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It was the last ball of the day that really rubbed it in. A ball that said that Essex would take some beating from here. A ball that said their Championship defence was growing in intensity. A ball that said that Durham might be about to suffer more anguish after their heartache in the same fixture last month.David Bedingham had been Durham’s highly-fancied representative in the race to be first to 1,000 runs before it became apparent that the only winner would be a sour-faced English Spring. And when Sam Cook shaded a delivery away from him to strike his off stump, and held out his fists in exultation, it already had the makings of a decisive moment.Sixteen wickets fell on the first day and with Durham resting on 58 for 6, Essex’s 182 suddenly looked indomitable. Massive credit for that goes to Michael Pepper, whose previous three first-class matches had brought 61 runs at 10.61, but who stood in for England-bound Dan Lawrence with such alacrity that he posted 92 and must have had visions of his maiden first-class century when he fell lbw.Related

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Bedingham’s wicket – Cook’s third – had added impact because he actually hit the stumps. As many as 11 batters fell leg before as the ball nipped around, including all five of the other Durham wickets to fall, which has only been surpassed on the first day of a Championship match on one occasion – an extraordinary day at Luton in 1995. It can all become a bit repetitive, especially if somebody close to you wants to discuss the intricacies of the lbw Law. On days like this, umpires deserve double pay.You couldn’t argue with any of them, but people do. Durham’s captain, Scott Borthwick, appeared to contest his even though replays suggested Cook had him bang to rights, and emerged from his crouch to gesture at the umpire. He appeared to be suggesting the ball had done too much (it hadn’t), but he could have been signalling “can you bring me the bill please?” – a practice gesture perhaps for the evening ahead now that the restaurants have reopened.

Most lbws on first day of a Championship match

13: Northamptonshire v Essex, Luton, 1995
11: Gloucestershire v Sussex, Bristol, 2010
11: Durham v Essex, Chester-le-Street, 2021

Borthwick has had a lean time with the bat since he made a century against Essex at Chelmsford – all to no avail – but he has supervised a sturdy Durham recovery which even if they lost here (players must not give up, but journalists are obliged to forecast) would still leave them in contention when the final two rounds take place in July.There has been no finer recovery in this Championship season than Essex’s victory over Durham in that fixture in mid-April. Blown away for 96 and 163 runs adrift on first innings, they still triumphed by 43 runs. Durham, as hard as they tried to block it out, endured the creeping realisation for several hours that all would not turn out well.Six weeks on, and Group One remains in the balance. Without that victory, Essex would have been out of contention. Despite that defeat, Durham have proved a resilient bunch. Essex, who began three points ahead of them in second place, but who have only three matches left to Durham’s four, have reached a pivotal point in their Championship defence – and they have the leaders, Nottinghamshire, up next.Scourge of Durham in that first meet-up was Simon Harmer, whose match return of 10 for 136 suggested that once more county batters would collapse before him. But a decidedly cold April has been followed by a markedly wet May. Now the seamers hold sway and everybody is expected to be permanently menacing. Half an hour without a wicket, with 20 added, is a recovery.Virtually the first warm weather of the summer sucked the dampness from the ground, the ball seamed and the relaid Riverside square is so uneven that wicketkeepers are learning the art of stopping the ball with their ankles. (Perhaps David de Gea could try it in the next penalty shoot-out). The square has been known to go flat this season, but it would be a surprise if it did so in the next couple of days.Unsurprisingly, Chris Rushworth had a say in things. Having now passed graham Onions as Durham’s leading first-class wicket-taker, he can make himself unassailable. He only took one new-ball wicket on his way to 4 for 32, but it was that of Alastair Cook, a left-hander who was lbw to a ball from around the wicket, a difficult art but not as difficult as everybody imagined before ball tracking which is why what was once a sign of desperation has become the norm.Chris Rushworth celebrates taking the wicket of Alastair Cook•Getty Images

Pepper was also a victim for Rushworth, so annoyed to be hit in front that he walked off instantly. He survived a couple of early lbw appeals, but it did not inhibit his off-side drives and cuts when the opportunity presented itself and he played all of them with a flourish. When he fell, Essex capsized, losing their last five wickets for three runs in 17 balls.If Rushworth had been around in 1659, he would assuredly have led the Rising of the North and it would probably have got further than Bramham Moor, with the Earl of Sussex imagining that he was about to emerge victorious and then being struck on the ankle by an arrow.Ben Raine did not bowl as well, but he found enough movement to finish with four cut-price wickets, including the Essex skipper, Tom Westley, who made a 14-ball duck before he – you’ve guessed it – was lbw, too. In his England days, that used to be presented as a weakness, but 11 in the day does provide a decent-enough alibi.Durham’s response was a disaster, played out over 33 overs. Michael Jones left his delivery and was aghast at his error. The most successful batter was Cameron Bancroft. There again, when you have had to suffer the nonsensical over-analysis of a guarded and thoroughly responsible answer to a rewarmed question about ball tampering the treachery of a Chester-le-Street pitch is nothing to worry about at all.

When Rashid Khan walked to the crease on the opening night of the resumption of the PSL, the Lahore Qalandars needed 22 from eight balls. Tim David was facing up to the last two balls of Hasan Ali’s thus-far excellent 19th over, where just one run had been conceded till then. David hit a straight six down the ground to end the over, leaving Rashid with the strike for the last over.Sixteen needed to win – no team in the PSL had ever chased down that many – but still, no big hits on Rashid’s mind.”The plan that I went to the crease with, my mindset was, I am not going to play big shots here because if I did that I could’ve gotten out,” Rashid said post-match. “When I got there I thought I’ll just try and find some gaps here. The bowler was new also. If he bowled in my areas my thinking was just to try and hit gaps.”Related

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Shadab Khan, Islamabad United’s captain, chose to go with Hussain Talat for that last over, a decision that caused surprise at the time – Shadab himself had an over left – and was criticised post-fact of the loss. Spinners don’t often bowl last overs in T20s and the dew played a part in Shadab’s decision not to bowl himself. Shadab said after the game he hadn’t bowled himself out earlier because it would have pitted him against a left-handed batter at the crease but it also later emerged that an injury to Faheem Ashraf forced them into a recalculation.That, and that United do believe Talat is a legitimate death-overs option (he has only bowled at the death 10 innings out of 30 in the PSL and for Pakistan, but more often in the National T20). His first ball, however, a slower offcutter gave Rashid exactly the kind of room outside off stump which he loves, as well as just the start to that final over the Qalandars needed. Rashid lofted it over cover for four and didn’t look back; he repeated the shot next ball and a fortuitous third boundary left them with a simpler task.”I was planning on looking for those gaps, but it so happened I got three boundaries off those first three balls and then we needed four off three. Definitely, in games and situations like this, you have to keep a cool mind. You have to stay relaxed. When you need six sixes, you have to go for it. Here I just needed two proper shots and you win the game.”The cameo sealed the Player-of-the-Match award for Rashid too, his unbeaten, five-ball 15 the cherry on top of bowling figures of 4-0-9-1. Rashid had initially signed on for just a two-game contract when the season began in February-March, before joining up with Afghanistan for international duty and then to the T20 Blast with Sussex. He chose instead to extend his contract and stay on with Qalandars.”It really was a team effort for us tonight, everyone took responsibility for the game. One guy doesn’t win you a game. The most important spell was [James] Faulkner at the top, Haris [Rauf] bowled really well through the middle, then Sohail [Akhtar] took responsibility with the bat, and Mohammad Hafeez and Ben Dunk. In T20s, you don’t win with one guy, the entire team has to do their bits collectively for it.”

Jack Leach took five wickets as Somerset celebrated securing their place in the first division by putting Surrey under pressure on the third day at the Kia Oval.The England left-arm spinner finished with 5 for 42 from 33 including 19 maidens as Surrey reached 239 for 8 in reply to Somerset’s 429.Hampshire’s failure to secure maximum batting points against Gloucestershire ensured Somerset’s place in the top-flight when the LV= Insurance County Championship concludes in September, and Leach bowled outstandingly to give them an outside chance of finishing Group 2 with a victory.Surrey still require 41 runs to avoid the follow-on after Somerset chipped away once opening pair Rory Burns and Mark Stoneman had been parted with the score on 98 in the last over before lunch.It was their other slow left-armer, Roelof van der Merwe, who made the breakthrough when Burns top-edged a sweep shortly after reaching 50 which included a reverse-sweep for six off Leach and six fours.It was about the only occasion when Leach was collared as settled into a good rhythm, providing control and getting the ball to turn on a slow surface. In six previous Championship games this season he bowled 130 overs in total and clearly relished three long spells here.Stoneman had played nicely for his 67, with ten fours, when he was deceived by Leach’s arm ball with the total on 136 before Leach picked up the key wicket of Hashim Amla. The South African faced 278 balls for an unbeaten 37 against Hampshire last week and was settling in for another long vigil when he was caught and bowled off a leading edge for 16 from 66 balls.Leach switched to the pavilion end to snap up Jamie Smith who was caught behind off one that turned just before tea. Immediately after the resumption Ravi Ashwin edged his first ball to second slip and Leach had his five-for when Devon Conway ran back from mid-wicket to take a great catch over his shoulder off Ryan Patel’s top-edged sweep.Somerset delayed taking the new ball, preferring to let Leach and van der Merwe probe away, but when they did Jordan Clark and Rikki Clarke batted sensibly to put on 42 in 21 overs. Clark had made 33 when van der Merwe, who gave Leach good support with 3 for 54, returned and had him caught at second slip before bowling Jamie Overton around his legs in the last over.

For the second match in a row, Hayley Matthews starred with both bat and ball, helping West Indies Women seal the five-match ODI series against Pakistan with an eight-wicket victory in North Sound.Matthews first picked up two wickets to help bowl Pakistan out for 182, before scoring an unbeaten 100 – the second century in her ODI career – to complete the chase inside 41 overs.After being put in to bat, Pakistan looked to be struggling at 56 for 3 in the 16th over but were lifted by a fourth-wicket partnership of 87 runs between Omaima Sohail (62) and Nida Dar (24). However, once Matthews struck to remove Dar in the 35th over, West Indies regained the momentum as Pakistan proceeded to lose their last seven wickets for just 39 runs. Chinelle Henry and stand-in captain Anisa Mohammed were the pick of the bowlers for the hosts, snaring three wickets apiece.West Indies had little trouble in their reply as Matthews and Kyshona Knight began strongly with a 56-run opening stand. Knight eventually fell for 18, trapped lbw by Anam Amin, but Britney Cooper (45) joined Matthews in a 106-run partnership that all but sealed the win. Matthews ended on 100 not out off 122 balls, with 11 fours.

Sri Lanka Cricket has floated the idea of a women’s T20 franchise competition to precede the men’s Lanka Premier League (LPL) this year. But it appears that SLC would require substantial commercial interest before such a tournament can materialise.On Thursday, SLC advertised for a “sports marketing/management” agency that would not only find franchisees for the participating teams, but also “partner with SLC as a sponsor of the tournament” in addition to other duties.Related

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The tournament has been conceived as a four-team, 10-day affair, to be played at either Dambulla or Pallekele, within a bio-bubble. SLC is also hoping to attract foreign talent – both players and coaches – but it doesn’t seem to be a deal breaker.”Even if there are no foreign players, we will go ahead with the local players,” SLC CEO Ashley de Silva told ESPNcricinfo. “As for overseas coaches, depends on the offers that we get in terms of franchise owners for the teams.” The tournament is currently slated for October.SLC has largely ignored high-profile engagements for their women cricketers, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Sri Lanka side has not played an international match since the T20 World Cup in February and March 2020, and have seen more than one international series postponed indefinitely. They are due to feature in the delayed ODI World Cup qualifier scheduled for November-December in Zimbabwe.

Several of England’s all-format players have withdrawn from this year’s IPL as a result of bubble fatigue and in anticipation of a long winter.Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes and Dawid Malan have joined Jos Buttler in confirming their withdrawals. Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes had pulled out previously.Malan will be replaced at Punjab Kings for the rest of the season by Aiden Markram. Bairstow’s spot in Sunrisers Hyderabad, meanwhile, has been taken up by Sherfane Rutherford.Bairstow (Sunrisers), Woakes (Delhi Capitals), Malan and Buttler (Rajasthan Royals) have all been named in England’s T20 World Cup squad and might expect to be named in England’s Ashes tour party, too. As a result, they face the prospect of more than four months away from home including time in quarantine as they move from country to country. Buttler and Woakes are the fathers of young children, with Buttler having just celebrated the arrival of his second child.It has emerged in recent days that all players heading to the IPL (which resumes on September 19) would be required to undergo six days of quarantine. This may well have been a contributory factor in the abandonment of the Manchester Test.Related

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Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, George Garton, Eoin Morgan, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy are the England players still expected to participate in the IPL. Some are expected to fly to the UAE today (Saturday) on a commercial flight. One or two others may not depart until after T20 Finals Day (on September 18). From that group of players, only Sam Curran and Moeen are expected to be named in the Ashes touring party, though it would be no surprise at all if Moeen, a father of two young children, withdrew from that.Indeed, the future of that tour looks more precarious than ever after the events at Emirates Old Trafford. A significant number of senior players remain deeply uncomfortable with the prospect of a two-week quarantine at the start of that tour and, even more so, at the prospect of putting their families through the same. As a result, a number of high-profile withdrawals seem inevitable.In relation to the Ashes tour, Tom Harrison, ECB chief executive, told Sky Sports on Friday: “Now that this Test series has come to an early conclusion, that becomes priority number one for us to work through with the players. It’s a conversation which now takes the centre stage, because it’s looming large on the horizon.”While the ECB are adamant the tour will go ahead, the prospect of a second-string England side competing in the Ashes is real. Whether that is deemed to compromise the integrity of the events remains to be seen.A crucial issue for the England players is the uncertainly surrounding travel to Australia at present. While there has been talk of allowing them to serve a relatively soft quarantine – perhaps in a resort hotel on the Gold Coast which would allow them access to golf courses – there are no guarantees. Perhaps more importantly, there are no guarantees such privileges would be extended to traveling family members. There is also the prospect of further quarantine requirements as the tour party moves between states.”We should always have that ambition in mind to go to Australia with our best possible team,” Harrison said. “It’s an iconic Test series to play in, all England players want to be part of it.”I totally understand the players’ perspective on families being present and the conditions under which families are present. I also don’t think there’s anything unreasonable about the way that debate has been positioned.”It’s a conversation we’re having in partnership with Cricket Australia and the Australian government, all trying to get to the right solution for everyone to feel comfortable about going.”What events at Emirates Old Trafford underline, however, is the power of modern players and their refusal to be cajoled into endless tournaments. Not even the IPL or the Ashes are immune to such pressures.

When Meghna Singh beat Alyssa Healy’s outside edge with her first ball in international cricket, during the first ODI in Mackay, India seemed to have discovered in her outswinger a key piece in their long-unresolved pace puzzle. With the newcomer’s skills complemented by Jhulan Goswami’s ever-evolving mastery of movement and Pooja Vastrakar’s new-found penetration, India’s pace resources had assumed an uncharacteristic measure of threat by the end of the ODI series.The series has moved to Carrara, and the white ball has given way to pink, but India’s new-look pace attack has continued to test Australia’s highly rated batting line-up in their own conditions. They haven’t had too much by the way of Test-match-specific or pink-ball-specific preparation going into this game, but it doesn’t seem to have deterred them in the least.Related

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“India, tonight with the seam, showed us what we couldn’t quite do with the new ball early in our innings,” Australia’s wicketkeeper-opener Alyssa Healy said after her team had ended day three four down and 85 runs away from saving the follow-on. “We won the toss and wanted to bowl, we wanted to make a real impact and couldn’t quite do that, I think with a little bit of inexperience around. But you’re right we did never really got a real crack at bowling under lights in that danger period that everybody talks about.”The highlight of the twilight phase, when India had the ball, was a two-spell new-ball burst by Goswami. In the seventh over of the hosts’ innings, the pace spearhead dislodged left-hand opener Beth Mooney’s leg stump with a searing inswinger. Then, returning to the attack in the 23rd over, Goswami resumed her battle against Healy, who was now on 29.The battle would last four more balls, and in those four balls Goswami would stamp her authority on the night.Her second ball jagged inwards, sneaking perilously between Healy’s bat and pad. Then came a bouncer that smacked Healy’s right shoulder as she snatched too early at a pull. Before she could muster a riposte, Goswami landed the perfect outswinger, and found a fatal outside edge.”Yeah, I did enjoy it. It was fun, but walking off isn’t that fun,” Healy said. “But I did enjoy the challenge of it. She’s got the better of me a few times in the series already.” Healy had lost her middle stump to Goswami in the second ODI. “It’s just a great sight for Test cricket. She’s obviously a world-class bowler; has been throughout her whole career and just that extra little bit of bounce that she gets being as tall as she is and unbelievably skillful with the seam, so it was a real challenge especially after spending 140 (145) overs in the field.”Beth Mooney was bowled by Jhulan Goswami•Getty Images

Goswami’s yin found its yang in Singh and Vatsrakar who bowled 27 overs between them in a partnership that made compelling viewing. The trio’s relentless, probing lines and occasional but highly effective use of the short ball frustrated Australia’s top order in what would be the first full post-dinner session in three days as rain stayed off the radar. While Singh remained wicketless, Vastrakar picked up two, including that of captain Meg Lanning, albeit via an erroneous lbw call.”I think they bowled beautifully under lights today,” Healy said. “They’ve got a really great seam attack and they presented that seam and let the ball do the work for them. So, yeah, it would have been nice to see our attack do the same thing. But let’s hope we see more and more women’s pink-ball Test matches. Realistically, they should be really exciting.”While Healy and her team-mates have faced Goswami on a number of occasions over the years, they haven’t seen as much of the disciplined Singh or Vastrakar in her new role as a pace-bowling lower-order hitter.”Their consistency has probably surprised me more than it has in the past,” Healy said. “Just the way that they’ve been able to consistently come out and bowl a really good line and length and present the seam accordingly has been really impressive and they’ve showed our relatively young and inexperienced attack just how to do it. That’s probably been the one surprise.”That India could afford to bench the second-most-experienced quick in their ranks, Healy said, was an indication of the seam-bowling depth in Indian women’s cricket.”It’s great to see so many young Indian players out here getting opportunities,” Healy said. “I mean, coming into game one we thought for sure Shikha Pandey was going to play and she’s someone that we’ve played against a lot and we’ve prepared accordingly for her and she hasn’t even got a look-in, which is a great sign for Indian cricket that they’ve got some depth there.”

Joe Root, England’s captain, believes that Ben Stokes is firmly on track for the first Ashes Test in Brisbane in just under a month’s time, after making a cautious return to training at the squad’s quarantine base on the Gold Coast in Queensland.Speaking after the squad’s emergence from three days of hard quarantine, Root said their main priority had been overcoming jet lag and acclimatising to the heat and humidity of Australia, but added that the progress of Stokes – who only returned to training a fortnight ago after recovering from a second finger operation – was “very promising”.”Ben has been fully involved in training the last couple of days,” Root said. “It has been very light, we are just trying to acclimatise as best we can. He’s had a bat, a bowl, taken some catches, doing his fielding work slightly separately. It looks like he’s on track and it’s really exciting. It’s managing that excitement and making sure we don’t push him too hard so he’s ready for the first game.”Stokes missed the whole of the 2017-18 Ashes campaign in the wake of the Bristol nightclub incident, and given that England have not won in Brisbane since 1986-87, the tone for this latest series could once again be set at the Gabba, when the first Test begins on December 8.Related

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“I really hope so,” Root said, when asked if Stokes would be fit to play. “It’s been remarkable to see how far he’s come. It looks very promising. He’s been brilliant. We’ve seen him at training, having him back amongst things is always great, so it’s really nice to have him back involved.”Stuart Broad is another player who is working his way back after a lengthy absence, following the calf injury that brought an early end to his 2021 home season. Root added that Broad too had been getting himself ready with light training since the end of the quarantine period.”He bowled today in the nets again, very light workloads at the minute, but it’s good to see him back in and around things, and being able to get into it,” Root said. “It’s about getting those workloads back up again, with all the bowlers really, making sure that they are absolutely ready to go for that first Test match. We’ve got all options on the table.”In terms of the lockdown lifestyle, Root reiterated his gratitude at the leeway that England’s players have been afforded for this period of the tour, following protracted negotiations between the ECB, Cricket Australia, and the state and federal governments.”There are always obvious restrictions within the hotel,” he said. “All we can do really is live by the guidelines that have been set out. It’s not too dissimilar to other things that we’ve experienced in the past. It’s been great, the last couple of days, that we’ve been able to get out and train and use some of the facilities, so hopefully that can continue and we can keep enjoying that, keep readying ourselves as best we can.”The weather is probably the hardest factor,” Root added. “We’ve had a big thunderstorm this afternoon which interrupted part of our training but everyone’s got into things pretty well. We’re very lucky to have been looked after like this.”

A 117-run stand between KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma topped off a superb team effort with the ball in dewy conditions as India wrapped up victory in the T20I series against New Zealand with one match still remaining. Both openers made half-centuries during which their calculated risks came off at just the right times to ensure that a potentially tricky chase proved more or less straightforward, even if there was a minor blip towards the end with three wickets falling for the addition of 20 runs.

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Live coverage of the India vs New Zealand series is available in the USA on ESPN+. You can subscribe to ESPN+, and also watch the match highlights in English and in Hindi.

Having won their second straight toss – Rohit has so far proven markedly better at this skill than his predecessor Virat Kohli – India didn’t get off to the best of starts, with Martin Guptill clattering 31 off 15 as New Zealand dominated their powerplay. But the bowlers, led by R Ashwin and the debutant Harshal Patel, pulled things back magnificently, and the openers laid the perfect platform for a chase that India eventually wrapped up with 16 balls to spare.Guptill tees off
Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a terrific first over by most measures, going full, finding swing, and causing Guptill all sorts of bother. But it ended with Bhuvneshwar wicketless and Guptill on 14 off 6, having hit three fours – none of which came off the true middle of the bat – and having been dropped once, by Rahul running back from mid-on.The swing dissipated, and the runs kept flowing, with the dew – which set in even before the match began – seemingly causing the ball to hurry onto the bat and allow both openers to hit fluently through the line. Guptill did the bulk of the hitting, and had already hit two vintage straight sixes before Deepak Chahar dismissed him with a well-directed short ball in the fifth over. For the second match in a row, he had dismissed Guptill immediately after being hit for six. New Zealand at that point were 48 for 1 in 4.2 overs.The slowdown
Mark Chapman found the boundary twice before the powerplay ended, and at 64 for 1, New Zealand looked on course for 180 or more. But a combination of superb bowling, a pitch that turned out to be less of a belter than it had initially seemed, and a batting line-up that couldn’t quite come to grips with either ensured they ended up well short.As he has been in every match since his comeback to India’s white-ball set-up, Ashwin was imperious, varying pace, trajectory, line and release expertly to ensure the ball never quite arrived where the batter wanted it, or in the way that he wanted it to. And once again, his range of angles and variations allowed him to make a mockery of theoretical match-ups. By the end of his four overs – which he ended with figures of 1 for 19 – he had bowled 71 balls to right-hand batters since his T20I comeback, while conceding just 51 runs and zero boundaries.Harshal’s slower ball, meanwhile, proved just as effective on international debut as it had done through his record-breaking 2021 IPL season, in conjunction with the long boundaries at the JSCA Stadium. He conceded just 25 in his four overs, and took the wickets of Mitchell and Glenn Phillips, both caught in the deep.Post-powerplay, New Zealand only scored 89 at 6.36 per over, with Mitchell, Chapman, Tim Seifert and James Neesham combining to score 36 off 51 after the fields spread out. That New Zealand ended up with 153 was largely down to the fast hands of Phillips, who hit three sixes in scoring 34 off 21.Harshal Patel picked up the key wickets of Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips•BCCI

The calm, the storm
The target didn’t demand that India explode off the blocks, and that allowed Rahul and Rohit to ease their way into their innings. Rahul took the bulk of the strike in the powerplay – 26 balls to Rohit’s 10 – and moved smoothly to 32 in that time, timing the ball quite exquisitely on occasion – a drive past mid-off and a flat six over extra-cover, both off Trent Boult, were particularly easy on the eye.At the 6-over mark, India were 45 for no loss, and the next three overs – bowled by Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner – brought no boundaries. In the first T20I, Suryakumar Yadav had taken control of his match-up against Todd Astle’s legspin, allowing Rohit to bat at a relaxed tempo against spin after a rollicking start against the quicks; now, with neither Rohit nor Rahul particularly renowned for going after spin in the middle overs, there was potential for anxiety to creep into India’s innings despite the required rate being under control.Rohit put any such anxiety to bed by taking on Santner in the 10th over. Premeditating for Santner’s stock ball – sliding in from back of a length with the angle from left-arm around – Rohit made a massive amount of hitting room and pulled his first ball for six.Then he cleared his front leg and hit another flat slider for a six over long-on. Santner nearly had his revenge next ball when he slowed down his pace, got the ball to turn and bounce a little more than usual, and got Rohit to miscue a slog-sweep, but Boult put down a difficult chance running in from long-on.Rahul and Rohit then took 26 off the next two overs, off Adam Milne and Boult, and India were 105 for no loss with the required rate down to nearly a run a ball.Southee triggers a wobble
Much like it did for Harshal, the slower ball into the pitch began to bring Tim Southee rewards. On 65, Rahul looked to whip him over the leg side boundary but failed to clear the boundary rider. In his next over, Southee got a slower ball to hold on the pitch and climb awkwardly at Rohit, who popped a catch to short cover. When Suryakumar bottom-edged another slower cutter into his stumps at the end of that over, India had two new batters at the crease with 17 required from 24.A vaguely similar situation had led to an unexpectedly close finish in Jaipur, but India didn’t let it go that deep here. Venkatesh Iyer – promoted to No. 3 after not being needed with the ball yet again – looked nervy but picked up a pair of edged fours, before Rishabh Pant completed the job, smacking Neesham for back-to-back sixes at the start of the 18th over, ending the game with a trademark one-handed hit.

Sam Billings is keen to grasp the unexpected opportunity of a potential Test debut in Hobart later this week, although his thoughts will quickly return to pinning down a place in England’s white-ball teams.Billings embarked on a 500-mile road trip to join up with England’s Ashes squad shortly after being told not to get on a plane back to the UK. Having finished his stint with Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League, Billings had been due to travel home ahead of England’s T20I series against West Indies in the Caribbean, before injuries to Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow, the two frontline Test wicketkeepers in Australia, forced a change of plan.His likely involvement in Hobart means Billings will miss England’s opening T20I in Barbados on January 22 – but he said had received assurances from the ECB of being picked for the rest of the series after agreeing to come to the Test team’s rescue.Related

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“I am 100% ready if required, and I will give absolutely everything I can,” he told reporters in Sydney, where England secured a dramatic draw in the fourth Test. “My game is in a good place. It has been in the longer format for the last three years for Kent.”I have been playing consistent cricket and scoring runs. It doesn’t really matter what format it is, it’s more about rhythm, confidence and mindset. Like any side I go into I will try to make a positive impact on and off the field, in any environment I am put into.”The three guys [Buttler, Bairstow and Ben Stokes] who came out to bat in Sydney with injuries, that’s incredible courage, and exactly what everyone involved in English cricket is about – playing for each other and that resilience. There’s a lot of inspiration we can take from that as a group, that character and over-my-dead-body attitude.”While a regular in England’s white-ball squads over the years, Billings has rarely had an extended run in either the T20I or ODI sides. The absence of Buttler and Bairstow for the West Indies trip meant he was first in line to keep wicket, and he said that Ashley Giles, England’s managing director of men’s cricket, had agreed to his request to play.”I’ve done way too much running the drinks,” he said. “So it was having that real clarity I wasn’t going to compromise that opportunity in the West Indies. Gilo agreed to that.”Billings has spoken previously of his ambitions to play Test cricket, although his proficiency on the T20 circuit has limited his chances to press a case – in the last three years, he has played just 10 Championship games for Kent, averaging 44.58 with three hundreds.”It’s a hard one,” he said. “As a non-contract [England] player, you have to try and maximise those opportunities, because you don’t have that fallback of knowing you’ll be picked in the next squad. Being constantly in that mindset isn’t very healthy. Playing in those T20 leagues, the great thing is you get signed as an overseas player and you get valued in that environment. You know you’re going to play a run of games and it’s great.”He also said that the performance of Usman Khawaja, a team-mate at Sydney Thunder, had provided a source of inspiration. Khawaja returned to the Australia Test XI for the first time in two-and-a-half years and proceeded to score centuries in each innings at the SCG.”He was very honest and said: ‘I wasn’t sure if this opportunity would come again.’ As you’ve seen, that’s how to grab an opportunity. Hopefully I can take some inspiration from him. You have got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”