Philander was only able to bowl five overs on the second day at The Oval and was later sent for tests which revealed a possible viral infection

Firdose Moonda at The Oval28-Jul-2017Vernon Philander will be kept in hospital overnight on Friday, with a suspected viral infection, and a call will be taken on his availability for the ongoing Oval Test on Saturday morning. Philander was only able to bowl five overs on the second day and spent most of it off the field. As his condition worsened, was sent for tests to ascertain if it was something more serious was causing him to feel unwell.Philander first experienced symptoms on the morning the match began but was included in XI with the hope it was a minor concern that would improve as the Test progressed. He bowled four overs upfront and then spent time off the field in the morning and afternoon sessions, then returned for spells of five overs and three overs. He was said to be feeling much better on the second morning, and bowled a further five overs, but then suffered a recurrence of the stomach problem and was forced off the field. It was not until the afternoon session that he was taken to hospital and will remain under observation for the night.South Africa will be desperate for Philander to return as soon as possible, because they need him as much with bat as they will with ball. At 126 for 8, Philander, if passed fit, will be the last man to bat and could prove crucial to avoiding the follow-on. Currently, Morne Morkel is batting with Temba Bavuma, the last recognised specialist batsman.Philander will also be a key to keeping England in check, should they bat again. The impact of his absence was clear through the second day, when Chris Morris struggled to find rhythm and South Africa had to turn to their spinner Keshav Maharaj earlier than they may have wanted to.”A guy like Vernon, we know his wicket-taking abilities especially on a wicket like that with grass and assistance,” Neil McKenzie, South Africa’s batting coach said. “Yesterday he went passed the bat on numerous occasions. We miss his control. If you look at his economy rates, it’s not just about wickets – but that control and the economy rate – and I think on that wicket today and yesterday, the economy just shows we didn’t land enough balls in the right areas and ask enough questions.”Hopefully he’ll be back and we can try and get close to the score – lessen the deficit and then we know how important he is with the ball. If it is going to be overcast tomorrow like the forecasts predict he’s going to be vital for us to get back into this contest.”Philander has already scored two fifties in the series and was named Man of the Match after South Africa’s win at Trent Bridge. This is his second ailment of the tour, after an ankle injury sustained during a county stint pre-Tests threatened to keep him out of the opener. Philander missed the warm-up match in Worcester but was declared fit to play at Lord’s.

Four wickets in nine balls for Sam Curran leaves Surrey needing victory in their final game and condemns Gloucestershire to a bottom-place finish

Vithushan Ehantharajah17-Aug-2017Sam Curran has given Surrey a potential route to the quarters•Getty Images

Fittingly, in a T20 Blast campaign that has seen Surrey stutter with every strut, a messy win has left them in control of their own destiny going into their final group match. Victory by two wickets over Gloucestershire, achieved with all the conviction of two dogs in a long coat applying for a mortgage, owed much to a bit of pluck as well as Gloucestershire’s own incompetence.Boy wonder Sam Curran gave Surrey the potential for a clear passage through to the last eight with one of the spells of the season, taking four wickets for no runs in the space of nine balls, which included three in his second over.Dangerman Michael Klinger was caught at mid off, before yorkers to Phil Mustard and Cameron Bancroft in successive balls, then Iain Cockbain chipping to mid on ripped the heart and soul out of Gloucestershire’s middle order.Late graft saw Gloucestershire post 130 for 9 and Surrey knew that a quick polishing off of the target would improve their net run rate, with a number of sides expect to finish on equal points when the South Group culiminates tomorrow. Aaron Finch hit the first ball of the innings for six and so the assault began.But Gloucestershire dug deep to reduce Surrey to 69 for 4 after 12 overs. Australian Moises Henriques, appreciating that a quick fix was out of the question, ran all bar 16 of his 45 runs before he was run out smartly by Cockbain, attempting to regain the strike. Rikki Clarke’s cool head found 13 from the 17th over against David Payne, which included a flicked six over midwicket, leaving 20 needed from the final 18 balls.Naturally, Surrey had a few more duff ups left. Clarke ran himself out on the second ball of the 18th over and then Sam Curran was bowled four balls later, attempting to ramp over the keeper. With the equation now 15 off 12, David Payne conceded seven from the first three balls, removed Stuart Meaker and then overstepped with the very next delivery. The free hit brought just two, the extra ball one and so three were needed off the final over. A couple of leg byes and a clip of Gareth Batty’s toes saw the hosts home, finally, with four balls to spare.South London nights have been good to Surrey and they owe it to the atmosphere they have cultivated at the Oval to be a serious player in T20 cricket.They have seen an increase of between five and 10% on last year’s ticket sales for the T20 Blast. Three games at the Oval have been sell-outs, while their match against Glamorgan last week was as good as. Across both their Sunday fixtures – the trickiest day to sell, with a very different clientelle more in tune with Fraggle Rock than the Fratellis – they welcomed more than 30,000 through their gates.They used this final home match of the group stage to try out a new Family Area up on the OCS balcony. Families are usually situated in the Peter May Stand, but feedback to the club has highlighted that rowdiness often spills over causing those with families a degree of discomfort. Surrey have been accused in the past for allowing raucousness in the stands to go too far, so this is very much a step in the right direction.But as much as T20 cricket is about drawing in crowds, and few do it better than Surrey, the club need something tangible on the field beyond the catwalk of big names that drop in and out as per their schedule. Victory over Kent on Friday will secure passage to the quarter-finals.Defeat in this manner sums up a Gloucestershire season that will see them claim bottom-place with a day still to go in the South Group. For a side so well-equipped at white ball cricket on paper, and with results in previous seasons to prove it, it marks the end of a sorry season in all three formats.Throughout this period, Michael Klinger has been their stand-out leader when it comes to runs, but his 281 this season represents his lowest return in English domestic T20 cricket, with 0, 9, 0 and today’s 11 making up his last four knocks. Unfortunately for the county, no one was able to pick up his slack: he finishes as Gloucestershire’s leading run scorer and the only player to make a score over 60 (101 in defeat to Hampshire).Benny Howell excelled once more. Possibly one of the most underrated bowler all-rounders in the country, his T20 season ended with a 2 for 18 from four overs that helped invoke panic in Surrey’s ranks. His 16 wickets this year have been achieved with an economy rate of less than six. None of the top 19 wicket-takers in the country match his frugality.

Steve Patterson’s defiance at No. 9 may have saved his side from relegation, as Yorkshire squeaked to an agonising two-wicket win at Headingley

David Hopps at Headingley22-Sep-20171:29

County Championship Round-up: Essex’s stunning comeback

Yorkshire 296 (Lyth 62, Bresnan 47, Rankin 3-48) and 178 for 8 (Patterson 44*) beat Warwickshire 219 (Patel 100, Fisher 5-54 ) and 251 (Trott 59, Patterson 4-46) by two wicketsYorkshire supporters had wanted to voice their farewells to Ryan Sidebottom in the final Championship match at Headingley. Instead, Sidebottom was injured and in his place they got a Warwickshire bowler of the same name and Steven Patterson, a county journeyman. Still, it appears to have turned out rather well: Patterson might just have saved them from relegation and the Sidebottom they craved appeared after the match to take the applause.Four wickets for Patterson on the third day, his season’s best, had helped set up a Yorkshire chase of 175. And when they seemed to be making a Horlicks of it at 96 for 7, Patterson stalked out at No 9 to put things right, his unbeaten 44 dominating an eighth-wicket stand of 78 with Matt Fisher which took them to within one run of victory. The coup de grace belonged to Patterson, standing on his toes to cut Chris Wright to the cover boundary.Fisher and Patterson were an unlikely rescue act. Fisher, a fine talent who has been conservatively treated after putting repeated hamstring problems behind him, was playing his first Championship game of the season and probably arrived at the dressing room in a package marked Fragile: This Way Up. Patterson has played more often, but not half as much as he thinks he should have. Dubbed the “first name on the teamsheet” in Andrew Gale’s time as captain, he has found that teamsheet supplanted now that Gale is coach. This innings may have involved an element of two fingers to the selectors.Victory over the bottom club has not yet made Yorkshire safe but it will at least enable them to sleep at nights, ahead of next week’s final-round showdown at Chelmsford, where they must face the newly-crowned champions, Essex, with bonus points still needed.Jeetan Patel’s offspin has sustained Warwickshire for many seasons but his 6 for 50 in 28 overs on a Headingley surface offering modest assistance was his first five-wicket haul of a less productive season. It spearheaded a strikingly dedicated display by a Warwickshire side which has already been relegated and can only hearten their sports director, Ashley Giles, as he continues a substantial job to restructure a squad that had grown old together. Not that Jonathan Trott, a captain who prefers winning, looked too enchanted about it. “Good enough to get in a position to win, not good enough to do it,” he said.Patel bowled unchanged in the second innings from the ninth over, clocking up 63 overs in the match, a redoubtable effort against a Yorkshire side that lacked a specialist spinner and had put its faith in five specialist right-arm seamers. From 56 for 3, still needing 119 for victory, Yorkshire soon sunk to 86 for 6 as he took the first three wickets of the morning.For Yorkshire’s new partnership at the helm, captain Gary Ballance and coach Andrew Gale, the relief will be palpable. It was largely Ballance’s runs that sustained Yorkshire in early season. Highly-regarded batsmen have underperformed and, although the emergence of seamer Ben Coad was another bonus, it has counter-intuitively accentuated the difficulties in a potentially large squad of pace bowlers with a confused pecking order. England calls and the banishing of the Championship to both extremities of the season do not help that.It is unclear where this leaves a vocal minority of Yorkshire regulars who, strange as it may seem, have asserted when things have gone badly that they would like Yorkshire to be relegated. They do this with arms defiantly folded, as if daring failure to do its worst is somehow a defence against it. They are of a type who might offer other unbending opinions on anything you care to mention, unsought or not, such as ‘people should never work in pubs’, ‘joggers in lycra should not be allowed in shops’ and ‘nobody needs a dishwasher’.A journey through their little resentments also seems to centre upon the view that Yorkshire’s relegation would somehow punish England for regularly taking five players from their side, so making the whole thing a mockery, or – an alternative grouch that has been heard intermittently all season – that the former captain, Gale, should never have been elevated to coach upon his retirement as a player, and that relegation would at least give them evidence for their belief.These are the sort of uncomfortable mornings – or moanings – that a captain can sort by asserting his influence on affairs in a single, decisive session. Ballance, in his first season in charge, was 16 not out overnight and had the chance to do just that. But five overs into the day, he pushed forward defensively at the offspin of Patel and was lbw.If some Yorkshire supporters were preparing to distance themselves from potential failure, the sunshine and blue skies that greeted the their batsmen augured well. By the time the clouds advanced, an hour into the day, their progress had been wary. Jack Leaning struck Patel over mid-on to throaty cries of approval, but he departed the following ball, well caught at leg gully by Ian Bell, stooping to his left.It was not the time for Tim Bresnan to register his sixth Championship duck of the season – a record that has included two pairs – but he did just that. Bresnan’s first-innings contribution had been instrumental in giving Yorkshire a 77-run lead, but his attempt to break Patel’s stranglehold by hitting him over mid-on came to grief as he led out to Alex Thomson at deep midwicket.That Warwickshire would be rewarded for a strikingly dedicated display for a side so far adrift at the foot of the table looked likely when Andrew Hodd pushed hard at a delivery from Sidebottom and was grasped by Patel at first slip. For a Warwickshire player named Ryan Sidebottom to get into the act seemed to be rubbing it in. They had been denied a valedictory from their own player of the same name and instead been lumbered with an English-qualified Australian who has been playing in the Birmingham League.With seven down and 79 to get, Yorkshire were in a pickle, but Fisher and Patterson approached their task with good judgment. Patel leaked boundaries from byes and leg byes, while Patterson drove Boyd Rankin from the attack with successive backfoot boundaries before dispatching Patel to the extra-cover boundary to reduce the requirement to 34 by lunch. Spectators by now were voicing noisy approval at every run, their loyalty restated.The break for lunch did not unsettle the eighth-wicket pair as one imagined it might. Patterson unveiled cover drives against Patel in the first over after lunch with Boycott-esque aplomb. A brief hint of a running mix-up with 16 needed brought cries of alarm.Two more lots of four byes past Tim Ambrose in another over from Patel took Yorkshire within six. When he pulled Chris Wright for four, leaving Yorkshire one short of victory, excited cries came from the Dickie Bird players’ balcony for the first time.All that was left was Patterson’s final boundary and a guard of honour after the match for the real Ryan Sidebottom. Many in the crowd stayed. They got their send-off after all. The applause to a great servant was richly merited.”Nivver in doubt,” you could imagine a malcontent saying. “Nivver wanted us to go down. Nivver. That’s paper talk.”

The visitors have not found a way to curb the dominance of South Africa’s batsmen and are in danger of ending up with a 0-3 series scoreline

The Preview by Mohammad Isam21-Oct-2017

Big Picture

Sunday’s ODI in East London is set to be the last match in the format for South Africa and Bangladesh in 2017, and they will each eye a good finish, although the game holds a little more importance for Bangladesh, who are trailing 0-2 in the series. While Bangladesh will look to salvage a win, South Africa will want to finish with their second series-sweep of the year.The hosts’ dominance has been driven by their batting. The first two ODIs saw AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock make the most of opportunities. While Amla and de Kock made hundreds in the first ODI in Kimberley, setting up a record opening partnership in the process, the second match belonged to de Villiers, who brought up his personal best of 176 off only 104 deliveries.Shakib Al Hasan’s quick wickets had given Bangladesh some hope in Paarl but once de Villiers began accelerating, particularly after crossing 100, there was little Bangladesh could do to stop him. Rubel Hossain dismissed de Villiers to bring some respite but the match highlighted once again the visitors’ struggles with the ball on this tour – they took a total of 13 wickets across three innings in the Test series, and only six in the two ODIs.Bangladesh’s batting hasn’t been as dismal but it hasn’t won them matches either. Mushfiqur Rahim has scored 170 runs and has been dismissed once, while Imrul Kayes has struck his first fifty this year in Paarl. The rest, however, have fallen after getting starts. One of the batsmen who may suffer as a result of this inconsistency is Liton Das, who could be replaced by Soumya Sarkar.South Africa’s bowling has done just about enough to keep Bangladesh quiet in both matches. Kagiso Rabada constantly pushed them back with his pace, movement and bounce while Imran Tahir and Andile Phehlukwayo have also been among the wickets.

Form guide

South Africa WWLLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Bangladesh LLLWL

In the spotlight

In Paarl, JP Duminy turned the strike over to a belligerent de Villiers, contributing 27 runs in a partnership of 117. However, once de Villiers was dismissed in the 48th over, Duminy could not find the big shots to boost South Africa further. He hit only one six in his run-a-ball 30 and will hope to set things right in the third ODI, if given the chance.After scoring 93 runs in the Test series, and fending off questions on his captaincy, Mushfiqur Rahim has had a better time in the ODIs with scores of 110 not out and 60. He needs another 51 runs to bring up his most productive bilateral ODI series, surpassing the 220 runs he made against Pakistan in 2015.

Team news

Amla has been rested and his replacement, Aiden Markram, could be in line for an ODI debut. Temba Bavuma is another contender for that spot. Wiaan Mulder, the 19-year-old allrounder, could replace Dwaine Pretorius. David Miller, who had missed the second ODI because of a groin injury, will undergo a late fitness test on Sunday morning to determine his availability.South Africa (probable): 1 Aiden Markram/Temba Bavuma, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller/Farhaan Behardien, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Wiaan Mulder, 9 Dane Paterson, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Imran TahirWith Tamim Iqbal ruled out, Bangladesh could promote Shakib to No 3 and replace Liton Das with Soumya Sarkar. Nasir Hossain could also be replaced by Mehidy Hasan or Mohammad Saifuddin, depending on how the Bangladesh team management read the track at Buffalo Park.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Imrul Kayes, 2 Soumya Sarkar/Liton Das, 3 Shakib Al Hasan, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim, 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Sabbir Rahman, 8 Mohammad Saifuddin/Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Taskin Ahmed

Pitch and conditions

The average score batting first at the reputedly slow-and-low Buffalo Park pitches this year has been 254. But only teams who have scored 300-plus have won matches batting first. The weather forecast predicts a dry day in East London.

Stats and trivia

• De Villiers’ whirlwind 176 was his 25th ODI hundred, one less than Amla’s century tally.
• Rubel needs three wickets to become the fifth Bangladesh bowler to take 100 ODI wickets
• In five List A matches this year in Buffalo Park, teams batting first lost the match on three occasions.
• Sunday’s match will be Mashrafe Mortaza’s 50th as captain in ODIs. Only Shakib Al Hasan and Habibul Bashar have captained Bangladesh in 50 or more ODIs before.

Quote

“We have put a lot of focus on what we are trying to achieve and fortunately for us we have blown them away in all departments. It doesn’t take away what is going to happen tomorrow, I still believe that Bangladesh will come out and try to prove a point and try to get back into this tour.”
“It is still possible [to do well] but if we go about our job the way we played the last two matches, things become harder.”

Amir resumed bowling on the second day in Dubai but was soon forced off the field again and sent for scans

Osman Samiuddin07-Oct-2017Pakistan have been dealt a serious short-term blow with Mohammad Amir ruled out of bowling in the ongoing second Test as well as the one-day series against Sri Lanka. Amir picked up a stress-related injury of his right shin and has been advised rest for the next two to three weeks.Amir initially went off the field towards the end of the first evening of the Test, halfway through his 17th over. He was under observation overnight as the management initially said he was suffering from pain in his left shin.He arrived with the team for the second day and came on to bowl in the 11th over of the afternoon. But after struggling through three overs, during which he looked visibly troubled and at one stage required an ice pack, he went off again. This time he was taken for an MRI scan, which revealed the extent of the injury to his right shin.The sequence of events will raise questions about why he wasn’t taken for a scan earlier and why he was allowed to bowl at all on the second day.”The fast bowler has been advised two to three weeks rest after he underwent an MRI scan today following complains of pain in his right shin,” a PCB statement said. “Amir will not bowl in the ongoing Test match at the Dubai Cricket Stadium but would be available to bat.”That leaves Pakistan, already struggling with the ball in this Test, a bowler short going ahead – with only one specialist spinner and with Wahab Riaz enduring his own problems at one stage with his run-up. Their chances of rescuing their unbeaten home record of ten years, and seven in the UAE, stand considerably reduced.It also caps a miserable tour for Amir, who went wicketless in the first Test in Abu Dhabi, and picked up just one in the first innings here. He bowled well in brief patches, though coaching staff were concerned with his inability to find fuller lengths.The impact on Pakistan’s Test side will not be so important beyond this match – Pakistan do not play another Test until May next year when they tour England for a two-Test series. But his absence in the five-match ODI and three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka will be felt.He was their standout bowler in the Champions Trophy final in June against India, a three-wicket burst at the top of the order instrumental in Pakistan’s win. And he has, since his return from a five-year ban, made a substantial contribution to the 50-over side, taking 30 wickets in 21 ODIs.

Guyana’s pace duo Keon Joseph and Keemo Paul took a combined 16 wickets to haul Guyana to their fourth win in five matches

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Dec-2017Pacers Keon Joseph and Keemo Paul took a combined 16 wickets in the match as Guyana secured an eight-wicket victory over Barbados at home.Paul took his second first-class five-wicket haul, while Joseph took three wickets as Barbados posted 294 after electing to bat. They then returned to take four wickets each in Barbados’ second innings before half-centuries from Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Leon Johnson helped them run down a 178-run target with eight wickets to spare.Having lost the toss, Guyana won the early exchanges, with Joseph snaring three wickets in a new-ball burst that reduced Barbados to 32 for 3. A 78-run fourth-wicket stand between Kevin Stoute followed, which ended with a run out of Moseley. Stoute fell for 47 to left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie as Barbados lost half their side for 123. Then came the substantial partnership of the match, between Kenroy Williams (68) and Justin Greaves, who top-scored with 72. The duo’s sixth-wicket stand of 121 hauled Barbados close to the 250 mark before Paul wiped out the lower order as Barbados lost five wickets for 50 runs to be bowled out for 294.Tagenarine (52) and Chandrapaul Hemraj (79) kickstarted Guyana’s replay with half-centuries and a 115-run first-wicket partnership. Barbados chipped away at the wickets thereafter, but Gudakesh Motie’s unbeaten 72 steered them to 314 all out. Ashley Nurse and Jomel Warrican took three wickets each.Joseph and Paul quickly reduced Barbados to 109 for 7 in the second innings. Jonathan Carter prolonged the innings with 53 and a ninth-wicket stand of 86 with Mario Rampersaud, before Barbados folded for 197.Chanderpaul and Johnson, the Guyana captain, took their team close to the target with a second-wicket partnership of 117 after Hemraj’s dismissal for 21. Johnson was bowled by Harding for 61 with Guyana 25 away from the target, but Tagenarine (62*) and Vishaul Singh (22*) sealed Guyana their fourth win in five matches.

Martin Guptill’s 13th ODI century and Matt Henry’s four-wicket haul led the way as New Zealand endured a late attack from Pakistan’s lower order to seal the series

The Report by Danyal Rasool18-Jan-2018 by 15 runs
Getty Images

At five matches, this ODI series may have seemed excessively lengthy, but only because it appeared to have been one interminable match stretched out over a fortnight. It didn’t need five games for anyone to find out that Pakistan have serious trouble facing the new ball in conditions that New Zealand offers. But the home side hammered that point home ad nauseam, sealing it with a 15-run win that was more comprehensive than the scorecard suggests, and delivering just their second whitewash in a five-match series.The chase, as on every other occasion, was effectively over before it began. Matt Henry, coming in for the rested Trent Boult, made full use of his opportunity, taking three wickets in his first four overs. Fakhar Zaman was harassed, hit on the helmet, dropped and finally caught at extra cover. With no movement on offer, Henry bowled a steady off stump line, cleverly waiting for Pakistan’s batsmen to make their own mistakes. Ever the gentlemen, they didn’t keep him waiting long. Umar Amin and Babar Azam edged behind and Pakistan were reduced to 31 for 3. Azam may still average over 50, but his dismissal on Friday was an act of mercy, releasing him from a series in which he scored 31 runs at 6.20.Three wickets soon became five, thanks to a pair of sharp catches in the infield, and it was left to Haris Sohail and Shadab Khan to do the face-saving again. They showed the fight they have demonstrated whenever given the chance, putting on a century-partnership without ever really threatening a result. That wasn’t their fault – it merely illustrated the extent to which the top order has let the visitors down all series.Both fell after scoring half-centuries, looking to pick up the scoring rate to meet an ever-rising asking rate. Mohammad Nawaz and Aamer Yamin put on an entertaining little partnership that briefly called the result into question, riding their luck as Pakistan took the game to the
penultimate over. However, New Zealand had just enough runs, and had inflicted just enough damage at the top of the innings, to ensure their winning streak – now eight ODIs – remained intact.Earlier, a 112-run partnership between Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor guided New Zealand through the middle overs and steered them to 271 on a tricky surface. Guptill scored a hundred – the 13th of his ODI career – while Taylor recorded his 58th 50-plus score, surpassing the record for a New Zealand batsman. Run-scoring through the middle overs was harder work than it had seemed in the first ODI at the Basin Reserve, but that could at least partially be put down to a solid bowling performance by Pakistan, complemented by their best day in the field this series. A late implosion from New Zealand, combined by fabulous end-overs bowling, meant the innings fell away after flattering to deceive for most of the first 40 overs.For a series involving Pakistan, it was surprisingly predictable in some respects. To nobody’s surprise, New Zealand, batting first, set about taking advantage of the opening Powerplay. As usual, it was Colin Munro doing the early damage, complemented by the occasional destructively elegant shot from Guptill – a straight six off Rumman Raees the pick of the bunch. Yamin bore the brunt of the aggression but neither opening bowler was spared the heat as New Zealand brought up fifty inside six overs. Munro perished as he had thrived, top-edging Raees while looking to slog across the line, but the platform had been set. Kane Williamson and Guptill built on it, the early onslaught giving them the space and time to construct the partnership at their own pace. Pakistan began to come back into the contest, too, with Shadab and Nawaz bowling tight lines to choke the batsmen.It might have accounted for the second wicket. With the partnership on 49, the New Zealand captain lifted Yamin into the leg side, looking to clear deep midwicket. Amin took the catch to dismiss Williamson in the strangest of ways. Pakistan took control through the middle overs, the bowlers varying their pace and length adeptly as Taylor and Guptill struggled for timing. The ground fielding improved too, as New Zealand were starved of the singles they usually take for granted, and the run rate dipped below five at the 30-over mark. However, what Pakistan didn’t manage was more wickets, and with the duo getting their eye in, New Zealand were gearing up for a big finish.It didn’t quite materialise that way as they fell within a few overs of each other. Colin de Grandhomme couldn’t get going with the fluency with
which he had devastated Pakistan in Hamilton. Other wickets fell as Pakistan began to strangle the New Zealand middle and lower order; Henry Nicholls was caught in the deep trying to get Raees away, while Faheem Ashraf got rid of Tom Latham as he attempted a scoop.
The innings turned sloppy – Mitchell Santner was run out off the first ball he faced, and a total that had looked to push past 300 fizzled out.As it turned out, though, the ineptitude of Pakistan’s top order ensured they wouldn’t have to pay for their profligacy.

In the bowlers rankings, James Anderson reclaimed the top spot from Kagiso Rabada, who now trails the England seamer by 15 points

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2018On the day he was named cricketer and captain of the year at the ICC awards, Virat Kohli became the second India batsman, after Sunil Gavaskar, to scale 900 points in the Test rankings for batsmen. The India captain vaulted from 880 points to 900 following his 153 against South Africa in the Centurion Test.Gavaskar had reached 916 points after he scored a remarkable 221 in his 50th Test at the Oval in 1979. In all, Kohli is the 31st batsman to 900 points in the Test rankings. Donald Bradman leads the list with 961 points followed by current Australia captain Steven Smith (947), who has drawn comparisons with Bradman after peeling off 687 runs in the Ashes series. In terms of Test averages, Smith is placed just below Bradman.Smith is currently 47 points ahead of Kohli and 66 ahead of the third-placed Joe Root. Hashim Amla, who made 82 and set up South Africa for a first-innings lead in Centurion, moved from tenth to eighth, while his captain Faf du Plessis jumped two places up to a career-best 12th.In the bowlers rankings, James Anderson reclaimed the top spot from Kagiso Rabada, who took four wickets in Centurion. The South Africa quick, who lost his top spot after only one Test, now trails Anderson by 15 points. India fast bowler Mohammed Shami, meanwhile, moved two places up to 17th after claiming a match haul of five wickets in Centurion.

Defiant ninth-wicket stand between Josh Inglis and Matt helps Western Australia stretch game into the fourth day

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Feb-2018BCCI

A stunning century from Aaron Finch and a fine display of fast bowling from the quicks has put the Victoria Bushrangers on the brink of a comprehensive victory over Western Australia at the WACA.Victoria began the day 160 runs ahead and started briskly in the morning session with Marcus Harris reaching a half-century.Western Australia fought back briefly by picking four wickets later in the session, but were denied by Finch, who exploded in the afternoon to make 151 not out off just 122 balls. This included 16 fours and seven sixes. Cameron White provided good support adding 41. Finch declared with a lead of 468.Then the bowlers ripped through Western Australia with Chris Tremain taking three wickets to complete his first Sheffield Shield 10-wicket haul. Scott Boland (three) and Peter Siddle (two) also shared in the spoils.As Western Australia slumped to 8 for 99, Victoria took the extra half-hour to try and wrap up the match on the third night. But a defiant 62-run stand between Josh Inglis and Matt Kelly ensured the game would reach the fourth day.

Neeraj Kumar, the former police commissioner of Delhi, has been retained as Advisor for the unit till March 31, 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Mar-2018The BCCI has appointed Ajit Singh, a former DGP of Rajasthan, as the head of its Anti-Corruption Unit ahead of the 2018 IPL season. Neeraj Kumar, the former police commissioner of Delhi, has been retained as Advisor for the unit till May 31, 2018.According to a BCCI release, Singh retired from his role as DGP in the Rajasthan Police in November 2017 and has 36 years of experience with the Indian Police Service. He has worked in various anti-corruption operations apart from investigative work and field policing. Singh also headed Rajasthan’s anti-corruption bureau for four years.Apart from its own ACU, BCCI will also engage with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit for the 2018 IPL season.