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Mumbai Indians offspinner Harbhajan Singh said the over in which he took three wickets was the best spell he had bowled in recent months

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Oct-2013Mumbai Indians offspinner Harbhajan Singh, whose figures of 4 for 32 won him the Man-of-the-Match award and helped Mumbai claim their second Champions League title, said the over in which he took three wickets was the best spell he had bowled in recent months.Harbhajan came into the tournament with little practice, having not played a competitive match since the IPL. He was not included in any of India A’s recent squads. In a high-scoring final against Rajasthan Royals in Delhi, Harbhajan came on to bowl his final over with Royals requiring 48 off the last four overs with seven wickets in hand. Harbhajan struck with the first ball, removing the set Ajinkya Rahane for 65, caught at deep midwicket. Three balls later, with the pressure mounting on Royals for boundaries, Stuart Binny looked to slog a quicker one from Harbhajan and lost his leg stump.After conceding a boundary the following ball to Kevon Cooper, Harbhajan hit back off the final ball, beating Cooper who looked to play across the line but failed to spot the straighter one. Cooper didn’t to drag his back foot behind the line and Dinesh Karthik completed a sharp stumping. Three wickets went down for just four runs in the space of six balls and the match had turned firmly in Mumbai’s favour.”I’m happy with the way I finished, although I didn’t practice at all,” Harbhajan said at the post-match presentation. “I was travelling to the US but I didn’t practice much before this but I’m really happy with the way I have finished this tournament. I think that over where I took three wickets was probably the best over I’ve bowled in the last three months.”Chasing 203, the Royals were in the hunt via a second-wicket stand of 109 between Sanju Samson and Rahane, who both scored 60s. Royals captain Rahul Dravid too felt that Harbhajan’s spell had turned the match.”We saw some really great batting and we saw some good skills with the ball as well, from the spinners and it was a close game right till the end,” Dravid said. “I thought the couple of overs when Harbhajan Singh got four wickets for eight or nine runs probably turned the game on its head.”Incidentally, Harbhajan had starred in Mumbai’s previous title win in 2011 as well, his 3 for 20 winning him the Man-of-the-Match award against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Chennai.”This is probably the second time and I am getting the Man of the Match in the final,” he said. “Hopefully few more. I’m looking forward to the Duleep Trophy and the long season up ahead for India.”

An 18-ball 45 from Mandeep Singh made the difference in a high-scoring, rain-curtailed game in Bangalore, as Royal Challengers Bangalore gunned down 112 with two balls remaining against Kolkata Knight Riders

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy02-May-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:41

O’Brien: RCB timed their chase to perfection

The penultimate ball of the penultimate over of the match. Umesh Yadav had his fine leg inside the circle, and Mandeep Singh stepped across his stumps to scoop the ball over the fielder. Deep backward square leg sprinted desperately to his right to stop the ball, but he had no chance. It had rained, and the outfield was a little slow, but this ball landed on a practice pitch and raced into the boundary.Next ball, Mandeep skipped down the track and looked to swipe a length ball through mid-off. He ended up edging it to the third man boundary. In the space of two balls sprinkled with a fair measure of fortune, Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone from needing 20 to win from eight balls to needing 12 from six.Such things happen all the time in Twenty20, but this was a rain-shortened 10-overs-a-side match. Even Ravi Shastri, interviewing the losing captain at the post-match presentation, commiserated with him, calling it a “lottery”.Mandeep, though, played a massive hand in deciding the fate of the lottery. He walked when Royal Challengers had just lost Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the space of six balls, when they needed 62 from 32 balls, and produced a stunning, unbeaten 18-ball 45 to power his team home with two balls remaining.Mandeep’s composure under pressure was fully tested, with only three runs coming off the first two balls of the final over, leaving 10 to get from four balls. He made room to get under an almost blockhole-length delivery from Andre Russell and carved him for a six over backward point, and pulled the next ball over deep backward square leg to send the Chinnaswamy Stadium into raptures.Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli had given Royal Challengers the perfect start to a chase of 112 in 10 overs, but when Mandeep walked in, their batting depth was under test. Kohli fell when 32 were required from 17, but before that he and Mandeep had taken 18 off a Piyush Chawla over to tilt the momentum their way.Rain pelted down almost immediately after Royal Challengers had chosen to bowl first, and delayed the start of play by two hours and 45 minutes. The reduction of overs meant this was now a contest between the power hitters from the two teams, but Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t make any immediate changes to their batting order.Gautam Gambhir put on 33 with Robin Uthappa at 8.60 an over, before slicing David Wiese in the air to point. Russell walked in, and immediately set to work, square-cutting Yuzvendra Chahal to the point boundary and smacking Varun Aaron for two sixes in the next over. Chahal dismissed Uthappa in the next over, but that was hardly noticeable in the midst of Russell’s clean striking.Two powerful straight hits off Wiese took Knight Riders to 86 for 2 at the end of the eighth over. Ryan ten Doeschate joined in the fun with a six and a four in the next over, off Harshal Patel, before a smart bit of thinking from Dinesh Karthik – who kept wickets without his right glove – brought about Russell’s wicket while the batsmen tried to sneak a bye.Russell had clouted 45 off 17, and maybe Knight Riders could have scored a few more had he been in the middle to face the final over. As it happened, Mitchell Starc gave away only nine runs – despite bowling a wide and a contentious no-ball – and 111 proved just within reach of Royal Challengers’ line-up.

Kane Williamson savoured the “unique” experience of scoring a Test hundred at Lord’s but admitted he could not really soak up the generous applause he received when eventually dismissed for 132

Andrew McGlashan23-May-20151:26

Williamson praise for Gillespie

Kane Williamson savoured the “unique” experience of scoring a Test hundred at Lord’s but admitted he could not really soak up the generous applause he received when eventually dismissed for 132 because he was feeling “brassed off” at not being able to extend his innings.Williamson was 92 overnight and quickly moved to his hundred in the second over of the day but from there on, as the cloud cover rolled in, life became much tougher. He had built an important 50-run stand with BJ Watling, after England had struck either side of a rain delay at lunch, when he feathered a catch to leg slip against Moeen Al having weathered some testing overs from the quicks.”I was a bit brassed off to be honest,” he said. “It’s so unqiue how you walk through so many different people – it’s very different to anywhere else. Coming off I was pretty frustrated to get out at that time after such a tough period where England bowled extremely well under cloud cover.”Overnight, knowing you are really close to three figures and the much spoken-about honours board, it plays your mind a little but to be honest was just trying to put that to the back and get on with the job at hand. It was nice to cross the line, with all the history here at Lord’s and there a lot of great names on the honours board.”Much had been made of the lack of preparation Williamson had heading into the series after an IPL stint largely sat on the bench. He had batted just twice since the World Cup final – and his last innings was on April 13 – but on the second day he progressed so serenely that it was as though he had never been away from Test cricket: his last five-day innings was the small matter of 242 not out against Sri Lanka.In Williamson’s favour was the fact he has played county cricket for Yorkshire and in the Test here two years ago made 60 in the first innings of a bowler-dominated match.”Towards the end of the IPL when I wasn’t looking like playing my focus was very much to prepare for Test cricket as it was so soon,” he said “I was able to prepare although it would have been nice to have the odd warm-up game, but I could draw on experience I’ve had here before. The most important thing is actually the mental transition and not letting little things disturb you.”

Fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni set India up for their best batting performance of the ODI series and gave them the consolation of avoiding a 3-0 Banglawash

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy24-Jun-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMS Dhoni struck six fours and a six in his 77-ball 69•AFP

Fifties from Shikhar Dhawan and MS Dhoni set India up for their best batting performance of the ODI series and gave them the consolation of avoiding a 3-0 Banglawash. Chasing 318 – it would have been their second-highest successful chase had they pulled it off – Bangladesh made an encouraging start but lost too many wickets by the 30th over to stay in contention. The 77-run loss meant Bangladesh’s winning streak at home stopped at 10 matches.Dhawan stroked a 73-ball 75 and Dhoni, batting at No. 4 for the second match running, made a 77-ball 69 that saw India through the middle overs. Together, they laid the platform for the lower middle order, led by Suresh Raina, to smash 50 off the last five overs. Raina made a telling contribution with the ball as well, dismissing Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan on his way to a three-wicket haul.At the start of their batting Powerplay, Bangladesh needed 116 to win from 90 balls, but only had four wickets in hand. The end took its time coming, with Arafat Sunny blocking his way to an unbeaten 40-ball 14, but three overs still remained when they were bowled out. Despite the margin of defeat, Bangladesh still had positives to take in the continuing excellence of Mustafizur Rahman and sparkling knocks from Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman.The languid Sarkar attacked from the start, striking Stuart Binny for three fours and a six in two overs – the best of his shots a back-foot punch stroked in front of point – and greeting Umesh Yadav with two fours in his first over. Despite the loss of Tamim Iqbal in the second over of the innings – Dhawal Kulkarni getting him lbw by nipping one back from around the wicket – Bangladesh seemed well on course as they raced past 50 in the seventh over. Sarkar played one shot too many, though, and miscued Kulkarni to mid-on in the tenth over.The run rate never really dipped even after that, as Mushfiqur, Shakib, Sabbir and Nasir Hossain all got off to brisk starts. None of them got to 50, though, and when Binny bowled Sabbir for 43 in the 33rd over, he ended the last threatening phase of the Bangladesh innings, a sixth-wicket stand of 49 in 29 balls with Nasir.Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh captain, chose to bowl with the threat of rain in mind, and his young new-ball partner Mustafizur settled into a lovely rhythm straightaway, bothering Rohit Sharma with his angle and changes of pace. The runs came briskly at the other end, though, and Rohit had moved to 29 when Mustafizur dismissed him for the third time in the series. Having already beaten him twice with his cutter, he found his edge through to the keeper simply by virtue of his length and left-arm angle, which drew Rohit into an angled-bat drive.Much like Rohit, Virat Kohli got to a start before getting out to an unwise shot. He had moved to 25 – quietly, but that wasn’t an issue with Dhawan scoring freely at the other end – when he was bowled attempting a slog sweep off Shakib Al Hasan, soon after he had been brought on in the 20th over.Dhoni began his innings with nine dots in ten balls before deciding to have a go at the spinners. Stepping down the track, he swiped Nasir Hossain into the gap at deep square leg before launching the next ball hard and flat over cow corner. The next two overs brought two more fours, a pull in front of square off Rubel Hossain showing a flash of the old Dhoni, feet in midair as he swung his body violently through the stroke.At the other end Dhawan was finding the gaps with crisp precision, and had picked up three fours in three overs with drives and punches in the arc between point and mid-off when he picked out short midwicket off Mashrafe in the 27th over. India were 158 for 3 at that point, going along at close to six an over. The top order had given the innings impetus; Dhawan’s dismissal raised the question of whether the middle order could carry it forward.Without really getting on top of the bowling, Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu managed to maintain the run rate. The early momentum ensured that a quiet batting Powerplay – taken in the 33rd over, it fetched India 28 runs – served as a decent build-up period for the last 10 overs.Rayudu never looked entirely convincing – he miscued Mustafizur and Mashrafe in the air, only for the ball to pop into vacant parts of the outfield – but kept the strike rotating well enough to move to 44 off 48 before he was given out caught behind even though the ball had only brushed his thigh pad when he tried to lap-sweep Mashrafe.The dismissal brought Raina to the crease in ideal circumstances, with 6.3 overs to go and license to play his shots. He wasted no time in getting going, lofting his second ball over the covers for four and slogging a full-toss for a six in the next over, and ran away to 38 off 20 before Mustafizur beat his attempted leg-side heave with another brilliantly concealed slower ball in the 49th over.That wicket meant Mustafizur finished the series with 13, the most by any bowler in a three-match ODI series. His final figures of 2 for 57 were misleading, since all three fours he conceded in his last two overs came via miscues and edges, and his nervelessness and control during the Powerplays and the death only added further lustre to a spectacular debut series.

Craig Cachopa smashed his highest career T20 score to end Sussex’s hoodoo against Hampshire as they thrashed the early South Group pacesetters by seven wickets

ECB/PA19-Jun-2015
ScorecardCraig Cachopa’s unbeaten 89 saw Sussex home with room to spare (file photo)•Getty Images

Craig Cachopa smashed his highest career T20 score to end Sussex’s hoodoo against Hampshire as they thrashed the early South Group pacesetters by seven wickets.New Zealander Cachopa struck a fantastic 89 not out at the Ageas Bowl as Sussex chased down a victory target of 158 to beat their south-coast rivals for the first time in eight attempts. Cachopa was brilliantly accompanied by Matt Machan, who scored an unbeaten 52 as the pair put on 144 for the fourth wicket, knocking off the winning runs with eight balls to spare.Sussex started atrociously as they lost former England international Luke Wright in the second over to a stunning catch from Will Smith off Chris Wood. And Wood picked up a second two balls later as Mahela Jayawardene loosely edged behind to end his stint on the south coast with 4 off five balls.The procession to and from the dugout continued in the next over as Gareth Berg took his first T20 wicket for Hampshire as Ben Brown chipped straight to Sean Ervine. That left Sussex in deep trouble on 14 for 3 but Cachopa and Machan reconstructed the innings, striking 50 off 36 deliveries before two monstrous overs off spinners Danny Briggs and Smith went for 32 runs.

Insights

This was Hampshire’s lowest home score of the season and second-lowest score anywhere and they were always going to find defending it successfully hard work. Hampshire’s highest scorer was Vince with 41, which was Hampshire’s lowest high score this season. In all but one other match at least one Hampshire player has scored fifty and they lacked that standout performance in this match. Sussex got that performance and they got it when they needed it most, reeling at 14 for 3 in the run chase. Cachopa’s 89 not out was his highest T20 score and only his second fifty.

Cachopa collected his second career T20 half-century – after earlier passing 1000 T20 career runs – with a late cut for four. The stand for the fourth wicket passed 100, with a colossal Cachopa six over long-off, in exactly 12 overs.The 23-year-old clobbered a six over the concourse and into the Nursery Ground before easing past his previous highest T20 score of 79 with a sweetly timed on drive as the visitors cruised home with room to spare.Earlier, Sussex won the toss and elected to field and restricted Hampshire to a below-par 157 for 6. Michael Carberry began watchfully before clubbing the first boundary of the evening straight down the ground off Ollie Robinson from the match’s fourth ball.Fellow opener James Vince was lucky not to be caught second ball as he gloved behind and the very next delivery the skipper became the fourth Hampshire player to score 2000 T20 runs for the county – after Carberry, Jimmy Adams and Ervine – with a crisply struck cut for four.Carberry was dropped at mid-on by a slow moving Tymal Mills before Vince used the former Essex man’s pace to dispatch the game’s first maximum over square leg in the next over.Mills atoned for his drop as he forced Carberry into looping a top edge off his hips to Chris Liddle at short fine leg to depart for 10. Vince offloaded some of the building pressure with slog sweep six but two balls latter Michael Yardy cleverly dragged the ball wide of off stump to have the recent England call-up stumped for a classy 41.The wicket of the talismanic Vince caused a panic for Hampshire as they lost Adams – who went for well-made 21 to give Machan his first T20 wicket for Sussex – and Ervine as spin became king.Adam Wheater and Owais Shah got Hampshire back on track with a 32-ball 50 partnership – the former reverse sweeping to take the home side past 100 in the 15th over. The pair both departed playing one shot too many, though, as Hampshire disappointed in front of a season-high 7200 at the Ageas Bowl.

A career-best one-day knock of 90 from Leicestershire opener Angus Robson, the highest of the match, could not stop Yorkshire completing a 31-run victory over their visitors in the Royal London Cup clash at Headingley

ECB/PA03-Aug-2015
ScorecardAlex Lees’ 75 helped Yorkshire to a total they were able to defend•Getty Images

A career-best one-day knock of 90 from Leicestershire opener Angus Robson, the highest of the match, could not stop Yorkshire completing a 31-run victory over their visitors in the Royal London Cup clash at Headingley.Yorkshire’s fourth win in six matches strengthened their chances of finishing in a top-two place in the North Group table and gaining a home tie in the quarter-finals but defeat for Leicestershire left them with only one point and still searching for their first win.For a while it looked as if Leicestershire were capable of chasing down a target of 278 as both Mark Cosgrove and Aadil Ali gave solid support to the fluent Robson.But when allrounder Will Rhodes claimed the wickets of Robson and Niall O’Brien in the space of six balls, Leicestershire were left on 167 for 5 after 38 overs and the task was beyond them.A crowd of 4,021 saw Yorkshire make a promising start after being put in to bat with acting captain Alex Lees and Andy Hodd adding 80 together in confident manner before Hodd, attempting a quick single, was run out by Ned Eckersley’s direct hit at the bowler’s end from midwicket for 36.Lees reached his half-century from 76 balls with five fours after Glenn Maxwell had survived a difficult chance to Burgess at mid-on when only two. The Australian then struck Rob Sayer over mid-wicket for six but the miss was not too expensive because when he had sailed on to 28 from 24 balls he lofted the offspinner to Ali at long-on.Rhodes batted brightly alongside Lees, who eventually had his stumps knocked back by Rob Taylor for 75 from 110 deliveries with five boundaries. Jack Leaning then departed in the same over for a duck as Robson held on to a leading edge.When Rhodes was bowled by Ben Raine for 46, Yorkshire were 220 for 5 in 40 overs and Leicestershire bowled well enough to stop a surge of runs in the final stages of the innings, Clint McKay mopping up to finish with 3 for 47.Leicestershire made a measured start to their reply and Robson and Cosgrove had put on 49 by the tenth over when Matthew Fisher replaced Tim Bresnan and bowled Cosgrove for 23 with his second delivery.It became 87 for 2 as Eckersley was bowled leg stump by Maxwell but Ali and Robson kept their side in the hunt with a 72 stand in 15 overs. Robson survived a stinging low return catch to Maxwell’s left on 48 before moving to a 71-ball half-century.In attempting to increase the tempo, Ali took a big swing at Adil Rashid and sliced to Steve Patterson at short third man with Robson departing soon afterwards by driving Rhodes gently to Lees at mid-wicket, his 90 coming off 114 balls with eight fours.Michael Burgess, Raine and Taylor all hit big sixes as Leicestershire tried hard to regain some momentum but Yorkshire’s eight-man attack held together well and the end came with one ball remaining as Taylor holed out to Richard Pyrah off Patterson.

ICC’s David Richardson and Tim Anderson will lead a town hall meeting in Chicago on Saturday as part of the efforts to engage stakeholders in the wake of USACA’s June suspension

Peter Della Penna28-Aug-2015ICC chief executive David Richardson and head of global development Tim Anderson will lead a town hall meeting in Chicago on Saturday as part of the ICC’s efforts to engage stakeholders and bring disparate factions together in the wake of USACA’s suspension at the ICC annual conference in June.Anderson was one of several ICC representatives who arrived in Chicago on Thursday night and said he hoped the meeting will encourage open dialogue. Richardson was expected to spend part of the meeting directly discussing the background to USACA’s suspension and Anderson hoped a Q & A session between ICC staff and stakeholders may unlock solutions to some of the problems that have plagued US cricket in recent years.”The key focus for us for the day is that we’re looking to kick off the strategy development process and we want to talk to the stakeholders and leagues about what they think are the most important cricketing aspects of the game in this country moving forward,” Anderson told ESPNcricinfo on Thursday. Prior to the meeting, the ICC sent out a survey to select stakeholders last week to find out what areas of concern were the highest priorities for them, ranking a list of wide-ranging topics from lowest to highest in terms of importance. The survey data will be used for discussion sessions during the meeting.”They are relatively simple questions around areas of key interest within US cricket, cricket related issues and trying to get a sense from the community as to priorities and perhaps why some things have worked and why some things haven’t,” Anderson said. “Junior development, women’s cricket, fundraising, performance of teams are all key issues and we’re trying to get an understanding of what the community feels about all of those things.”Anderson said that 80 leagues from around the country had received direct invitations to participate in the meeting, which will take place beginning at 9:30 am at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at O’Hare International Airport in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont. He said although the ICC expected most of the attendees to be league representatives, the meeting was open to all cricket stakeholders and anyone was encouraged to come and participate in the various dialogues taking place throughout the day.”One of the key things that we want to be as much as possible during this whole process and during the day on Saturday is as open and transparent as we can be,” Anderson said. “Even though we invited some specific people, it’s actually an open meeting. Anyone can come but we invited the people that we really wanted to be there, the league representatives. In terms of the stakeholders we thought were most important, the leagues we thought were most important so the large majority of invitations were sent to the leagues.”The political affiliations within the US cricket system aren’t of interest to us in this process. We’ve invited leagues aligned to USACA, aligned ACF, aligned to both and neither. So we anticipate a really diverse spread of people to attend. Our local advisory group will also attend and at this point we anticipate 70 or 80 people to attend. If we are able to get 70-80 people in the room from a wide diverse landscape of US cricket, we think that would be a really positive thing.”For anyone unable to attend Saturday’s town hall meeting, Anderson said that he did not envision this to be the last opportunity for stakeholders to interact with the ICC staff or the ICC’s local advisory group during the strategy development process.”We obviously got a good sense during the review group process that domestic cricket in the USA is very disconnected and we want to try to help the community rectify that situation,” Anderson said. “We might open the survey up again after the meeting to a wider group of people to get their feedback as well. We want to try to connect with as many people as we can.”

Paul Edwards at Old Trafford14-Sep-2015

ScorecardZafar Ansari fell one short of a very timely hundred•PA Photos

Milton can hardly have composed with more care than that exhibited by Zafar Ansari when he is playing a four-day innings. While the other members of Surrey’s top order are dashing off their attractive sonnets or villanelles, their opening batsman is sweating blood over his blank verse, accumulating the runs that so often hold an innings together.That attention to the details of batsmanship was very evident in Ansari’s innings of 99 against Lancashire on the first day of this game. Having opted to bat first, Surrey skipper Gareth Batty knew that his openers would receive a probing examination in cloudy conditions from an attack which included James Anderson, who was playing his first county match of the season. He was probably depending on Ansari to produce his normal obdurate stuff; Ansari did not let him down.Indeed, it was the opener’s 277-minute exercise in concentration which was largely responsible for Surrey ending a rather miserable, rain-dampened day on 262 for 4, which is a perfectly healthy position for the Division Two leaders to occupy after 83.2 overs in which they could have lost all their wickets in half the time.But Ansari will not be there on the second morning to oversee Surrey’s attempt to build a daunting first-innings total. His effort on Monday may have included all the frequently overlooked craftsmanship of batting – the soft hands, the careful leaves, the skilful rectitude in defence – but it was not faultless. On 33 he was badly dropped at second slip by Steven Croft off Tom Bailey. On 43 he may even have been a trifle lucky not to be given out leg before to Simon Kerrigan’s first ball of the day, but Jeff Evans was the umpire who had to make the decision; and on the evidence offered at Taunton last week and Old Trafford today, Dracula may be more willing to give blood than Evans is to grant an lbw. But Evans was the man in the best position to make the call and we had all better respect the fact.Having escaped at least once, though, it seemed that Ansari would proceed to his second century of the season. But it was not to be. On 99 and with the second new ball imminent, he received a full toss from Croft which he could have placed anywhere in the off side. However, the diligent poet mucked up his rhymes and drove the ball at about waist height wide to Anderson’s left. The England bowler dived and took the catch.Ansari paused a moment, tucked his bat under his arm and ambled off the field. He has now scored 771 runs as an opening bat and taken 44 wickets with his left-arm spin in the County Championship. These are comparatively rare combined skills and they are ones which the England selectors apparently have their eyes on. With the England squads for the series against Pakistan to be announced this week, these could yet be a very big few days in Ansari’s career.”He was very frustrating to bowl at and he rode his luck with the new ball,” said Anderson of his current opponent and possible future colleague. “He knuckled down and did a good job. He got through the tough periods and managed to make a good score.”Asked whether Ansari might slot into an England squad, Anderson responded: “I don’t see why not. What we’re missing at the moment is someone who turns the ball away from the bat and he’s had a good year. We’ll wait and see what happens.”Certainly on Monday, none of Ansari’s colleagues could match his application. Rory Burns made a good 50 in an opening stand of 89 before his attempted cut only under-edged the ball onto his stumps; Kumar Sangakkara made just 9 before he fell to Anderson for the eighth time in a first-class match when he edged a ball that was pushed cleverly across him to Croft at slip; then Ben Foakes made a pleasant 45 before his limp cut to Arron Lilley only gave slip Alviro Petersen a simple catch.Lancashire, though, will have wanted more than four wickets on this drear Mancunian Monday. However, they are nothing like out of things. A game which may well decide the destiny of the Second Division title is still very much in the hazard and that is something to relish at the end of a day when the incipience of autumn could not be avoided.

ESPNcricinfo previews the third Test between Pakistan and England

The Preview by Andrew Miller31-Oct-2015

Match facts

November 1-5, 2015
Start time 10am local (0600 GMT)1:28

Team changes for England and Pakistan

Big Picture

It’s been an unexpectedly tough struggle for supremacy, but after 10 out of a possible 15 days of their series against England, Pakistan have established the primacy that they had always assumed would be on the cards. The valiant struggles of Alastair Cook’s men to stay in touch and, for a heady afternoon in Abu Dhabi, to surge into the ascendancy have come to nought. The hosts are now dormie as they head into the Sharjah finale, their proud unbeaten record in series in the UAE guaranteed for another year.England have had a week to recover from the agony of their near-miss in Dubai, where Adil Rashid’s late-evening aberration against his legspinning counterpart Yasir Shah rendered futile the resolve he had shown through his preceding 171 deliveries. Thirty-nine more deliveries of dead-batted obduracy and England could genuinely be scenting a slice of history this week. From bad light to bad shot selection, the margins in both Tests have been extraordinarily fine.However, the fault, as Cook rightly pointed out after the Dubai defeat, lay not in that lax moment from Rashid but instead in England’s hopeless performance on the third morning of the match. That day had dawned amid visions of a decisive first-innings lead; instead it degenerated into the session from hell that England had always feared might come to pass in such hostile conditions.It has been isolated in its ignominy as well. The competitive spirit on show for the other nine-and-two-thirds days of the series has been faultless, but that morning’s loss of seven wickets for 36 would prove insurmountable.And so, with lessons learnt and changes – enforced and otherwise – made, England regroup and Pakistan restart, with one last five-day push to the finish in the offing. The batting of both teams has proven fallible and faultless in equal measure, with the magisterial performances of Alastair Cook and Joe Root for England and Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan for Pakistan atoning for some notable weaknesses elsewhere in both line-ups.For Pakistan, Shan Masood has spent most of the series in James Anderson’s pocket, while even Shoaib Malik, with series scores of 245, 0, 2 and 7, has been more bust than boom. And as for England’s middle order, the less said the better. The best of a bad bunch have been Ian Bell, who with scores of 63 and 46 appears to be battling himself as much as the conditions, and Jonny Bairstow, who has shown grit on occasions as well as a technique against the spinners that is fraught with danger.The unsung heroes on both teams have been the seam bowlers – Wahab Riaz’s Man of the Match award at Dubai was hugely deserved and a tribute to his stamina and impact in strength-sapping conditions, even though his overall match figures of 5 for 144 aren’t much to write home about. He has been matched in menace if not method by England’s quiet achiever, Anderson, whose canny spells with new ball and old have been repelled (or not, in Masood’s case) with utmost respect and caution.Jos Buttler is set to be replaced behind the stumps by Jonny Bairstow•Getty Images

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WDWLW

England LDLWW

In the spotlight

The most likely quick bowler on either side to open up a game, Wahab Riaz continues to mature as Pakistan’s attack leader. His pace, stamina and ability to extract significant reverse swing have been impressive but he will have to back it up again after a five-day gap, particularly with his new-ball partner, the steady Imran Khan, missing through injury.James Taylor is back in an England Test shirt and raring to go. A confident player of spin, he thrived on his return to the ODI side in Sri Lanka last year and added a maiden hundred against Australia in September. Looked in good touch during his one tour appearance so far and is ostensibly in the sort of form to shore up England’s middle-order issues.

Team news

Azhar Ali missed the first Test with a toe infection and the second because of the death of his mother-in-law, but he is ready and waiting to resume his place in the side, with Masood making way. Whether it will be in his preferred slot at No. 3 or as an opener, for only the fourth time in Tests, remains to be seen. Pakistan are definitely on the lookout for a replacement opener in the bowling stakes, following the news of Imran’s hand injury, sustained while fielding on Friday and requiring four stitches and ten days’ rest. Rahat Ali, the left-arm seamer, is set to resume his place in the side having missed out in the second Test to accommodate Yasir Shah’s return. In better news for Pakistan, their reserve spinner Bilal Asif has been cleared to resume bowling by the ICC after undergoing biomechanical testing in Chennai.Pakistan (possible) 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Azhar Ali, 3 Shoaib Malik, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Zulfiqar Babar, 10 Yasir Shah, 11 Rahat AliChanges are afoot in the England line-up, for a variety of reasons. Mark Wood’s gallantry at Abu Dhabi and Dubai cannot mask a bowling style that seems destined to send him to the knacker’s yard before his spirit is even close to waning. He has received injections in his troublesome ankle and will rest up ahead of the one-day series next month. Into the picture, most probably, comes Liam Plunkett, although Samit Patel retains a chance of playing if England think the pitch will support a third spinner. Plunkett is arguably the fastest of the England quicks on tour and a man who can be relied upon to keep up the aerial bombardment that has been a feature of England’s competitive spirit in this series.England have confirmed that Jos Buttler will be given a break from the front line – a top score of 42 in seven Tests since July would be no justification for selection even if his wicketkeeping was at its sharpest, and as a couple of galling errors behind the stumps in Dubai would testify, his all-round game has suffered. Bairstow is primed to take over the gauntlets, with Nottinghamshire’s Taylor making his first Test appearance since 2012. Moeen Ali has been backed to continue as Cook’s opening partner, so Taylor’s county team-mate Alex Hales will have to wait at least until the South Africa tour in December to make his bow.England (possible) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Moeen Ali, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Joe Root, 5 James Taylor, 6 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 7 Ben Stokes, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 James Anderson

Pitch and conditions

Cricket in Sharjah has come a long way since pitches were just “rolled sand”. England played their warm-up matches at the ground, with Steven Finn recording notable success in the second, but the Test surface is very dry and likely to favour spin – if it favours anything other than run-making. The forecast, unsurprisingly, is for another hot one.

Stats and trivia

• This will be England’s first Test in Sharjah, although they have tasted ODI success here, winning the 1997 Akai-Singer Champions Trophy
• Two of Pakistan’s three lowest Test totals – 53 and 59 – came in the same match against Australia at Sharjah in 2002
• The team batting second has won the last two Tests at the ground

Quotes

“Obviously you have to think positively and we will do our best not leave any stone unturned and play well and win. Obviously your confidence is high after winning the last game and our team’s confidence is high, so its an important match for us and we will do our best to win it.”
Misbah-ul-Haq promises there will be no let up now Pakistan are ahead in the series“Over this tour I think we’ve been a fairly consistent side, just that third morning in the second Test has cost us the result. Nine-and-a-half days we’ve matched Pakistan really well. The challenge is not having that session and about coming into the latter stages of the game and putting Pakistan under some pressure with the series at stake.”

Pakistan has withdrawn from the Asia Cup for blind cricketers to be held in India next year, following the protests faced by visiting PCB officials in Mumbai earlier this week

PTI21-Oct-2015Pakistan has withdrawn from the Asia Cup for blind cricketers to be held in India next year, following the protests faced by visiting PCB officials in Mumbai earlier this week. The chairman of the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) said that it would not be sending its team to India next year for the Asia Cup due to the current sentiments and environment in India.Sultan Shah told reporters that the team was scheduled to participate in the Asia Cup from 17 to 24 January next year in Kochi. “But after what has happened in India in the last few days, the way the Pakistan Cricket Board delegation has been treated, we have decided they are genuine threats to the security of our players and officials if the Asia Cup is held in India,” Shah told PTI. “I have informed the Cricket Association for Blind in India about our decision.”Shah said the PBCC had started preparations for the Asia Cup and the team was also shortlisted, but now the scenario has changed all of a sudden in India. He said that the ICC decision to call back umpire Aleem Dar midway during the India-South Africa series had left the PBCC with no option but to decide that it would be “unfair to send the Pakistan team players and officials to India”.The Pakistan blind team has in the past travelled to India for major cricket events.