease, caught behind off Neser for 14, before Cartwright joined Bancroft for the rest of the day.The Warriors will also be without fast bowler Jason Behrendorff for the rest of the match after he was diagnosed a stress fracture in his left fibula. Behrendorff bowled only 12 overs in the Queensland first innings.