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It took Gloucestershire a mere 78 minutes to polish off Glamorgan on the fourth and final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division 2 match at Sophia Gardens and head home with 22 points to move into second in the table.The Welsh county resumed on 57 for 6, still 43 runs behind the visitors, and they were obviously intent on not falling to a third successive defeat by an innings. The overnight batsmen, Dan Douthwaite and Andrew Salter, didn’t hang around as they attempted to close the gap and force Gloucestershire to bat again.Salter immediately attacked the star of the previous day, Zafar Gohar, and picked up 10 runs in the opening over. He took six off Ryan Higgins’ next over and seven off Gohar’s second to give his side an impressive start.But his flourish was all too brief and Gohar took his fourth wicket of the innings when he trapped Salter lbw for 19. Just 14 balls later, Ruaidhri Smith became his fifth victim as Glamorgan slumped to 94 for 8.Smith attempted a reverse sweep off the left-arm spinner and found himself bowled around his legs having added only four runs. Now it was just a case of whether the home side’s tail could haul them over the line to prevent another embarrassing innings defeat.Douthwaite was the next to fall, bowled by Higgins as he became the Gloucestershire seamer’s 50th championship victim of the summer, and that left Timm van der Gugten and Michael Hogan needing to score eight runs to make Gloucestershire pad up again.To their credit, they put on 22 for the final wicket, the third-highest partnership of the innings as Glamorgan moved to 124. Gohar finally removed Van der Gugten to end with 6 from 43 from 18 devastating overs, although not before the home batsman had hit him for two big sixes.On one of those he was caught by Higgins as he ran towards the rope, but then failed to stop. When it happened again, Higgins took a wonderful catch and threw it over his shoulder for Graeme van Buuren to complete the dismissal and leave Gloucestershire with a target of 15 runs to win the game.Glamorgan opened with two spinners, Salter and Kiran Carlson, and it took nine balls for skipper Chris Dent and Miles Hammond to complete the triumph at 11.48am.

Former Australia allrounder James Faulkner feels disrespected and shattered following a contract saga that has led to his departure from Hobart Hurricanes.Faulkner, 31, will not play for Hurricanes this year, and appears very unlikely to play in the BBL altogether, after turning down a one-year contract offer that he claims was “pretty embarrassing”.Faulkner made the comments on , in an interview with close friend and Australia Test captain Tim Paine who was co-hosting the show.”I found it pretty hard to take when I first heard it on the phone,” Faulkner said. “I found it pretty disrespectful for what I’ve sort of given to Tasmanian cricket. I’ve put my heart and soul into it and to hear their initial offer, and that is what it all comes down to, it cut pretty deep.”I know what I’m worth. I’ve signed enough contracts around the world for different teams. I didn’t want more. I just wanted what was fair and what I thought I was worth and even maybe a little bit less. But it just comes back to that first offer. I didn’t feel respected as a player or a person or a Tasmanian athlete. I’m just shattered how it has all played out.”Faulkner, who last played international cricket for Australia in 2017, joined Hurricanes in his home state of Tasmania ahead of the 2018-19 BBL season after seven years at Melbourne Stars on a three-year deal that finished at the end of last season.Related

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He has been plagued by a series of injuries since his international career ended and played just 12 of 29 matches in the last two BBL seasons. Last season he suffered a serious hamstring injury which ended his tournament in December. Faulkner said it was unfair for his injuries to be used against him in the negotiations.”They just used injury the whole time against me, really,” he said. “Last season I had an eight-week hamstring I did at the Gabba and tried to come back in three-and-a-half weeks and put my body on the line to come back so we had a shot at making finals and we weren’t really in the mix at that stage, which I’m happy to do and I’ll always do that. But for the coach to use that against me, I felt was wrong.”He also took aim at head coach Adam Griffith following comments he made at a press conference last week.”When you watch the news, and you see who I thought was one of my mates, as well as the head coach, say the bowling group and the team have performed well without me, first of all, and then secondly saying, we need to move on and that he didn’t really care – that cuts deep,” Faulkner said. “That’s like sticking a knife straight in my back. That’s not called for.Faulkner also claimed the lengthy BBL embargo period on contract signings had left him in limbo.”I’ve had teams make contact but the issue we have is the fact there was an embargo period with Cricket Australia and obviously you can’t speak throughout that,” Faulkner said.”And obviously because the contract negotiation went on for so long teams obviously want to sign their list. So I was sort of left stranded six months down the line. Other lists were full and that’s the big thing that hurts.”I wouldn’t have wanted to play for any other franchise anyway. The whole reason I came to the Hurricanes was to finish here and play in front of my family and friends and play with some of my best teammates that I have great memories with and for that not to happen it’s bloody disappointing.”However, teams, players, and agents are allowed to talk informally during the embargo period and often do. The embargo only applies to binding agreements meaning no contracts can be formally signed.Faulkner will now ply his trade in various leagues around the world. He performed well in this year’s PSL for Lahore Qalandars taking 13 wickets in six matches at an economy rate of 6.50. He will also look to play in the Abu Dhabi T10 and the Lanka Premier League.

Kesrick Williams’ early strikes put the brakes on the Knight Riders’ innings•Getty Images

Jamaica Tallawahs consigned hosts Trinbago Knight Riders to their first loss in CPL 2017 with a four-wicket win at Queen’s Park Oval. Knight Riders stormed out of the gates courtesy blistering cameos from Sunil Narine, Brendon McCullum and Colin Munro to reach 101 for 2 in eight overs, but could only manage 147 from there. Tallawahs rode a strong start from Lendl Simmons before Kumar Sangakkara’s steady 47 overcame a late wobble. Victory was achieved with four balls to spare.Williams’ slow burnKesrick Williams’ variations denied Knight Riders a turbocharge in the second half of their innings. Williams came into bowl in the third over. He cramped Brendon McCullum for room with his first legal delivery. He then followed that up with a wide slower ball that resulted in McCullum lobbing a gentle catch to mid-off.Off the first ball of his next over, he had Narine miscuing one to midwicket. Three deliveries later, Williams nearly had a hat-trick of slower-ball wickets when Munro, on 11, dragged one off his legs to Jonathan Foo at backward square leg. The opportunity was fluffed. He came back at the death to pick up a third wicket – with another slower ball – as Javon Searles top-edged a slog to Imad Wasim at cover. His figures of 3 for 26 also earned him the Man of the Match award.Six and outWith Knight Riders losing momentum at 124 for 5 in 14 overs, Dwayne Bravo, the captain, needed someone to stick around. Shadab Khan, who showed his capability in the previous game – he made an unbeaten 30 in a tense chase – started with a six, but was consumed by a rush of blood when an ungainly heave resulted in his dismissal.Third time’s a charm for debutant Odean SmithTallawahs opted for the pace of debutant Odean Smith, instead of Garey Mathurin. He should’ve had a wicket off his second ball, but for a missed opportunity by Kumar Sangakkara that gave Darren Bravo a reprieve on 19. Sangakkara muffed another chance off Smith in the 11th over when Denesh Ramdin gloved a pull down the leg side.Persistence paid off, though, as Smith eventually nabbed Ramdin when he miscued a flick to Shakib Al Hasan at midwicket. Smith’s return at the death was impressive too. He rattled the stumps twice with full and straight deliveries to knock over the tail, denying desperately needed lower order runs to finish with 3 for 20.No, NarineSunil Narine took two wickets, but a third, negated by a no-ball, drew greater attention. Sangakkara was on 21, with Tallawahs racing to 44 without loss in five overs, when he slogged one against the turn. Ramdin ran behind the skier and completed a tough catch at square leg. The joy subsided as Narine had overstepped. Simmons punished the free hit to raise the half-century in just 4.3 overs.Captain coolAfter Shadab had Lendl Simmons bowled off his pads for a 17-ball 38 in the sixth over, Narine removed Andre McCarthy and Rovman Powell to cause a flutter in the Tallawahs camp. But Simmons’ early charge allowed Sangakkara to drop anchor at the other end.Given a second chance off the Narine no ball, Sangakkara played risk-free cricket. The equation was down to a run a ball by the time Sangakkara was dismissed by Dwayne Bravo in the 17th over. Foo then arrived and clipped 19 off 11 to help knock off the rest of the runs required.

The three-member cricket advisory committee (CAC) tasked with finding a new coach for India will first attempt to keep hold of the incumbent, Anil Kumble. ESPNcricinfo understands the CAC will speak to both Kumble and captain Virat Kohli in an attempt to resolve differences that have emerged between the pair. In case that fails, the CAC is likely to sit separately with Kohli – who has publicly maintained he has no issues with Kumble – to reach a deeper understanding of the reasons why he, and some players, are finding it hard to cope with his approach, which has been said to be headmasterly.Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, the CAC trio, met for the first time formally on June 8 in London and are understood to have had “good detailed discussions” on the matter. Also present were BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary and the board’s chief executive officer Rahul Johri.And as it stands now the role of the CAC is a problem-solving one. Only if the differences cannot be resolved will they move on and invite the rest of the shortlisted candidates for interviews. According to one official, one reason the CAC and BCCI are keen for Kumble to stay on – beyond the obvious importance of continuity – is that they believe there is no certainty similar issues will not arise with a new man in charge. The committee understands the “onus” is on them to make the right choice, especially as Kumble was their choice in the first place.Given the significance of the task, the CAC is not likely to be pushed into making any hasty decisions. With Kumble’s contract coming to an end after the Champions Trophy, and India’s tour of West Indies starting on June 23, the BCCI was in favour of appointing the new coach as soon as possible. But the CAC has asked the BCCI to allow it time and space to work through the situation, facilitating where needed in arranging various meetings.The BCCI’s acting president CK Khanna has sent out an email to Choudhary asking the interview process to be postponed to after the board’s special general meeting on June 26, though there is an element within the administration that would prefer the issue to be resolved sooner rather than later.The performances of the Indian team in the ongoing Champions Trophy will not have any bearing on the CAC process. With Ganguly and Laxman in the UK on broadcast assignments and Tendulkar also present, much of the CAC’s deliberating will take place in the country.

ScorecardIf it is the start of the English season, it must be time to talk about Steven Finn. Every summer it is a source of fascination whether Finn can channel his palpable gifts – pace, bounce from his 6ft 7in frame and the outswing that he has honed in recent years – and become the bowler England supporters have long seen in their mind’s eye. A man not flitting between squads but one who is, instead, a persistent menace in international cricket.It remains far too soon to tell whether this is the summer when Finn makes that transition, rather than just tantalisingly hinting at it, but on a docile Lord’s pitch, he produced a performance of hostility and great skill. It was not so much the four wickets he took – a quick, short ball that Simon Harmer pulled to midwicket; Dan Lawrence deceived with a ball that held its line, rather than swinging away; and a ball that slanted into Neil Wagner and uprooted off stump, to add to the wicket of Tom Westley on the second evening – as his parsimony and immaculate control.Even when bowling loosely, he has always been able to produce brilliant deliveries. But seldom can he have bowled so few poor balls. In 22.1 overs, he conceded just 51 runs; yielding 2.30 an over, Finn was the most frugal of Middlesex’s bowling quintet.”It’s as good as I’ve felt for a while,” Finn said. “Across my career it’s the one side of my game that has not been my best, my economy rate. It’s about keeping it simple, it doesn’t just happen. Without chasing wickets you get your rewards later in the day.”I felt in good rhythm at Hampshire without getting too many rewards and yesterday as well. Today I bowled two long spells and then came back to get wickets at the end.”Few cricketers are aware of the vagaries of professional sport like Finn. The 46 Test wickets at 26.23 apiece he took in 2010, his first year of international cricket, remains his best annual haul for England; last year, he took just 17 Test wickets at 46.64 apiece. Yet his talents are so seductive that England’s interest has never gone away, and here he produced a performance to gladden the selectors’ hearts. If he does it again on the final day, Middlesex will record their first Championship victory of the season, and the case for including Finn in the Champions Trophy squad will become even stronger.”There’s enough eyes around, and people in the know realise when you’re in good rhythm and bowling well,” he said, with the sense of a man who has been here before. “I don’t think everything depends on tomorrow but if you have another good day it furthers your claims even more.”The rest of Middlesex’s bowlers were impressive, too, as they needed to be to restrict Essex to 295 on a picturesque Lord’s day. Toby Roland-Jones generated persistent swing, Ollie Rayner showed his nous, James Franklin embraced bowling with the older ball and Tim Murtagh bowled an expert spell up the slope with the second new ball to account for Ryan ten Doeschate.Against such a well-balanced attack, Lawrence and Adam Wheater needed to summon all of their resolve after Ravi Bopara’s early dismissal, driving indolently at Roland-Jones.Lawrence has won rightful acclaim as one of English cricket’s most promising talents. Perhaps his defining quality is how quickly he judges length, as revealed by a sumptuous push through midwicket for four when Franklin slightly overpitched; a shot to savour. And, just as in a match-saving 141 not out against Lancashire a fortnight ago, Lawrence married such strokeplay with technical fortitude and equanimity rarely spotted in a 19-year-old.Wheater’s contribution was particularly welcome. Having helped to end the career of the brilliant wicketkeeper Michael Bates at Hampshire, his return to Essex has dislodged James Foster, widely acclaimed as the finest of his generation. And Wheater was not even able to score the runs needed to justify the decision, mustering only six in his first three innings of the season.His jittery start betrayed a man woefully short of form, and one badly in need of fortune. That he got, and in bountiful quantity, when he was dropped three times over three consecutive overs off Roland-Jones – by Rayner at second slip, by John Simpson, diving to his right in front of first slip, and by Sam Robson at third slip. In between times Wheater drove with class and swept dexterously, as befitting a man with a first-class average not far shy of 40.Yet Wheater’s dismissal, rather irresponsibly caught at square leg sweeping Ollie Rayner just before the second new ball, triggered the loss of Essex’s last five wickets for 42 runs. A lead of 212, though, was not enough to entice James Franklin to make Essex follow on. It was a “50-50 decision,” Finn said, and cautious, especially with the threat of rain on the final afternoon. Still, Middlesex ought to have claimed the first of the ten wickets needed, only for Nick Browne to be reprieved by Rayner when he edged Roland-Jones to second slip.After Middlesex decided to bat again, what came next was utterly predictable. With the intensity seeping out of the game, their top three all made breezy half-centuries; all squandered the chance to score twin hundreds in the match, Sam Robson coming closest with 77. The only puzzle was why they felt the need to bat on past a target of 420, which Essex’s openers doubtless appreciated.Only one passage of play is worth recalling. In the 33rd over, Stevie Eskinazi scooped Jamie Porter for six, then went down on his front knee to launch him over midwicket, just as Mal Loye once did to Glenn McGrath, before clipping the next delivery over square leg for another six. After launching Harmer over midwicket next ball, Eskinazi was then caught on the extra cover boundary attempting a fifth six in five deliveries. Most remarkable of all was the notion that Eskinazi is normally regarded as relatively sedate, so much so that he has only played a single white-ball game for Middlesex. That will surely change soon.

The new ball remained key to the spinners’ menace on this P Sara deck, said Lakshan Sandakan, after he took 4 for 140 in the Colombo Test.Sri Lanka were not particularly effective with either the first or second new ball, taking most of their wickets after the shine had worn off. But they did raise some close lbw shouts, and drew several mistakes from the batsmen, both early in Bangladesh’s innings and soon after taking the second new ball. Rangana Herath emerged with the innings’ best figures, wiping out the tail to finish with 4 for 82 while seam bowler Suranga Lakmal took 2 for 90, and though Dilruwan Perera did not make a breakthrough, he bowled his 33 overs with good control.”The wicket became a bit slow, and when the newness of the ball goes, there’s nothing much from the pitch,” Sandakan said. “You have to toil a bit here and work hard. Rangana and Dilruwan [Perera] bowled in good spots and put good pressure on them, and that’s why we were able to get them out. Suranga [Lakmal] also bowled really well, because it’s not a pitch that favours quicks and he did his job really well. If you keep the ball as new as possible, I think the spinners have a good chance here.”It was Sandakan who dismissed Bangladesh’s top-scorer Shakib Al Hasan in the afternoon session, but he could have had him out for 11 had a catch at deep square leg been held. A couple of chances had gone down off Sandakan’s bowling in the first Test in Galle as well, but he was philosophical about the misses. “Having a catch dropped [is] not a new thing for a bowler. Whether you play club cricket or school cricket, catches can be missed. Maybe the catch goes up because it’s a very good ball so I try to look at it as a positive and keep trying to bowl good balls.”In addition to the dropped catch off Sandakan, Sri Lanka also spilled a chance off Lakmal, missed a straightforward run-out, and were uncharacteristically sloppy on the field.Adding to Sandakan’s problems was a difficulty bowling to a right-left batting combination. He conceded 4.24 per over as Shakib, the left-hander, forged partnerships of 92 and 131 with right-handers Mushfiqur Rahim and Mosaddek Hossain.”Changing according to whether the batsman is a left-hander or right-hander is a bit difficult for me, with the way my action is. But we need to be focused on where to bowl to batsmen. I think if you can bowl straight, you’ll be able to do something. Whether I bowl the googly or the chinaman or whatever, if I pitch it in the right place, I think I have a good chance – it doesn’t really matter whether he’s right or left handed.”

Moeen Ali, the England allrounder, looks set to leave Worcestershire, with a host of clubs understood to be interested in signing him.Moeen, 29, is in the last year of his deal with Worcestershire and, while talks with the club are ongoing, there is a resignation among some at New Road that they will not be able to compete with the offers available elsewhere. ESPNcricinfo understands that Hampshire, Middlesex and Warwickshire all wish to talk to Moeen and are expected to make 28-day approaches for him once the window for such approaches opens on April 11.Realistically, though, it would be a surprise if he did not return to Warwickshire ahead of the 2018 season. He came through the club’s youth system, signed for them when he was 15, made his first-class debut for them in 2005 and recently bought a house a couple of miles from their Edgbaston home. His brother, Kadeer, is also on the coaching staff.Worcestershire have been good to Moeen. Joining the club at the end of the 2006 season, he was given every opportunity to find his feet as a batsman despite some lean times. He also benefited from bowling plenty of overs that might have been denied him had he remained at Warwickshire. And, at a time when clubs were still feeling their way in matters of cultural sensitivity, Worcestershire were quick to provide Moeen with room to pray and made allowances to ensure he did not wear any kit with the branding of a supplier from the alcohol industry.But now, as a seasoned international player, he is at the stage of his career where he wants to play Division One cricket as much as possible. That is likely to happen more often at Edgbaston than New Road. It is also likely that Warwickshire will be able to pay more than Worcestershire.The signing makes sense from a Warwickshire perspective. While Jeetan Patel has shouldered the spin-bowling duties at the club for the best part of a decade, he will be 37 next month and is probably coming to the end of his career. Moeen might solve some of Warwickshire’s issues with their top-order batting, especially in white-ball cricket, too.Retaining players is likely to be an issue for Worcestershire over the next couple of years and England Lions wicketkeeper-batsman Joe Clarke is another gaining approving looks from other counties. While he is not out of contract at the end of the season, he is understood to be keen to keep wicket – Ben Cox is first choice at New Road – and will have no shortage of offers if he does become available.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIn a nutshellIslamabad United scraped to a win on the final ball of the contest against Peshawar Zalmi after having strolled through most of the chase. With all eleven men in the circle for the final ball, little-known Amad Butt managed to dig out a yorker from Junaid Khan back down the ground to beat a desperate leap from Chris Jordan at mid-on, giving his side a much-needed five-wicket win.This was a match in stark contrast to the run-fest Sharjah had witnessed a few hours earlier but no less thrilling for it. There wasn’t much to be said about the Peshawar innings, with disciplined bowling from Mohammad Irfan and Rumman Raees in the Powerplay not allowing the batsmen get a foothold. The trend continued in the middle overs, as Eoin Morgan, Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal all got starts, but none went on to make a meaningful contribution. A pair of loose overs in the 16th by Shane Watson and 18th by Mohammad Sami brought 41 runs to push the run rate past 6. But an outstanding last two from Raees and Sami went for a total of four runs to keep Peshawar to an under-par 136.The second innings was characterised by excellent bowling in spells but wretched fielding throughout and Darren Sammy’s men were often architects of their own downfall. Hasan Ali was impressive with the ball but comically dropped Dwayne Smith, the leading scorer in the tournament, on the boundary with the batsman on 44 in the 14th over and Sammy palmed a slog from Smith over the long-off rope in the 19th to all but seal Peshawar’s fate. Peshawar were all over the place with their death bowling, and the two points Islamabad gain were thanks in no small part to the errors of their opposition.Where the match was lostJunaid had not been impressive in his first two overs but the nadir was reached in a horror 17th over. Islamabad still needed 38 from four but an 18-run over from Junaid, which included one no-ball, two wides and two sixes, could not have come at a worse time. Junaid kept trying to bowl wide yorkers and some of them were so wide they might have been in a different post code. The straighter ones wound up being waist-high full tosses and disappeared into the stands.The men that won itMuch has been made of Smith’s strike-rate and not nearly enough about his ability to hang around and score big runs in tense chases. Smith took his time to settle in, scoring only 8 off his first 18 balls, but made good on yet another start and regularly chipped in with crucial boundaries whenever the asking rate threatened to get out of hand. Crucially, he was still there in the middle when the last ball was bowled, on 71 off 58 balls, as he watched Amad strike the final blow to deliver a victory he had helped sculpt.Gutsy bowlingThe efforts of the bowlers on either side deserve acknowledgement. They saw over 400 runs scored on this very pitch just hours earlier and refused to be daunted. Raees was at his accurate best, encapsulated in a superb 19th over, mixing fast yorkers with slower deliveries in an over that cost only two runs.From Peshawar, Hasan opened the attack with a classically elegant over, maintaining an off-stump line as the ball seamed away to beat Smith’s bat multiple times. In his following over, Hasan swung the ball back into the right-hander at times, one of which was far too good for Brad Haddin, who was plumb in front when the ball came back and crashed into his pads.Moment of the match“Boom Boom Afridi” now seems more like a smart marketing slogan than a pithy reference to the 36-year-old’s batting temperament, but in one Mohammad Sami over late in Peshawar’s innings, the Sharjah crowd got what it came for. Coming in at number eight, Shahid Afridi flicked Sami for over deep square leg for six and the Sharjah crowd began to find its voice.Sami, who was otherwise brilliant – he won Man of the Match for a reason – then bowled a ball that Afridi was able to get under and the former Pakistan captain launched him out of the ground. He was only to make one run thereafter but pandemonium had been sparked in the stands and Afridi had done what every fan turning up, however cynical, secretly wishes him to do yet one more time.Where they standIslamabad United move to second on the table with six points after the win, one behind leaders Quetta Gladiators. Peshawar Zalmi have five points and are placed third.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:54

Agarkar: Something has to be done for the bowlers

Remember the time chasing was hard in ODIs? A second match of this series assumed heart-stopping proportions as a flat track, a fast outfield, short boundaries and batsmen with self-belief the size of a small planet came together. India put up 381, fuelled by a career-best 150 from Yuvraj Singh and a 10th hundred from MS Dhoni. But they only just came away the victors of the match, and the series, as Eoin Morgan responded with one of the great innings by a batsman in England colours.

England fined for slow over rate

Having fallen one over short of their target, England’s players were fined 10% of their match fees and their captain Eoin Morgan twice that amount.
Match referee Andy Pycroft handed out the punishment after the concern was raised by the four umpires in the match. Morgan pleaded guilty but, should his team commit another minor over rate offence in ODIs within a 12-month period from now, he could end up facing suspension.

Beyond the runs Morgan made [102 off 81], beyond his ball-striking and the weird areas he exploited with those whiplash wrists – his composure under pressure was unreal. There were over 40, 000 people in Cuttack bellowing against him. The Indian spinners had done well despite the dew to complicate matters. The required run-rate had nudged over 10 at the end of the 36th over but, since England had lost half their side by then, Morgan had to wait. He was the set batsman – 46 off 48 balls – and his team needed him to last till the end. To that effect, he would defend his way through an R Ashwin over because after that it would be him against the Indian quicks. Morgan was gambling, and it was even paying off for a while.In the end, a match that featured 747 runs, 19 sixes and 81 fours went down to the penultimate over when Jasprit Bumrah held his nerve to run Morgan out while he was backing up to get back on strike.To get to that stage took a huge effort from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, playing his first ODI in a year. He began his second spell in the 42nd over, conceding just eight runs. He could have had a wicket, too, had Ravindra Jadeja been able to take a skier from Moeen Ali at long-on. In his next over, he gave away only three singles and bowled Moeen, who had hammered back-to-back fours to reach a half-century mere minutes ago. The wicket was the result of a little sleight of hand. With the required rate – two runs a ball – suffocating him, the batsman never saw the offcutter coming. As a result, instead of two well-set hitters at the crease, India had the comfort of aiming at England’s lower order.The other big play came in the middle overs, when Jadeja bowled the dangerous Jason Roy for 82 and Ashwin took care of Joe Root for 54. The offspinner then befuddled both Ben Stokes for 1 and Jos Buttler for 10 to rob England of a majority of their firepower, with the side 176 runs adrift of the target and nearly 20 overs left in the chase. Jadeja was remarkable. In a game where runs were scored at more than seven runs an over, he kept an economy rate of 4.5 by bowling wicket-to-wicket. And Ashwin went back to his old ways of deceiving batsmen in flight – Root top-edged a sweep, probably thinking the trajectory was flatter than it was. That broke a partnership of 100 between him and Roy at over run-a-ball. The crowd at Barabati stadium breathed easier.They had spent the first innings in pure nostalgia with each ball that Yuvraj and Dhoni sent their way during a partnership of 256 in 230 balls. At one end, there were flowing drives with scintillating timing and from the other came brutal swats. No one was safe. Not Stokes, who was winded when Dhoni whacked a ball back at his chest. Not Alex Hales, who was wringing his fingers after trying to get under a pull from Dhoni. Not even the Spidercam was spared damage.Yuvraj wasn’t quite as murderous, or maybe he was and was just a little bit kinder to things both living and non-living on the ground. He came in at the end of the third over, enjoyed England trying to bounce him out on a pitch that barely had any in the first place, and bedded in to make his first hundred since the 2011 World Cup. It came off his 98th delivery and the celebrations made it clear how much the innings meant to him. He looked skyward, with his hands aloft. Then the bat handle thumped into his chest and he may even have become misty-eyed. At 35 years, having spent three years nowhere near the ODI team, wondering what would become of his career, coming back with his highest score had to be sweet.There was no place for such emotion with Dhoni. He was what the situation made him. When he came in at the fall of Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket in the fifth over, he blocked 14 straight deliveries from Chris Woakes, who was the sole reason India were 25 for 3. The next time those two faced each other, the ball was muscled over the midwicket boundary. Dhoni finished on 134 off 122 balls – having been 6 off 22 once – and became the first Indian to hit 200 sixes in ODIs. The shot that took him there – eerily similar to the one that won India the World Cup in 2011 – hit the top tier behind long-on. There was another reminder of that night in Mumbai; the final was the last time Yuvraj and Dhoni had put on 50 runs or more together.But the clear-headed England that made all the early breakthroughs happen by bowling full and keeping a tight line on off stump fell into a trap. They bowled too short at Yuvraj, who eventually realised there was nothing in the pitch to make him fear such a line of attack. It is true that extreme pace has unsettled him regardless of conditions but he didn’t have to face any on Thursday. A one-bounce pull for four got him going, drives through mid-off and cover showcased his timing and a pristine punch down the ground told the crowd they were in for something special. With Dhoni concentrating on staying at the crease to such a point that he barely even thought about runs early in his innings, and a severe lack of wickets, the middle overs became party time.India hammered 94 runs in the 10 overs between the 30th and the 40th and finished with 73 off the last five. Also responsible for the late flourish were Kedar Jadhav, who belted three fours and a six in 10 balls, Hardik Pandya ,who began his innings with a four and six, and Jadeja, who helped take 14 runs off the final over.

The England coach Trevor Bayliss admitted his team had been “totally outplayed” by India on the fourth day in Chennai as they conceded the largest total in their history.And Bayliss, who leaves the tour on Monday night to return to Australia for a hernia operation, conceded such a chastening day might influence Alastair Cook as he reflects on whether he wants to continue as England captain.Criticising England’s bowling and catching, Bayliss, who has supervised the fielding training for the last 18 months in the absence of a specialist fielding coach, also suggested there was a lack of captaincy experience in the squad should Cook decide to step down but agreed that Joe Root was the “leading candidate.””We got totally outplayed today, for sure,” Bayliss said. “We just weren’t in the game today.”You’ve got to give credit to the Indian batters, who played extremely well. But at times we struggled to bowl to the fields that the captain had set. That just makes it very difficult.”Our catching is still below par – I think the last three catches we’ve dropped have only cost us 500 – and that’s disappointing and something we’ve got to keep working on. There’s no short cut to that – we’ve just got to do a lot of it. We’re a team that probably haven’t got a lot of natural athletes. We’ve got some very good cricketers but we haven’t got a lot of slippers. We’ve just got to get better. It’s as simple as that.”Asked whether such a tough day could have a bearing on Cook’s decision, Bayliss said “possibly” but stated that he would not attempt to persuade him either way.”That’s a decision only he will know the answer to,” he said. “He’s done it for so long, whether I say yes or no, it won’t change his mind whether he keeps going or stops. I’m not big on the technology, but I’m sure we’ll speak on the phone at some stage over Christmas.”If he keeps going, fantastic; if he stops, that’s up to him, and I’ve got no problems with that either. I won’t actually sit down to have a chat with him. We’ve got six or seven months till our next Test match, so there’s plenty of time for him to have a think about it.”I don’t think there’s too many of our players who’ve actually captained too many teams, or any of their county teams.”Joe Root has done a few games on tour, when Cookie’s had a bit of time off or when he’s off the ground. Joe is obviously our number one bat, and is highly-respected by the players. He’s one of those guys who leads by example, and I can’t see that being any different when and if he takes over … if he takes over, I suppose, because we haven’t actually made that decision either.”That will come next if Cookie does step down. But he seems like he’s the leading candidate at this stage.”If it seems odd that Bayliss is leaving the tour slightly early – it was unclear why he could not wait the extra day – it is in part because he wishes to return for the limited-overs leg having made a full recovery. He is scheduled to miss the Caribbean tour in February and March.