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Relationships within the Australian Test team were “strained” by the Newlands ball tampering scandal but “remain very much intact”, fast bowler Mitchell Starc has said in clarifying his reported comments at a business forum in Sydney this week.Starc added further context to his comments about the key press conference following the revelation of attempts to use a foreign object to tamper with the ball in Cape Town. At the time, former captain Steven Smith said it had been a decision of the “leadership group” to resort to measures outside the laws and spirit of the game.”Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending a ‘Women in Banking and Finance’ forum in Sydney with my wife Alyssa,” Starc said in a statement on his website. “I was invited as one of the guest panelists at the event, which provided some fantastic insight from some very successful and influential businesswomen in understanding the role we play in managing our own personal and professional reputation.”My comments at the forum were provided in the context of a particular topic, as it related to being honest and authentic in delivering a message. This context has unfortunately been lost in certain media reporting and headlines in recent days. But fundamentally there are many things that we can all learn from recent events in South Africa.”It was such a stressful time in our lives. There was strain on relationships both as individuals and as a team. However, the relationships of that group remain very much intact. I look forward to the opportunity to play alongside every one of my team-mates from that tour again. We still have a long way to go in rebuilding the trust with the Australian public and I know personally, that I am 100% committed to doing that.”Starc said that he retained the “utmost respect” for Smith, and looked forward to playing alongside him, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft once their bans elapse. “Despite reports to the contrary, I continue to have the utmost respect for Steve Smith as captain, team-mate and friend and I look forward to having him back in our great game soon,” he said.”That goes for David and Cameron who have also been through an extremely tough time. It is good to see all three guys planning to be back in cricket soon in different competitions around the world. Rebuilding trust and developing a positive reputation will take time and through our actions, we hope to demonstrate this to cricket fans everywhere.”The process has already started and the focus now should be on the cricket being played and the stories of performance and change in the current series, led by new Aussie coach Justin Langer, captain Tim Paine and the current team over in the UK. To all stakeholders and fans out there, please stick with us. Trust me when I say we all love the game as much as you do!”

Theunis de Bruyn, the middle order batsman who has five Test caps, will play two matches for Surrey ahead of South Africa’s tour of Sri Lanka in July. De Bruyn will join Surrey for matches against Somerset and Yorkshire as he looks to push for a place in the Test XI, where a spot has become vacant following AB de Villiers’ international retirement.”I am delighted to be joining Surrey, a club with rich history, for the next two Championship matches. It has always been one of my ambitions to play county cricket,” de Bruyn said.De Villiers, who returned from a self-imposed long-format sabbatical to play Test cricket for South Africa last summer, occupied the No.4 spot, and de Bruyn is one of at least two candidates vying for that place. Temba Bavuma is the other batsman pushing for the spot and last week said he would be “putting up my hand for that position”.Bavuma is the front-runner to be promoted, especially after returning from a broken hand to score an unbeaten 95 and 35 in South Africa’s last Test, against Australia in Johannesburg, but there may still be room for de Bruyn in the line-up. If South Africa opt for seven batsmen in their team, a strategy they have employed except when playing in bowler-friendly pitches at home, de Bruyn could be included at No.6.South Africa play two Tests in Sri Lanka in July before shifting focus to white-ball cricket, where de Bruyn is in the mix in the South Africa A squad. They have five home Tests this summer, three against Pakistan and two against Sri Lanka.

ScorecardAlex Wakely scored a century and Matt Critchley celebrated his best first-class figures as Derbyshire and Northamptonshire continued to trade blows in the Division Two County Championship match at Chesterfield.Wakely made 108 and shared a sixth wicket stand of 120 with Steven Crook, 60, but Critchley’s 4 for 88 and 4 for 33 from Tony Palladino triggered a late collapse that limited Northants to 289 and a slender lead of 29.Half centuries from Ben Slater on his home patch and Wayne Madsen tilted the initiative towards Derbyshire until two late wickets from Seekkuge Prasanna left the contest intriguingly poised at the end of day two with the home side 147 for 4, 118 on.Northants had looked on course for a sizeable lead when Wakely and Crook batted into the afternoon after Derbyshire had taken two wickets in six overs.Nathan Buck extended his nightwatchman duties by 35 minutes before he was tempted into driving at the second ball from Critchley and was well caught low down by Billy Godleman at mid off.Godleman grassed a simpler chance in Critchley’s next over but Richard Levi did not make the most of the reprieve and was deceived by one from Hardus Viljoen that came back.At 118 for 5, Derbyshire had an opening but Crook and Wakely played with increasing authority as Derbyshire’s bowlers tired in the sweltering conditions.Wakely pulled Critchley for six and when off-spinner Hamidullah Qadri replaced him at the Lake End, he drove him for two sixes in an over.After passing 6,000 first-class runs, Wakely pulled Critchley for his 12th four to reach his first hundred of the season and only the second by a Northants player this summer.But Critchley got one to turn and bounce to have Wakely well caught at slip by Madsen and the innings went into sharp decline when Josh Cobb drove back a return catch.Crook was lbw to one that nipped back from Palladino and Prasanna perished trying to hit Critchley out of the ground before Palladino defeated Brett Hutton’s defensive push.Ben Sanderson had Billy Godleman caught behind with Derbyshire only eight in front but Slater and Wayne Madsen took control before Prasanna provided a late twist with two wickets.Slater had reeled off some flowing drives to pass 50 but then chipped Prasanna tamely to short midwicket before Alex Hughes was trapped lbw stretching forward to the Sri Lankan.Madsen completed his sixth 50 of the season but Sanderson bowled nightwatchman Dan Wheeldon with one that kept low four overs before the close.

The way Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan batted in the first ODI against West Indies was how the team wanted them to, according to captain Mashrafe Mortaza. There has been some criticism for how slowly they changed gears from the 40th to 45th overs, particularly as the period coincided with both batting in their 90s, but Bangladesh eventually won by 48 runs, a huge relief for a side that recently lasted only six days in a two-Test series.On Sunday, after Bangladesh had lost a wicket in the second over at the Providence Stadium, Tamim and Shakib added 207 runs for the second wicket. They looked in command after the 25th over once they tackled a dry pitch that offered turn to Devendra Bishoo, Ashley Nurse and Jason Mohammad. But the duo didn’t hit a boundary in the last 9.3 overs of their partnership, with Shakib eventually falling on 97 while trying to slog Bishoo in the 45th over.Tamim went on to score his tenth ODI hundred but it was Bangladesh’s slowest in the format. Mushfiqur Rahim, who arrived at the crease in the 47th over, gave the innings a much-needed boost, adding 54 with Tamim in just 20 balls. Mushfiqur blasted 30 off 11 balls with three fours and two sixes.Mashrafe said Tamim and Shakib believed a 250-plus score was enough on the Providence Stadium pitch with Bangladesh having two specialists and two part-time spinners in their line-up.”If they [Tamim and Shakib] didn’t bat that way on that turning wicket, we would have ended up on around 220 runs,” Mashrafe said. “We wanted to ensure that we reached 250. They felt chasing at least 250 would be tough on this wicket. They didn’t take up unnecessary time; they batted like the team had wanted them to bat.”If their spinners took one or two wickets, we would have been in trouble. I think Shakib and Tamim batted really well.”Mashrafe said he went into the game confident that a good innings from one of Bangladesh’s batsmen would change the mood around the team. But he stressed that the freshly-gained confidence must translate into consistency.”I was confident, but if we kept thinking about what happened so far on the tour, this win wouldn’t have been possible. We should have shown this consistency much earlier. We now have to keep at it,” he said. “I had confidence that a good innings or two would change the picture. We have a good enough bowling attack in ODIs to defend 280 runs.”Bangladesh and West Indies play the second ODI, a day-night game, at the same venue on July 25.

If the Pakistan players were looking for some consolation from their coach Mickey Arthur after an eight-wicket pounding from India on Wednesday, they found none. There was no sugar coating, just an honest appraisal of what went wrong.The first glaring mistake was deviating from set plans. In nine ODIs coming into the India game, never mind that five of them were against a second-string Zimbabwe team, Imam-ul-Haq had been the grafter who looked to bat through. While he has four hundreds in these games, sceptics have felt his batting style is out-dated.On Wednesday, after facing seven deliveries for two runs, he had a Shahid Afridi moment though – advancing down the pitch to heave Bhuvneshwar Kumar after Jasprit Bumrah had bowled a maiden over to Fakhar Zaman. Imam isn’t the adventurous kind, even if he steps out. The result was a thin edge leading edge through to MS Dhoni, and Pakistan had lost a wicket in the third over.”I think the pressure told on Imam,” Arthur said. “That’s not in his area. If he comes down, he’s going to be going extra cover, not midwicket, so yes I do think there was a little bit of pressure.”Arthur wasn’t against the idea of hitting over the top, but said the team management had worked overtime to drill into each player their role. Fakhar, for example, has been empowered to biff the bowling without worrying about repercussions, because anything else would be tweaking his natural ability.”We’ve got guys, X-factor guys whose role it is to do that [hit out],” Arthur said. “If Fakhar gets out playing that way, then it’s okay, because that’s what he needs to do. If Asif Ali gets out like that it’s okay because that’s his role. But the other four batsmen certainly need to take responsibility. And I just thought we were soft – 158 dot balls out of 258 played is not good enough.”With the middle order exposed early, Pakistan’s experienced batsmen had time to forge a recovery, and while crease occupation was important, they had to be mindful of runs too. It was in trying to step out and loft Kedar Jadhav over long-on that Sarfraz Ahmed was caught brilliantly on the boundary by Manish Pandey. Babar Azam had looked compact, but was out stepping out to Kuldeep Yadav. Then a mix-up with Asif Ali cost Shoaib Malik his wicket. In the end, a tame 162 all out in 43.1 overs was all they had.The deviation from plans wasn’t just restricted to their batting. After giving away just 15 runs off the first six overs with the ball, Pakistan could have looked to build pressure by continuing to bowl full and swing the ball. Strangely enough, Usman Khan decided to adopt a short-ball strategy from around the stumps to Rohit Sharma, and saw the plan spectacularly backfire as Rohit played the hook to perfection.”On a wicket like that you need to strike really if you’re going to defend it. We didn’t strike early enough,” Arthur said. “We went away from our plans too quickly. We said that our batters batted outside our roles and that wasn’t acceptable. With our bowling, we went outside our plans far too quickly. We wanted to bowl hard lengths, hit the top of off stump.”It was tough to score then. We did that in the first six, and then [Usman Khan] Shinwari decided to come around the wicket and bowl a bouncer with fine leg up. And from there it just tumbled. We’re going to sit down and talk about that. It’s not good enough. We went outside our plans. That’s not acceptable. I think there was a bit of panic when they didn’t strike early.”It wasn’t just Usman’s poor outing that concerned Arthur. He was also mindful of the growing pressure on Mohammad Amir, whose struggle for wickets since last year’s Champions Trophy is becoming an Achilles heel, but was encouraged by what he saw in the six overs Amir bowled.”I’d be lying if I sat here and said there wasn’t [any concern about Amir],” he said. “I had a really good, long hard chat with him last night and I thought he came out and bowled really well. He hit the crease really hard. He ran in well. He’s been decelerating to the crease, but he didn’t do that today. Today he seemed more fluent, there was a little bit more pace there. And I was comfortable [with what he did], he bowled well tonight. There is pressure on him, of course there is.”With the assessment of his team done, Arthur was asked how an attack that almost failed to defend 286 against Hong Kong just the previous day transformed itself. Arthur put this down to the Bumrah factor.”You see what a difference Bumrah makes to their attack,” he said. “I thought their spinners bowled better, their lengths were far better than they were last night [v Hong Kong]. So I think they were better for the hit out. As far us, whenever we go head-to-head with India, I am comfortable that we’ve got a dressing room of players who can stand up to it. I am comfortable we’ve got a dressing room of players who, on any given day, can win. So I still think it’s a 50-50. Lucky this game was inconsequential in the tournament.”

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A sublime unbeaten 250 from Marcus Harris and five wickets from Scott Boland have put Victoria on the verge of a crushing innings victory over New South Wales at the MCG. Needing 286 in their second innings to make Victoria bat again, New South Wales crumbled under the relentless pressure of Boland.He forced a mistake from Daniel Hughes early in the innings before Nick Larkin and Kurtis Patterson put up some resistance. Larkin made a well-compiled 53 before he was bowled leaving a ball from Andrew Fekete that snaked back off the seam from well wide of off stump. Moises Henriques was trapped plumb in front by Boland and Jack Edwards was castled by a devilish inswinger from Tremain.The Blues slumped from 4 for 167 to 9 for 175 in the space of 12 overs. Patterson reached his second half-century of the match but again fell to a right-arm quick angling in and seaming away from around the wicket. In the first innings it was Chris Tremain who found his outside edge, in the second it was Boland.Boland also knocked over Daniel Sams and Daniel Fallins for his fourth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket after Fawad Ahmed accounted for Peter Nevill and Jason Sangha.The Blues’ last wicket pair of Mickey Edwards and Trent Copeland survived for 60 balls on the third evening to ensure the game went into a fourth day.Earlier, Harris pushed on from his overnight total of 210 to make an even 250. He faced 403 balls and struck 22 fours and a six in his remarkable innings to put his name up in lights ahead of the Test series against India.Harris got incredible support from Fawad, who posted his highest score in first-class cricket. He made 34 from 90 balls with four fours and a six to rub salt into the Blues wounds. Harris and Andrew Fekete also added an unbeaten 54 for the 10th wicket before Peter Handscomb declared.

It was the same old story for Bangladesh as their bowlers strangled South Africa and restricted them to 109, but their batting couldn’t stretch the score past 80 for the fourth time this tournament. Thirty runs was a relatively huge win for South Africa, who didn’t leave the tournament with any more answers about their struggles with the bat than they had before the game began.

South Africa’s Dane van Niekerk on…

The atmosphere in St Lucia on Sunday: “I think it was brilliant. And I heard the game [between West Indies and England] was sold out. To get in there and see the atmosphere… 10,000 really excited fans, each and every person has rhythm, it’s quite exciting to see. The women’s game deserves a fan base like that. I hope the whole world saw how much fun the fans had tonight, and all credit to two very good sides that put up a very good show for them.”
On having a standalone Women’s World T20: “I think we need to create our own brand. As women cricketers, we can’t shy behind the men anymore because I think that’s where people make the mistake of comparing women’s cricket to men’s cricket. And our skill is just as good in our own right. So we need to shy away from being labelled, I guess, the same as the men, because I think that’s when people get their expectations all mixed up. I think it’s the way to go and hopefully it will stay.”

South Africa left out Laura Wolvaardt in favour of Sune Luus, which meant Dane van Niekerk was pushed up to a more natural role as opener. She joined Lizelle Lee who had her best outing of the tournament, hitting three fours as the new opening pair struck at more than eight per over. That was until she called for a single at short-third man and was run out sliding the back of the bat into the floor with a dive. This meant that despite having crossed the crease, the curve of the bat meant it wasn’t grounded. It was somewhat unfortunate, but it was yet another run-out for South Africa in a tournament marked by them. This was further emphasised later on with Mignon du Preez’s run-out in the 18th over, which was purely her own doing and cost South Africa runs at the end of the innings.In the middle, they were kept quiet by a very disciplined spin attack that pulled Bangladesh back from a Powerplay in which they had conceded 48. Van Niekerk was forced into a shell, and Marizanne Kapp was stunningly caught at deep midwicket by Fargana Hoque, diving to her left. From there, a series of ordinary shots against straight balls translated into a massive collapse and slowdown. Niekerk, Luus, Chloe Tryon, and Masabata Klaas were all bowled with the ball sneaking between bat and pad. Salma Khatun and Khadija Kubra were often the bowlers inflicting such damage.Dane van Niekerk clobbers one into the leg side•Getty Images

Neither team had incentive as far as progressing in the tournament was concerned, but at the halfway stage, Bangladesh had opened up one prospect – if they had chased 110 down in about 13 overs, they would have finished above South Africa on the table and sealed direct qualification to the next edition of the tournament.But that was never in the plan, it turned out, as they prodded through another unproductive batting Powerplay, making 13 for 1 in the first six overs. The boundary shots, it seemed, was limited to the sweep, which meant they had to wait till the eighth over to pick up their first four. But even with a largely spin-heavy attack through the middle overs, South Africa didn’t face too much by way of aggression. Bangladesh seemed resigned to the fate that they didn’t have sufficient big-hitters in the squad and the required rate had seemed too steep for them before even the halfway mark. Hoque and Rumana Ahmed batted nearly eight overs for their fourth-wicket stand of 27. It was the most significant one of the innings, and the underlying theme of the chase.

Had it done enough to be classed as nerve-jangling? It was certainly engrossing. A wonderful Test match. India secured their first Test victory in Australia since 2008 and lead a series in the country for only the second time after a gripping 31-run win in Adelaide.Their quicks led the way on the final day, breaking through each time a partnership was threatening to develop, with Jasprit Bumrah providing the bulk of the key moments. But Australia’s last wicket pair of Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood got it down to needing 32 to win when, on the brink of a delayed tea, Hazlewood drove at R Ashwin and edged low to second slip. Elation everywhere for India, pain for Australia but, when they reflect, pride as well.1:06

Laxman: Both bowling units fantastic, the batting will decide series

It always felt the target was out of reach, but the last three wickets added 104 to ensure India could never be sure. Shaun Marsh, the focus of much attention after his first-innings continued a run a single-figure scores, played very well for his 60 and Tim Paine battled hard, but both fell to Bumrah who then returned to shift the stubborn Pat Cummins when Australia’s lower order was showing plenty of bottle.Rishabh Pant equalled the world record of 11 dismissals in a match, but for a little while it appeared one that escaped – when Lyon edged Bumrah on 7 – looked like it might come back to haunt him as Lyon produced one of his finest Test innings. The tension was starting to show on India when Ashwin was finally rewarded after a final day of toil: never had an India bowler sent down as many overs in the fourth innings of a Test.Australia resumed the final day on 4 for 104, still needing a distant 219, and had only added another 11 when Travis Head was removed by a superbly-directed short ball from Ishant Sharma which he could only fend into the slips. It was the perfect length, leaving the batsman unsure whether to play the ball or sway out of the line.Pat Cummins slams the ball over cover•Getty Images

The first of the day’s mini-stands then began to form between Marsh and Paine, but all the runs continued to be a grind against a disciplined attack. Marsh went to his fifty off 146 balls, his first in the fourth innings of a Test, before being defeated by Bumrah’s line from round the wicket and feathering a catch to Pant.Despite all his catches, Pant’s glovework certainly remains a work in progress and with a better technique might have got closer to Paine’s gloved pull on 7 which flew fine down the leg side. Australia’s captain made it through to lunch alongside Cummins, but could not go much further when he top-edged a pull to the first ball of the second over after the break.At that point, Australia needed 136 and any modicum of tension seemed a long way off. However, Cummins and Starc got the target down into double figures, the former playing a largely defensive role while the latter produced a few more shots. Again, though, just as thoughts were turning to what happen India struck, Starc edging a big drive against Mohammed Shami for Pant’s record-equalling catch.Still Australia did not fold, this time Cummins and Lyon chipping away. Cummins was just showing signs of coming out of his shell, having passed 100 deliveries faced – driving Shami powerfully on the up through the covers – when he edged a drive off Bumrah which was taken at first slip by Virat Kohli, the India captain hurling the ball to ground with a look of thunder on his face.With just one wicket to fall, the odds were stacked against Australia but a few little things started to go their way: Ishant over-stepped when Lyon might have been given lbw on 32 and edges started to fly wide of the slips. Ashwin had rarely been attacked by the Australia batsman, but the last-wicket pair were nullifying him effectively. One delivery jumped at Hazlewood, took the shoulder of the bat and evaded the field. Surely not? And in the it wasn’t. From around the wicket, Ashwin pushed one full, encouraged the drive, and KL Rahul took a sharp catch inches off the turf.The marker has been laid for this series. It promises much more.

Kerala Knights 126 for 3 (Bairstow 84*) beat Bengal Tigers 123 for 5 by seven wicketsJonny Bairstow made the most of his brief stopover at the T10 League in Sharjah, smashing a remarkable 84 not from 24 balls as Kerala Knights beat Bengal Tigers by seven wickets with eight balls to spare.Bairstow, who scored a century on his return to the England Test team against Sri Lanka last week, struck six fours and eight sixes – including three in a row off Aamer Yamin, to set a new record score in the shortest form of the game, beating Mohammad Shahzad’s 74 from 16 balls last week.Bairstow was striking the ball so cleanly that he would have been odds-on to record the world’s first T10 hundred, but ran out of runs to score, as Kerala hunted down the Tigers’ target of 124 with eight balls to spare.It was a remarkable arrival in the tournament for Bairstow, who only signed up for the squad three days ago, as he went to join his one-day captain, Eoin Morgan for the closing stages of the competition.Morgan himself was out for a first-ball duck as Bairstow arrived at crease at 12 for 2 after nine balls. He struck two of his first three balls, from Mohammad Nabi, for four, and didn’t look back, smashing his last fifty runs from 14 balls.Other England players involved in the competition include Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Chris Jordan and Liam Plunkett.

South Africa coach Ottis Gibson has defended the preparation of pitches suited to seam and swing after the facilities in the first two Tests at Centurion and Newlands came in for criticism from Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur.Gibson called Arthur’s comments about the Newlands track “a little bit strange”, considering that Faf du Plessis scored a hundred during a day in which Pakistan’s own fast bowlers could only take four wickets.”On that day, Faf got an amazing hundred,” Gibson said. “One of the best I’ve seen in a long time, and Pakistan only got four wickets. Yes the wicket was a little uneven, I’m not going to deny that, but Faf showed that you can still bat on it. Aiden [Markram] showed that you can still bat on it. Shan Masood showed that you can still bat on it and get runs. So I don’t think it was the worst pitch you’ve ever seen. We were in Sri Lanka not long ago, and I can tell you that they were a lot worse, in my opinion.””I don’t prepare the pitch, but we expect home pitches to favour our team,” Gibson said, while captain du Plessis insisted: “Any groundsman, you can ask them, our question to them is always ‘has the pitch got pace and bounce?’ And that’s all we’re looking for.””We never ever ask for ridiculous pitches,” du Plessis said. “We just ask for pitches with a bit of pace and bounce. So when there is a bit of seam movement and a bit of pace and bounce, you have to adapt to that. Temba [Bavuma] is a great example. He’s scored two Test matches in a row now on tough pitches, he’s scored runs. He shows that it’s possible if you apply yourself mentally, and you’ve got a good technique, there is a way.”Gibson also argued that it was up to the ICC as the governing body of world cricket to decide upon the standards of pitches for Test cricket.”If you get pitches that suit your attack, every other country does it,” he said. “Therefore we will continue to do it, until the ICC says to everybody ‘this is the standard pitch you prepare for Test cricket’, and everybody plays on it and it’s a level playing field for everybody. But at the moment, when you go away from home, you take what you get. We did that in Sri Lanka and it wasn’t nice. It wasn’t comfortable and we lost horribly.”Arthur had bemoaned repeated stoppages in play as batsmen were attended to after being struck by the ball during South Africa’s first innings – du Plessis, Temba Bavuma and Hashim Amla all copped painful blows during the match. But Gibson suggested that batsmen getting hit by the ball is just part of the game.”Guys have been getting hit in Test cricket for years. Guys still got hit off a length back then too, and they showed some character and some courage and they stuck it out. Faf got hit, but he stuck it out and he got a hundred. The ICC is still the governing body for world cricket. If the ICC feels that it’s leaning too heavily against a team, then the ICC steps in and says listen, this is the standard pitch that we expect across the world for Test cricket, then we play on that and it’s a level playing field for everybody.”But such an intervention is not yet necessary, Gibson said, and that such a step would hopefully only happen if the ICC think tailoring pitches has “gone too far”.”No, not yet,” Gibson said when asked about the preparation of pitches escalating into an arms race between teams looking to extend home advantage. “If [the ICC] think it’s gone too far, that’s their decision to make. It’s not my decision.”There will be plenty of attention on the strip prepared for the third and final Test of the series at the Wanderers, starting on January 11. The pitch used for South Africa’s match against India in January last year was rated “poor” by the ICC,receiving three demerit points. If the venue reaches a total of five demerit points during a five-year period, it will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for 12 months.