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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.

The BPL has been forced to restart on November 8 with rain having played havoc with the tournament’s opening fixtures – the first four games have been washed out in Mirpur without a ball bowled. The matches from the new start date will take place according to the existing schedule, while four of the first six matches, earlier scheduled from November 4 to 6, will be played later in the tournament.But there is confusion over whether the opening day’s games will be replayed or the teams will share points. Rangpur Riders and Khulna Titans have agreed to a rematch, according to BPL’s member secretary Ismail Haider Mallick, but Comilla Victorians and Rajshahi Kings are still undecided. BCB vice-president Mahbubul Anam however said that the board cannot legally reassign the November 4 matches unless all the participating teams are unanimous on the decision whether to replay the two games or not.Mallick made the announcement of starting the tournament on a later date on Saturday evening, adding that both matches on Saturday – Chittagong Kings v Barisal Bulls, and Dhaka Dynamites v Comilla – had been postponed earlier in the day. He said that the decision to restart the tournament from November 8 was decided in meeting on Saturday afternoon. The meeting involved the BPL governing council and representatives from the seven franchises, while broadcasters and ticketing partners were also taken into account.”We have a weather report which has a forecast for more rain for another two days,” Mallick said. “So far not a single ball has been bowled in the tournament due to the rain. We have decided to postpone the November 5 and 6 matches. We now want to hold our first match on November 8 as per the existing schedule. We will reschedule the November 5 and 6 matches in the rest days within our fixtures list.”On the issue of the opening day’s matches, Mallick said: “According to the bylaws, we can make the November 4 matches into rematches only if the franchises agree to it. Rangpur and Khulna have agreed for the rematch but we don’t have a decision from Comilla and Rajshahi, who were the teams in the tournament’s first match.”We will try to reassign the five or six matches on November 10 and 14 and, if need be, we will hold three matches in a day. November 20 is also an option for the rescheduled matches.”BCB vice-president Anam however said doing different things for the opening days’ games was not permissible by the rules: “We have already postponed and rescheduled today’s and tomorrow’s [November 5 and 6] matches, but since yesterday’s matches have gone into the record book, we cannot legally change those results unless all the franchises agree on it,” Anam said. “We have left it to them to decide whether they want the one points each. We cannot do anything outside the law. The BCB cannot reverse the results of these two matches unless all the participating teams agree on the decision.”

Faf du Plessis has distanced the South Africa team from former captain Graeme Smith’s warning that Australia is on the wane following a string of defeats. Smith listed loss of confidence, the rotation policy, a packed schedule and the struggles of Steven Smith to assert himself as a leader as heaping pressure on the hosts, but du Plessis would not be drawn into the war of words.”I don’t know too much about it. I just read something about the culture and I’m always of the position if you don’t know exactly what’s going on, you can’t comment on that,” du Plessis said. “I don’t know enough about the Australian culture, so I can’t comment on it. From the outside, it seems the same as always.”Steven Smith echoed that opinion and insisted his team remained unaffected by the issues Graeme Smith mentioned. “I’m not sure what Graeme Smith knows about Australian cricket,” Smith said. “He obviously wasn’t involved in it. I think the team’s in a good place at the moment, we’ve got a good culture, built on constant improvement and getting better. The guys are in a good place, we’re a tight-knit group and we’re ready to hopefully turn this around this week.”On Wednesday evening, when Graeme Smith was inducted as a Bradman Honouree at the SCG – alongside Bill Lawry, who was the last Australia captain to lead the side to a home series win after losing the first Test in 1968 – he seemed to sympathise with Steven Smith’s attempts to forge his own captaincy style. “I look at him and you kind of think he’s trying to figure a lot of stuff out at the moment,” Graeme Smith said. “But as a leader, I think you need to understand that for yourself about who you are and that’s the only time you can really get your team to play with that personality. I think he’s trying to figure that all out at the moment. It certainly looks that way and he looks a bit lost.”Steven Smith admitted he expected to come under criticism, given the team’s performance and hopes. “I’ve seen a lot of the criticism and I guess when you’re losing cricket games that sort of criticism is warranted so we’ve got to try and turn it around and play the way that Australia does best and that’s by winning games of cricket in Australia,” he said.Steven Smith stands by the way he led Australia in the Perth Test•Getty Images

Some of the naysaying has come from within. Shane Warne has been among those who have questioned Smith’s tactics, particularly on the third morning of the Perth Test when Nathan Lyon was not used at all. South Africa added 118 runs in that session and lost just one wicket to bat Australia out of the match and Warne believes Smith could have done more to make inroads in that period.Smith stuck to his guns and maintained that he was hoping to make use of reverse swing. “Warney’s entitled to his opinion, but I stand by the way I did things,” he said. “We saw in that game that the reverse swing was the biggest player in the game and it was the decision to be made whether the quicks were going to do the job and get the ball reversing.”Despite that, Australia’s captain conceded his team had underperformed but said they had done enough work to be ready for a better show in Hobart. “We’ve not been good enough and I guess for me it’s about making sure that the guys are upbeat and ready for the challenge out there in the middle,” he said. “We’ve prepared very well like we have for every Test match. The guys feel like they are in a good place so it’s about going out there and making sure that we get the job done.”

Zimbabwe have chosen an A team full of first-choice picks to play against Pakistan A in Bulawayo from Sunday in an effort to help them prepare for the Tests against Sri Lanka, which begin on October 29.Out of the 24 men picked to play two four-day matches only three have yet to play international cricket – batsman Tarisai Musakanda and seamers Carl Mumba and Victor Nyauchi – and 16 had been involved in Zimbabwe’s most recent Tests, against New Zealand in July and August.The A series also presents opportunity for Brian Vitori, the 26-year old fast bowler, to end a three-month streak without competitive cricket. It has been a lot longer since he played for Zimbabwe; his last match was in January 2016. But he is part of the 12-member squad to play the first four-day game against Pakistan A at Queens Sports Club. He has Donald Tiripano, Chris Mpofu and Michael Chinouya as seam-bowling partners. With a host of part-time spinners available, only one specialist has been picked – Graeme Cremer, the Zimbabwe captain.The second game – scheduled for October 15 – could feature Elton Chigumbura who had been left out of senior team when they played New Zealand in July. Also in the mix is medium-pacer Njabulo Ncube, who had come back from a three-year break from first-class cricket in July 2016. He had also been in the squad for the Tests against New Zealand but did not play.Tendai Chatara and Tinashe Panyangara, who were unable to play in that New Zealand series as a result of ankle and back injuries respectively, were not among the 24 men named to take on Pakistan A.Squad for First unofficial Test: Tino Mawoyo, Hamilton Masakadza, Craig Ervine, Peter Moor, Sikandar Raza, Malcolm Waller, Richmond Mutumbami, Graeme Cremer, Michael Chinouya, Donald Tiripano, Chris Mpofu, Brian VitoriSquad for second unofficial Test: Brian Chari, Chamu Chibhabha, Tarisai Musakanda, Sean Williams, Prince Masvaure, Elton Chigumbura, Regis Chakabva, John Nyumbu, Victor Nyauchi, Carl Mumba, Njabulo Ncube, Taurai Muzarabani

The USA Cricket Association’s attempt to block six Caribbean Premier League (CPL) games from taking place on July 28-31 in Lauderhill, Florida by pursuing an emergency injunction was denied on Monday afternoon by Judge Michael L Gates in Florida’s 17th Circuit Court in Broward County. Judge Gates struck down the arguments made by former USACA executive secretary Kenwyn Williams on behalf of USACA, that the games were not properly sanctioned, with Gates writing that USACA’s claims were “insufficient to justify ex-parte relief”.”Ex parte orders are antithetical to precious due process rights,” Judge Gates wrote, citing previous legal precedent. “There must be a ‘strong and clear’ showing before a temporary injunction without notice may issue.”Williams had filed a lawsuit against Lauderhill Mayor Richard Kaplan, Broward County Parks & Recreation, and Central Broward Regional Park manager Duncan Finch last week – with USACA and USACA vice-president Owen Grey listed as co-plaintiffs – seeking an emergency injunction to prevent the games from happening. Williams claimed that in bypassing USACA and going to the ICC for sanctioning, the CPL had not gone through the proper sanctioning process in order for the games to be staged. However, Williams did not file suit against the CPL nor the ICC, the two parties who applied for and approved sanctioning respectively.Mayor Kaplan’s lawyers filed a motion for dismissal on July 20, arguing that Williams should not be allowed to file a suit as a pro se litigant because he is not licensed to practice law in Florida. In addition to his ruling that the suit did not meet the merits to justify ex-parte relief, Judge Gates also sided with Kaplan’s lawyers in ruling that Williams did not have standing to represent USACA in a legal capacity.”Petitioner Kenwyn S Williams purports to bring the instant action on behalf of USA Cricket Association,” Gates wrote in his summary. “Mr Williams is not permitted to do so. Mr Williams is not a member of the Florida Bar, nor has he provided any documentation that he is authorized to practice law in the State of Florida. Under Florida law, a corporation may not represent itself through non-lawyer employees, officers or shareholders.”Thus, if petitioner USA Cricket Association wishes to proceed in the instant action, it must retain counsel.”Marshall Beil, a lawyer representing USACA from the firm McGuire Woods LLP, had sent a cease and desist notice to Williams in June when he first threatened to take legal action to stop the CPL games. Based on the stance taken by Beil on behalf of USACA, it is unlikely USACA will continue pursuing the case. Mayor Kaplan was satisfied with the ruling handed down by Judge Gates.”The Judge’s ruling did not surprise me, and we were extremely confident that we would prevail in this situation,” Kaplan told ESPNcricinfo in a written statement. “The action had no merit, and the ICC, who has sole authority to sanction the event, did so in writing some time ago. I look forward to seeing everyone at the games.”