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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWe’ve seen this somewhere before. England’s vulnerable top order exposed, steadied by their captain and rescued further by someone in the middle order. Ben Stokes’ sixth Test hundred was a bristling display, albeit not without fortune, but England’s recovery was far from total as Kemar Roach and the recalled Shannon Gabriel took four wickets apiece to keep them to 258.West Indies’ bowling, especially from the quicks, was in a different league to what had been witnessed at Edgbaston; Gabriel’s return injected some pace, Roach was dangerous from a full length and Jason Holder chipped out a useful wicket. However, the fielding again let them down: Joe Root, who went on to equal the world record of at least a fifty in 12 consecutive Tests, was dropped on 8, a shocker at first slip by Kieran Powell, and even more significantly Stokes was missed on 9 by Kraigg Brathwaite at second.Powell’s day did not get much better when he edged James Anderson to first slip, but on a gloomy evening with the lights on, the loss of just one wicket in a 45-minute period before the close was acceptable. Anderson, who began needing eight wickets for 500, was on the mark but Stuart Broad was too wide in his first spell.The England innings ended in somewhat chaotic scenes with further embarrassing lapses in the field. Stokes was dropped at mid-on when on 98, one ball before he went to his century, while Shane Dowrich, the wicketkeeper, inexplicably shelled an edge off Broad. However, the sum total of those chances was two runs. Gabriel, the man who dropped the simple chance off Stokes, had him caught behind pulling and then, having glared at his keeper, did the job himself by ripping through Broad with a yorker to complete a successful comeback (and he didn’t even bowl a no-ball).Stokes came in at 71 for 4 – a not-entirely-unknown situation for him, as can be said for the scoreline of 26 for 2 which greeted Root – and regularly threaded the off side with some powerful driving having initially flirted with the cordon. Two overs after being dropped, he sent a thick edge through where third slip had been stood a few balls previously.His fifty came off 67 balls and it was the second half of his innings, after tea, in which he was especially eye-catching as he toyed with Holder’s tactics of trying to pack the off-side field, at one point operating with an 8-1 field. Three times Stokes went to the off side and whipped full deliveries wide of mid-on. He rarely mistimed a stroke in his second fifty, barring the one he clubbed to mid-on on 98, and two runs from his next ball took him past Andrew Flintoff’s tally of five Test hundreds, another landmark in the history of England’s finest allrounders.Stokes’ dismissal, which was followed by a few words from Gabriel, brought a final collapse of 3 for 0 as England were prevented from pushing towards 300. Chris Woakes, on his return to the Test side, had eased to 23 with five boundaries before being the last man out to give Roach a deserved fourth wicket.West Indies had managed a decent start with the ball at Edgbaston – England were 39 for 2 – but couldn’t get past the Cook-Root partnership until the damage was done. This time they had a third wicket, and a foothold, shortly after the hour mark. It was Gabriel who made the first mark when he found Alastair Cook’s outside edge for Kyle Hope to take a sharp, low catch at third slip.It meant two of England’s new recruits, Mark Stoneman and Tom Westley, joined forces in the middle – but not for long. Westley is quickly finding out how a technique that has served you well at county level can be unpicked in the Test game and for the second time in two innings was lbw missing a full, straight delivery.Stoneman received the best ball West Indies bowled at Edgbaston but here was more culpable in his demise. He had looked solid during much of his stay, lining the ball up well from over and round the wicket, but was lured into a drive at Roach and got an inside-edge to Dowrich. England were 37 for 3 with West Indies offering very few moments of release, except for Powell’s blunder, and the morning session brought just seven boundaries (in the first session at Edgbaston they had conceded 22) with two of those from Root off Roston Chase’s early exploratory overs.They managed to keep control after the interval with Holder, now in the role of third seamer in the re-jigged attack, rewarded straightaway for switching to around the wicket against Dawid Malan who dragged a drive into his stumps. It meant England’s three vulnerable batting positions had made 30 between them.Root and Stokes have bailed England out before, most memorably against New Zealand at Lord’s in 2015, and this time combined to add 69 in 15 overs as the bat dominated for the first time in the day. Root took advantage of an inconsistent start from Bishoo as he skipped to a 74-ball fifty to equal AB de Villiers’ record but then top edged a sweep to slip.Root’s conversation rate from fifties to hundreds has been much remarked on, and rightly so for someone aspiring to greatness, but he’d managed to quieten the chatter somewhat with his century at Edgbaston. However, this was an occasion of one that would remain unfulfilled although his consistency – as highlighted by the record-equalling milestone – remains laudable.There was no initial homeground success for Jonny Bairstow, who scored 140 here against Sri Lanka last year. This time, he was well held low down at second slip by Holder. The catch was upheld by the third umpire after much rocking and rolling of replays, the key factor being the soft signal of out from the onfield umpires, and it did appear Holder’s long fingers were under the ball whatever the Yorkshire faithful may have thought.At 152 for 6 talk for some sides would often be of scrapping to 200, but such is the strength of England’s lower order that it felt another stand would develop. At the start of the final session, Moeen Ali accompanied Stokes in a freewheeling partnership of 68 in 13 overs as the day threatened to run away from West Indies. Chase was given a surprisingly long bowl ahead of Bishoo but, in the nick of time, Roach returned and struck second ball when Moeen drove to point. Despite the fielding mishaps there was limited damage to come. West Indies’ bowlers have lifted their game, now the batsmen have to do the same.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Sikandar Raza stalled Sri Lanka’s charge with a selection of cross-batted strokes•AFP

All through the tour, Sri Lanka have had Zimbabwe cornered, and games have threatened to follow a familiar, one-sided form. Yet all through the tour, Zimbabwe have found ways of resisting, of stubbornly holding out, and eventually fighting back.Day three at Khettarama saw perhaps their most impressive turnaround yet. Having eked out a 10-run first-innings lead in the morning, Zimbabwe found themselves 23 for 4, then 59 for 5. But for the remainder of the day, the middle order would rally around an adventurous Sikandar Raza, and turn the match in dramatic fashion. Having played definitive hands in Zimbabwe’s ODI series, Raza stood on the verge of a vital maiden Test ton, finishing the day on 97 off 158 balls. Peter Moor struck 40 and joined him for a sixth-wicket stand of 86. Malcolm Waller did even better, cracking 57 off 76 deliveries in an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership worth 107.All this means that Zimbabwe now control the Test, and may even have put themselves in a position to pull off the unexpected result of the year. Overturning Sri Lanka in ODIs was surprising enough, but in Tests, the hosts may not have dreamed they would be challenged by the lowest ranked team – one they have consistently thrashed over the past two decades. But with Zimbabwe’s lead at 262 their target is already a challenging one. If the score grows by another 100 runs, could become a near-impossible pursuit.Unusually, Sri Lanka have caught well in this Test, but the bowling has been consistently menace-free. Of the 16 Zimbabwe wickets to have fallen, Rangana Herath has claimed nine. For the second half of day three, he seemed the only bowler capable of beating the Zimbabwe batsmen, and had he not run riot in the first session, Sri Lanka’s position would have been even bleaker. Dilruwan Perera was not miserly enough for a bowler who isn’t taking wickets, Lahiru Kumara’s lines have been too wayward, and Suranga Lakmal has been modest in unhelpful conditions. Sri Lanka are also missing the bowling of Asela Gunaratne, whose tweaked hamstring had substantially hampered his running between the wickets, and now has kept him off the field in the second innings.The first 10 balls of Raza’s innings defined his approach. First ball, he had picked a single to fine leg. After three further singles off the next five balls, he punched a ball out to the cover sweeper and took two. Though his team was threatening to be all out for 120, Raza took seven off the first 10 balls, and batted as if they were 300 for 5. He favoured the lap sweep and the drive off the spinners, and rarely failed to find gaps when he was looking for them.Rangana Herath claimed three wickets in four overs before lunch•AFP

Perhaps the only real chance in his innings came when he was 31, when he attempted to reverse sweep Herath, but only ended up top-edging the ball. Slip fielder Dimuth Karunaratne – who had already taken two excellent catches in the innings – might have been in a position to make a third take, had he not begun moving squarer in anticipation of where he felt the ball may travel. As it happened, the ball bisected the keeper and slip before skimming away to the third man fence. Raza would hit two more fours in that over to make it Herath’s most expensive of the innings. Outside that over, Raza only struck four fours and a six.Waller was more openly aggressive – but only by a little bit – as he hit eight fours, and repeatedly put bowlers under pressure by scoring singles and twos freely as well. His fourth Test fifty had come off just 54 deliveries, before the final overs of the day prompted a slowdown from both batsmen. Beyond Waller, Zimbabwe also have Graeme Cremer and Donald Tiripano, both of whom have first-class centuries to their names.Before Raza came to the crease, Herath had knocked out Zimbabwe’s top three in his first four overs, before Perera also took a wicket. By lunch, Sri Lanka had had them by the collar, at 23 for 4. Taking the new ball, Herath needed an over to settle, but the first delivery of his second over was of a higher quality than Regis Chakabva had the ability to handle. Breaking more sharply than any of his deliveries in the first over, the ball missed Chakabva’s defensive shot, and hit the top of the off stump. That over would go on to be a wicket-maiden, which Herath’s next would be as well. This time, having beaten Tarisai Musakanda’s inside edge with a slider, Herath tossed the ball up slightly wider, tempted Musakanda into an expansive drive, and then had him caught sharply by Karunaratne at slip.Herath’s next dismissal – in his following over – was perhaps the most controversial wicket of the wicket-filled session. Attempting a big sweep, Hamilton Masakadza was struck in front. There was no doubt the ball would go on to hit the stumps, but perhaps feeling it brushed his glove on the way, Masakadza reviewed the out decision, and there was not enough evidence to overturn the on-field call.All this followed a milestone for Cremer who became the first Zimbabwe captain to take a five-wicket haul. He had taken two of the last three Sri Lanka wickets in the morning, and had helped eke out a 10-run first innings lead. Cremer now will have plenty to defend as Zimbabwe set their sights on a rare victory against a top-eight team.

ScorecardThe final day of this game began with Hampshire’s batsmen hoping that the weather might save them only to find the Mancunian climate contributing to their slow doom. Overcast conditions and James Anderson with a fairly new cricket ball in his hand rarely make pleasant viewing for batsmen, let alone those aspiring to engineer a miraculous escape.That contention was made evident to Matt Salisbury as early as the fifth ball of the day when the nightwatchman prodded forward to Anderson but only edged to Dane Vilas at first slip. The tone of the day had been set and although it was not until 3.02 that Lancashire completed their innings-and-30-run victory there was really little doubt they would win this game at some stage.There was rain for almost an hour soon after Anderson took his only wicket of the day but in the pavilion terrace settled down to their knitting secure in the knowledge that the guillotine had been sharpened. The next neck upon which it descended belonged to Sean Ervine, who attempted to drive Kyle Jarvis but only inside-edged the ball onto his leg stump. Hampshire lunched with their score on 81 for 7 and their chances of making Lancashire bat again were slim at best; nothing to disturb the Château Lynch‑Bages and ripe reblochon in the 1864 suite at any rate.It was an indication of Lancashire’s comfort in the afternoon session that Anderson was not needed. Figures of 15-5-20-4 had offered clear proof of his form and on Sunday evening he will practise with a pink ball for the first time in his life. Next week he may be bowling under the Edgbaston floodlights and quite possibly in the early twilight of an English summer evening. One imagines that the Warwickshire batsmen cannot wait for the fun to start.In a week or two Anderson will probably be required by England. For the present he is clearly enjoying being part of a Lancashire team whose performance in this game mocked the pre-season pessimists. Steven Croft’s team are now second in the table after seven games; some folk thought they would be seventh or even cut adrift by now.”Not many people would have expected Essex and Lancashire to be first and second after seven games but we’re in a really strong position and we have a lot of competition for places,” said Anderson. “But we’re not going to get carried away. We have a big game against Warwickshire and if we get a result there it will put us in a great position before the back end of the summer.”Hampshire batted perfectly respectably in the afternoon session, albeit that they had not a hope in hell of saving the game. Lewis McManus, never one to give his wicket away, defended stoutly for 79 minutes before umpire Paul Baldwin finally acquiesced to Ryan McLaren’s fourth lbw shout in about two overs. A callow observer might imagine that he simply tired of being shouted at.The last two batsmen fell to leg-side catches by Alex Davies, whose century in Lancashire’s only innings is in danger of being overlooked amid the blitz from Vilas and McLaren which followed it. But it was McLaren who engineered the authentic dismissal of Kyle Abbott by bowling around the wicket and digging the ball in. The ex-Hampshire allrounder thus ended this game against his former employers with a catch, five wickets and a century to his credit. One hopes that chivalrous fellow Daniel Gidney has sent Rod Bransgrove a thank-you card.The game ended when Gareth Berg, having batted well for his 49 runs, was strangled down the leg side off Jarvis. Within ten minutes or so a net was put up on the square and Glen Chapple was conducting a pink-ball practice session. Soon after that, a group of happy Lancastrians were playing football on the boundary edge; contented, professional men, they were enjoying deserved relaxation at the end of one busy week and before the start of another.

Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann has denied that the ongoing pay dispute involving Cricket Australia and the nation’s cricketers played any role in his team’s early exit from the Champions Trophy. Having had their first two group matches washed out, Australia needed to win against England on Saturday to progress, but instead suffered a 40-run defeat via the DLS method.Australia will now head home to begin preparations for their tour of Bangladesh later this year, but they will do so against the backdrop of employment uncertainty. CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association have until the end of this month to reach a consensus on a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or risk an ugly situation in which players may find themselves uncontracted.The pay standoff has been going on for many months now and Australia’s vice-captain David Warner last week expressed his disappointment that CA had distributed an information video stating their case for MoU changes while Australia’s players should have been focusing on the Champions Trophy.Warner said at the time: “If CA were trying to help us win, I don’t think they’d be trying to release videos like that”. However, after the loss to England in Birmingham on Saturday, Lehmann said he did not believe the pay dispute had played any part in Australia failing to progress to the Champions Trophy semi-finals.”No excuses from our point of view on the MoU,” Lehmann said. “That’s going on behind the scenes – it can probably come to the forefront now that we’ve finished. They’ll get down to that and sort that out. No excuses from our end on the MoU.”It’s always there. It’s the elephant in the room. It’s always going to be talked about. But from a playing point of view, you’re out there, surely you’re not thinking about the MoU when you’re batting or bowling. I wouldn’t think that would have affected the players’ performance at all.”Australia’s preparation for the tournament was not helped by a washed out warm-up game, and their first two matches against New Zealand and Bangladesh were also rained out – they were on track to beat Bangladesh in the second game when it started pouring heavily, but New Zealand had the upper hand in the first match. Lehmann said Australia’s preparation had been adequate, but they had not been up to the task in the critical match.”We were just outplayed,” Lehmann said. “We were probably 30 or so short with the bat. We needed some of those guys to go on and get hundreds. [Aaron] Finch and [Steven] Smith played well, but we needed the top four to get a hundred. And then we bowled pretty poorly after the rain break. Disappointing result.”Just disappointing, I think we lost 5 for 15 at one stage. Credit to England, they bowled well, but I think we helped them a bit in the back end of our innings. We were sitting reasonably well at one stage but once you lose wickets you’re always in a bit of trouble. I think it was 4 for 240 odd when Maxi got out. You’d hope to get close to 300, but we didn’t.”Australia’s cause was not helped by a let-off for England captain Eoin Morgan, who was dropped down the leg side by Matthew Wade early in the chase. Morgan was on 12 at the time, and pressed on to make 87.”It was disappointing. He should grab them, but nobody means to drop them, either,” Lehmann said. “Disappointing part of the game, especially at that time. But again, they played really well. Morgan and Stokes were very good today.”Australia’s own batting set-up did not work as they hoped, with the addition of Moises Henriques at No.4 proving ineffective. Henriques scored 18 and 17 in his two innings in the tournament, and his presence in the side meant there was no room for fellow allrounder Marcus Stoinis, who struck a stunning 146 not out in an ODI in Auckland earlier this year.”We’ll have to sit back and have a look at that, moving forward, what we do there,” Lehmann said. “Marcus was very good in New Zealand so it’s a tough selection call. You take advice from everyone and you make a call and the skipper was quite keen for him to bat four. He [Henriques] looked good but probably didn’t capitalise.”Lehmann said Australia would need to find a way to return to the “brave” style of play that they displayed at the 2015 World Cup. It is an approach that he believes England and New Zealand have now adopted, and Lehmann bristled somewhat at the suggestion that Australia could learn something from the way England and New Zealand were currently playing in the ODI format.”I think England and New Zealand took the way we played in the last World Cup,” he said. “We played with bravery and we smashed every side, bar obviously New Zealand in Auckland. They’re starting to take the way we played, not vice-versa. When they win a World Cup, then we can take the way they play.”We certainly want to get back to playing brave cricket. I don’t think we were brave enough or smart enough in this tournament. I would have liked us to play with a lot more freedom or bravery.”

An Ashes debut for Perth’s new stadium remains in Cricket Australia’s sights, with the chief executive James Sutherland to head west this week for meetings aimed at getting the 60,000 capacity Burswood development up and running in time for the third match of next summer’s five-Test series.On the day tickets went on sale to the general public for all venues but Perth, Sutherland said he was in continuing talks with stadium management – helmed by former CA executive Mike McKenna – the West Australian government and the builders to see if the precinct can be ready in time for the Ashes.This is despite reports out of Perth last month indicating the state government had all but ruled out the possibility of the Test being played in the new stadium, which features drop-in pitches. A January ODI between Australia and England appears the more likely time for the unveiling.”Either way we’re very optimistic that we’ll be playing cricket at the new stadium in 2017-18, but we’re hopeful it will be a Test match because I think people will come from everywhere to be a part of the event,” Sutherland said. “We know there’s latent demand in the UK just waiting for an announcement and they’re ready to go, because Perth’s just that little bit closer to the UK and I know it’s a place that English travellers love to get to.”We’re looking towards the end of this month to make a decision. We want to get tickets on sale as soon as possible, give everyone plenty of notice of what needs to get in order, but certainly we’ll continue to have conversations, I’m in Perth this week to have some conversations with relevant people and we’ll hopefully, by the end of this month, be able to make announcements about when tickets go on sale.”The stadium’s management – which also includes CA’s former head of events Chris Loftus-Hills – has remained steadfast that the venue is intended only to be ready in time for next year’s AFL season. Australia have hosted Ashes Tests at incomplete stadiums before, most recently during the Adelaide Oval redevelopment, when the majority of the ground was available for play.File photo: The new stadium in Burswood is expected to hold a capacity of 60,000 people and will feature drop-in pitches•Getty Images

“From what I understand the stadium will be fully complete and ready to go [when it hosts its first match],” Sutherland said. “It’s very much about the logistics and planning. The completion dates for the stadium actually work pretty well for us, but at the same time a Test match in Perth at the new stadium would be a huge event, and there’s little room for things to go wrong in terms of teething problems that are in some ways perhaps inevitable.”We’re really optimistic about the way in which the event could be staged in the new stadium, we’ve got great confidence in that, but we also understand that through government, through the stadium manager and also the builders, there are a lot of logistics we’re not necessarily across that need to be worked through.”We’d love to see the Test match be the opening event for the new stadium, but to some extent that’s out of our control. We’ll just put our best foot forward and try to impress that upon the powers that be in Perth.”CA recently named Antonia Beggs as the governing body’s new head of match operations and events, after she had previously served at the head of client relations for the European PGA tour and as Championship director of the Ryder Cup. After relocating from Britain, Beggs is expected to start in her new role in mid-July.

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, has defended the introduction of a new T20 tournament, slated to get underway in 2020, by insisting that the concept will “future-proof” the game in England and Wales.Harrison also stated he would like “as much cricket as possible” to be broadcast free to air, and insisted that a key aim of the new competition would be to underpin the future of Test cricket.Speaking in between presentations with all members of the ECB – the first-class counties, the MCC and representatives from the recreational game – Harrison confirmed the organisational details of the new competition, as published by ESPNcricinfo earlier this month – and expressed his confidence that he will receive a mandate to progress plans for the tournament within the next few weeks.To further those plans, the ECB’s executive board will meet on Tuesday to agree a ground-breaking amendment to the constitution of the ECB that will allow them, for the first time, to run a competition that excludes some of the 18 first-class counties. After that, a letter will be sent to all 41 members of the ECB (the 18 first-class counties, the MCC, the 21 recreational boards and the Minor Counties Cricket Association) asking them to approve those constitutional changes. The ECB requires 31 positive responses within 28 days of the date on the letter for the changes to be passed. A non-response is effectively a no-vote.Realistically, it is most unlikely that the ECB’s plans will be derailed at this stage. All 18 counties and the MCC have now signed media deeds assigning their broadcast rights to the ECB – the final county signed a couple of days ago – after the ECB threatened to withhold funding (£1.3m per county per year for five years, starting in 2020) if they delayed further.Several counties are deeply unhappy – one complained of being “co-coerced” while another stated that “Devon and Dorset are telling the Test grounds how to run their business” – but those grumbles are now likely to remain below the surface. Depending on your point of view, the non-first-class counties have been won over by the ECB’s plans, or won over by the ECB’s offers of extra money.One or two concessions have been won by recalcitrant counties. The ECB have confirmed that the change to the constitution will apply only to the new-team T20 competition – meaning all three existing competitions will continue to feature 18 teams – and they have confirmed that are aiming for eight of the 36 games in the new-team competition to be broadcast free to air. After what will have been a decade-and-a-half behind a paywall, that might yet prove to be the most significant development of all.Most of all, though, Harrison sought to explain the motivation behind the advent of the new competition. Accompanied by England’s limited-overs captain, Eoin Morgan, who attended the meetings to add his support, he drew on research that suggests that the imprisoned spend more time outside than many of today’s children in the UK, and that only 2% of British kids list cricket as their favourite sport. In short: cricket needs to act if it is to remain relevant.”It is very clear we are not currently talking to as big an audience as we should be, because our tournaments are not as relevant as they should be,” Harrison said from the Royal Institute of British Architects, where the meetings were held as the offices at Lord’s are currently being refurbished. “We have to think differently if we’re going to be successful at attracting family audiences to our competitions. We need to change our thinking on that to be relevant to a new generation that responds to big box-office occasions.”This is about creating something different. If we’re successful at that, we’ll be successful at boosting our existing tournaments as well as creating something dramatically different for English cricket and for a thriving new audience for English cricket.”Arguing that plans to play the new-team competition at the same time as the 50-over competition and Test cricket did not risk “cannibalising” the existing audience, Harrison insisted that the aim was to find an entirely new and different audience for the game.”We don’t see the audiences for Test cricket being impacted by the new T20 competition,” he said. “We’ve done an awful lot of work in understanding our county championship audience, our Blast audience, our 50-over audience. What this is designed to do is complement that with a whole new audience that we’re currently not talking to.”This is about growth. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to create something that appeals to an entirely new audience, grows cricket’s overall audience, and enable us to control something that has real value for the long term.”Key to that will be the ECB’s ability to strike a better balance between subscription and free-to-air broadcasting. While Harrison can make no guarantees – it is, after all, up to the broadcasters to decide what they show – he confirmed that discussions with free-to-air providers were positive and on-going.”In an ideal world, I’d like to maximise revenue and reach,” he said. “I would love to have as much cricket as we could [on free to air]. But we’re a pay-TV business. We’re underwritten by pay TV. Right now, there aren’t too many alternatives to that, so we have to be smart about how we package and work with our commercial partners to make sure we get that balance right between reach and revenue.”We’ve a great opportunity. There’s a desire from free-to-air to partner with us on new T20. They’re excited about where we’re taking the game. These are not conversations you can have if you’re not presenting something very clear, very exciting and very different to the market. So we’re in a very strong place.”Defending the accusation that the 50-over tournament would be diminished by being played in the shadow of the new T20 competition, Harrison said: “The 50-over tournament will be where county members can see young players coming through. It will give young players a chance to showcase their abilities earlier in their career than they would otherwise get. There’s reason to be very cheerful about the 50-over tournament.”In theory, it is just about possible that individual counties could lobby their chairmen and chief executives over the next couple of weeks and demand they reject the constitutional amendment. Realistically, though, from the moment the counties voted to pursue the new-team competition as their only option from 2020 onwards this was an inevitable outcome.

Ashish Nehra has expressed a strong desire to make a comeback to India’s ODI team. Though he last played in the format in the 2011 World Cup, Nehra has said he retains hopes of playing fifty-over cricket for India again when they land in England in June for the Champions Trophy.”I would love to play in the Champions Trophy,” Nehra told ESPNcricinfo. “When you go to England you will take at least four fast bowlers in addition to two spinners. I know I can bowl anywhere: up front, in the middle overs and at death. I can also share the experience I have with the other young fast bowlers.”Nehra’s last competitive fifty-over match – the recent practice game against England notwithstanding – was in December 2015. But that doesn’t deter him. He says he has worked out a detailed plan for his comeback, which includes playing at least half of Delhi’s six matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, India’s premier one-day tournament.”I aim to play at least three matches to build up my match-fitness. Fifty-overs is a different challenge and Vijay Hazare is a good platform to test myself,” Nehra said. “I bowl about eight overs even in the nets while preparing for a T20 match. It is not about fitness. It is about the feel of playing in a 50-over match.”It was Nehra’s success in the IPL, initially at Chennai Super Kings and then with the Sunrisers Hyderabad, that brought him back in contention for India in T20 cricket. The selectors could not ignore the key role he played for those teams, keeping it tight with the new ball and bowling yorkers at the death. The confidence gained from a successful reintegration to international cricket is apparent in Nehra. “Once I play these Vijay Hazare matches I will be fit enough to play and good to go for the Champions Trophy.”During his time out of the ODI team, Nehra has maintained form through the IPL•BCCI

Nehra’s original timeline had him working towards returning to one-day cricket with the New Zealand series last October but he fell ill and was forced to spend a couple of months on the sidelines.A match-winning 3 for 28 against England in the second T20I and more recently hauls of 2 for 35 and 3 for 26 for North Zone in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy suggest Nehra has regained his fitness. At 38, he is the oldest active player in the Indian team but that does little to diminish his value. Nehra still bowls at speeds of 135 to 140 kph and his experience – he will complete 18 years in international cricket at the end of February – makes him sort of a father figure for the young fast bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad, too, has acknowledged Nehra’s importance, saying he can be handy in English conditions.Nehra is hopeful these assets help make him an attractive pick for the Champions Trophy but felt it premature to think as far as the next ICC tournament. “The 2019 World Cup is still two-and-a-half years away. We are going to play at least 50 one-dayers in between. For me every tournament is important. I will try to play as much as I can.”

AB de Villiers has become the first big-name player to throw his weight behind South Africa’s new T20 competition, which is set to launch in the 2017-18 summer. The tournament will comprise of eight privately-owned franchises and will aim to attract high-profile internationals in a model similar to the Indian Premier League, the Big Bash League and the Caribbean Premier League.”I am so excited about it. It’s going to be great. Lots of credit to Cricket South Africa for coming up with that. It’s vital for our cricket. It will motivate some of the youngsters to stick around, to fight it through and to play for South Africa,” de Villiers said.”The domestic tournament is going to do wonders for our cricket and I think it can definitely come up [] an IPL when it comes to entertainment and quality of cricket. With some of the names that I have heard who are interested in coming over, it’s going to be fantastic.”Cricket South Africa (CSA) put out a tender notice to invite bids for franchise ownership on Saturday and is in the process of securing sponsors – some international – to fund the event. Should foreign currency be behind the tournament, CSA will be able to match or even rival payments in leagues around the world – something that was identified as a major hurdle in luring internationals to the current domestic tournament, where they are paid in Rands.The benefits will also extend to locally-based players. More money will mean big pay-days for South African cricketers too, which Haroon Lorgat explained was a consideration when the event was conceptualised.Complete details of South Africa’s tournament are yet to be revealed but CSA have identified a window in November-December for the competition, with a final pencilled in for December 16, a public holiday. The proposed dates are in the middle of the South African summer, which also means they will clash with the Australian summer – and potentially the BBL – and the Indian home season, and could create scheduling conflicts.De Villiers, though, is hopeful South Africa will attract some of the best players from all over the world. “I think there are quite a few countries already available. I am not sure about India. I haven’t heard anything from them yet,” he said.South Africa’s current domestic T20 has had a smattering of internationals taking part. This season Kevin Pietersen (Dolphins) and Kieron Pollard (Cobras) were involved while in the past Andre Russell (Knights), Owais Shah (Cobras),Darren Sammy (Titans), Dwayne Bravo (Dolphins) , Sohail Tanvir (Lions), Craig Kieswetter (Warriors) and Chris Gayle (Dolphins and then Lions) had brief stints at the tournament. South Africa’s internationals have only been briefly available for their franchises but with the new event, that is set to change.

Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin has been disqualified from contesting for the post of HCA president after his nomination papers were rejected by returning officer K Rajiv Reddy on Saturday.Uncertainty over whether Azharuddin’s life ban imposed by the BCCI had been lifted, and whether he was classified as an HCA voter, resulted in his disqualification.”(He had not given) a satisfactory explanation whether the BCCI ban on him in the wake of the match-fixing scandal was not lifted and that he failed to provide adequate proof that he was enrolled as a voter,” Reddy told the .Azharuddin said he wasn’t given a reason for the decision. “Right from the beginning, I think the process looked to me a little bit fraud. I gave them the court order also,” Azharuddin said. “People are misinformed. I think things should be put to rest. Court has given an order which has cleared me of everything.”The returning officer should answer my questions, but he is not present. I will go for a legal case. I think the Lodha Committee rules and orders are not followed at the HCA.”Azharuddin was banned for life after being found guilty of fixing matches in an investigation conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Azharuddin’s initial attempts of challenging the ban were unsuccessful, but in 2012, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled the BCCI ban illegal.Azharuddin, who filed his nomination papers representing the National Cricket Club on Tuesday morning, had said he didn’t “foresee any issue” with the BCCI ban.

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