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Match Facts

July 2, 2017
Start time: 09:45 local (04:15 GMT)Where will Sri Lanka go after the deflating loss in the first ODI?•AFP

Big Picture

The Test and ODI series losses to South Africa could be put down to unfamiliarity with conditions. The Test loss to Bangladesh could plausibly be explained by Bangladesh’s rise. The group-stage exit at the Champions Trophy was not completely unexpected either. But a big home defeat to the 11th ranked side, who had lost to Scotland earlier in the month, is more difficult to explain. It appears the most compelling sign yet that Sri Lanka are a waning force in world cricket, thanks in no small part to the appalling state of cricket administration this decade.While Sri Lanka lapsed into familiar mistakes at Galle – dropping catches, and failing to take wickets through the middle overs – Zimbabwe pounced on the errors fearlessly. Solomon Mire, who had hit only three fifties in 17 previous innings, clubbed wayward bowling through the leg side while Sean Williams filched singles and twos. The unbroken 102-run stand for the fifth wicket between Malcolm Waller and Sikander Raza was almost more incredible, so assured was that pair as they mowed Sri Lanka down.Neither side was impressive on the bowling front, with only nine wickets falling in 97.4 overs, but Akila Dananjaya sparked a little excitement in his early overs, and Zimbabwe’s quicks were disciplined with the new ball and at the death. Mire has said his team was especially pleased to have kept Sri Lanka to 316, when at one stage, 350 was a possibility. With Sri Lanka’s attack in flux, the visitors may go into the second game with the more settled bowling unit.Late news also broke on Saturday that Sri Lanka will be further depleted for this match. Both Lasith Malinga and Kusal Mendis have caught the flu, and are unlikely to be available. Lakshan Sandakan, who was ill and unavailable for the first match, comes back into contention however.

Form guide

Sri Lanka LLWLW (completed matches, most recent first)
Zimbabwe WWLLW

In the spotlight

For so long a batsman whose occasional dreamy, big innings were followed by a long series of modest scores, Upul Tharanga seems to have found a little consistency in 2017. So far this year, he averages 49.33 in ten innings, and has made four 50-plus scores in his last seven outings. Where in the past, he has been most comfortable batting in the slipstream of a more aggressive player – typically Sanath Jayasuriya or TM Dilshan – Tharanga has recently developed the resolve to lead the charge on the opposition himself, to an extent. With Dinesh Chandimal out of the XI, Tharanga may be required for a longer stint in the middle order now, and as one of the leaders of this side, will be expected to continue contributing frequently.Mire’s excellent 112 got a lot of love on Friday, but Sikandar Raza’s poised 67 not out off 56 balls was almost as impressive, for the effect his batting had on the opposition. Though Sri Lanka appeared frustrated by Mire, it was when Raza batted that they seemed completely at a loss as to how to stop Zimbabwe’s charge. Raza struck gaps with precision, found the boundary when required, and when Zimbabwe had moved well ahead in the game, scaled back the ambition and propelled his team forward with a spate of risk-free singles and twos. His innings was the perfect finish to what had been a textbook chase. Sri Lanka will now know there is depth to this Zimbabwe batting order, with men such as Raza and Waller at no. 5 and 6.Sean Williams and Malcolm Waller lend more depth to the Zimbabwe batting line-up•AFP

Team news

Malinga has been ruled out by illness which means Dushmantha Chameera is in line for his first international match since December 2016. In place of the unwell players, which now includes Mendis, Sri Lanka have drafted in seamer Suranga Lakmal and batsman Chamara Kapugedara. Sandakan is likely to play the next game in place of Amila Aponso who had an indifferent first match.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 2 Danushka Gunathilaka, 3 Upul Tharanga, 4 Chamara Kapugedara, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Lahiru Madushanka, 8 Akila Dananjaya, 9 Lakshan Sandakan,10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Nuwan PradeepZimbabwe are unlikely to tamper with a winning combination, though if anyone’s place is vulnerable, it is that of Donald Tiripano, who conceded runs at 7.5 an over on Friday.Zimbabwe (possible): 1 Solomon Mire, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Sikander Raza, 6 Ryan Burl, 7 Peter Moor (wk), 8 Malcolm Waller, 9 Graeme Cremer (capt), 10 Tendai Chatara, 11 Chris Mpofu/Donald Tiripano

Pitch and conditions

Any turn that is likely to be present on the surface is likely to be of the slow variety, and as such, poses little threat for the batsmen. There is a chance of afternoon thunderstorms in Galle.

Stats and trivia

• Zimbabwe’s victory was their first against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, in any format.
• Solomon Mire needs 25 runs to reach 500 runs in ODIs. His highest score before the 112 was 54, against Afghanistan, in Harare.
• Upul Tharanga completed 6000 ODI runs in the previous match, becoming the eighth Sri Lanka batsman to the milestone.

Quotes

“The confidence will be huge with this win. There is a bit more belief in the team.”
“It’s in the mindset. One day of skill work won’t help you. We need to have a shift in mindset to stop runs and take those catches.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details3:31

Fleming: Bangladesh had a very light bowling attack

An ankle and calf injury set aside, Joe Root put together a masterful unbeaten career-best 133 to power England to an eight-wicket win in their opening Champions Trophy match over Bangladesh, who would rue two major mistakes: not scoring enough in the last five overs and picking one less bowler.Two big partnerships supported England’s successful 306-run chase. Root’s 129-ball innings included 11 fours and a six, with Eoin Morgan by his side; the captain was not out on a 61-ball 75 that had eight fours and two sixes. The pair were responsible for the 143-run unbroken third-wicket stand after Alex Hales and Root added 159 for the second wicket.After Tamim Iqbal’s splendid 128 gave them a fair chance of an opening day win, Bangladesh missed out on a few more runs after Tamim and Mushfiqur Rahim fell off consecutive deliveries in the 45th over, having added 166 for the third wicket. They were timing the ball really well but those who followed could only add 44 in the last 5.2 overs.More importantly, Bangladesh went to work without an extra specialist bowler. The captain Mashrafe Mortaza had to rotate carefully between himself, Mustafizur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan and Rubel Hossain, and also give enough overs to Mosaddek Hossain, who is at best a part-timer at this level. It didn’t work out too well for them.England’s chase began with a wobble as the out-of-touch Jason Roy scooped one towards short fine-leg where Mustafizur dived to take a stunning one-handed grab. But Mashrafe never quite looked comfortable rotating his bowlers as he had to always keep using a part-timer.And just like Tamim and co used the absence of Chris Woakes, so did Hales, Root and Morgan. First, it was the Hales-Root second wicket partnership that set England on the right course.Hales punished anything Bangladesh pitched short or too full, carving boundaries in his exclusive manner. He struck five boundaries in the arc between backward point and extra cover, apart from the straight sixes and the pushed fours through midwicket four times.Hales and Root, who hurt his ankle while trying to pull the ball in the 26th over, batted sensibly apart from the odd hack through the leg side. Hales, though, missed out on a century when he got greedy against part-timer Sabbir Rahman; a four and a six were hit, but then his slog sweep found the substitute Sunzamul Islam at deep midwicket.Root though, hardly missed a beat as he forged another quick partnership with Morgan for the third wicket. He struck three fours through the covers and twice through midwicket, and one slipped past the wicketkeeper.With Morgan picking up the pace of the innings, it was only a matter of time that Mashrafe tried to attack with his lop-sided bowling line-up. It was ultimately Mashrafe himself who created the chance in the 36th over but Tamim’s diving effort at long-on from Morgan’s lofted drive was given not out, first in a soft signal by on-field umpire S Ravi, and then followed up by the third umpire Bruce Oxenford.Root reached his 10th ODI hundred by running two in his hobbling state. He scampered whenever Morgan had pushed him, never complaining as he bashed around more boundaries in the last 10 overs.Bangladesh too banked on a big partnership: the Tamim-Mushfiqur third-wicket stand that yielded 166. The pair have often collaborated together when the chips are down but this time Mushfiqur walked in after Tamim had laid a solid foundation by the 20th over. Soumya Sarkar and Imrul Kayes had fallen just after getting set at the crease.Tamim batted resolutely in the face of Mark Wood’s bouncer barrage, but his approach factored in Woakes walking off with a left side strain after bowling just two overs. He laid into Liam Plunkett and teed off every time Moeen Ali floated one up to him. Tamim struck two superb straight drives, and the moment he got the hang of the shorter length, started pulling the ball quite well.Two of his three sixes were off Moeen, hit over the offspinner’s head while he also swung Wood over long-leg for the third six. Tamim was also delicate with deliveries angled to his body, working them fine either side of the wicketkeepers. He wasn’t fed too many full balls so there weren’t any cover driven boundaries in his innings.Mushfiqur’s 79 came off 72 balls, at a time when Tamim needed the batsman at the other end to push hard. He was severe on Jake Ball, hitting him for five of his eight boundaries. He was quick on his feet and until he over-hit Plunkett to long-on, Mushfiqur looked good for a century.In a game of small margins and with England playing without Adil Rashid, Plunkett’s last two overs that went for just seven runs, made a big difference as Bangladesh couldn’t find too many boundaries in the last five overs.That final push from Plunkett was complemented by the batsmen who chased down the 300-plus total with much ease. It would serve as a warning for the rest of the tournament, that England can and will keep stepping on the gas regardless of their situation.

ScorecardLoanee James Harris made an impact [file picture]•Sarah Ansell/Getty Images

Kent romped to their second successive three-day victory in Canterbury and to a third Specsavers County Championship win on the bounce after defeating Division Two rivals Derbyshire by 169 runs.Nottinghamshire’s international pace attack have captured most of the attention as they have roared to the top of the table, but Kent are matching their pace.After setting the visitors a nominal victory target of 409, Sam Northeast’s unbeaten side coasted home with a day and 28 balls to spare after dismissing the visitors for 239 second time around and despite a counter-attacking 97 from Gary Wilson.Kent’s in-form all-rounder Darren Stevens snaffled another three victims, giving him nine in the match and 22 for the season to date, while James Harris returned 4 for 56 – his best figures since joining on loan from Middlesex.Batting after lunch and with a mountain to climb, Derbyshire – who have never scored 300 in a fourth innings against Kent – lost skipper Billy Godleman in only the fourth over of the reply. The left-hander’s airy drive against Stevens flew off a thick edge and into the hands of James Tredwell at second slip.Then, with 21 on the board Shiv Thakor, driving with an open bat face to one from Wayne Parnell, clipped a catch to Joe Denly in the gully to depart for six.After receiving treatment for a blow on the knee, Luis Reece fended at the next delivery from Harris to edge to slip then Wayne Madsen, after an impudent, steered six over third man, departed leg before to a Matt Coles off-cutter. Harris bagged another by plucking out Darren Smit’s leg stump via an inside edge as the right-hander aimed an ambitious drive.After losing five mid-session wickets inside 25 overs, Wilson, the former Surrey and Ireland keeper, led a partial Derbyshire recovery either side of tea by scoring an enterprising 46-ball 50 with 10 fours that knocked Kent’s attack temporarily out of kilter.After contributing 12 to a sixth-wicket stand of 80 in tandem with Wilson, Alex Hughes pushed at a Stevens away-swinger and nicked behind to see Adam Rouse tumble in front of slip to take an athletic catch. Then, after an erratic and somewhat impatient stay, Jeevan Mendis smeared across the line against Stevens to edge once more to Rouse.Harris switched ends to the Nackington Road and, with his third ball down the slope, had Tom Milnes caught behind, then, with Wilson only three short of his maiden championship century for his new club, Harris jagged one back off the seam to trap the right-hander flush in front and leg before.Coles polished the job off soon after by having Will Davis caught at mid-off to spark further Kentish celebration.Earlier, Kent wicketkeeper Rouse narrowly missed out on a maiden first-class hundred as Kent batted through to lunch in adding a further 166 to their second innings total.Rouse was left high-and-dry on 95 when Kent’s last man Tredwell chipped a tame catch to mid-on to give Madsen his sole wicket of the game and end Kent’s innings with 308 on the board.Resuming on their overnight score from day two of 142 for seven, Kent’s eighth-wicket partners Rouse and Stevens continued to bat positively in extending their side’s lead beyond 300.Having reached his season’s best score, Stevens was only ten short of a century from only 86 balls faced when he fell to the first delivery of the day from leg-spinner Mendis. Pushing down the line of off and expecting turn, Stevens played outside the line of a top-spinner and departed lbw having added 90 in tandem with Rouse. It was the eighth time in first-class cricket that Stevens has departed in the nervous 90s.Zimbabe-born Rouse went on to record only his second half-century in first-class cricket from 65 balls and with 11 fours. Not content with that, the 24-year-old gloveman improved on his previous career-best of 65 in first-class cricket, posted against Glamorgan in Cardiff last June.After helping to add 83 in 15.1 overs for the ninth wicket, Harris (32) became Kent’s second casualty of the day, clipping a low catch to Luis Reece at mid-wicket off the bowling of Davis, but, by then, the hosts were already 384 ahead. Davis was the pick of Derbyshire’s attack with three for 48 while Tony Palladino and Milnes picked up two wickets apiece.Kent collected 21 points for third straight win to move to the top of Division 2, while Derbyshire, winless after two games, banked only three points after suffering an indifferent three days in the south east.

On Thursday at the HPCA Stadium nets, Cheteshwar Pujara was batting like a man who had just made a double-hundred. He was stepping out frequently to R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav, and driving down the ground with immense power – one straight drive broke the single stump at the bowlers’ end.On a couple of occasions, he even went as far as lofting the spinners. Pujara being Pujara, he had probably brought the shot out of cryogenic storage simply because this was Dharamsala, which has some of the smallest boundaries among all Indian grounds, and is situated at an altitude – 1317m above sea level – that may cause the ball to carry further.The last time he batted in a Test match, Pujara did not loft the ball once. He did nothing that could even remotely imperil his stay at the crease, and ended up spending more than 11 hours there.Shortly before padding up for his net session, Pujara had addressed a press conference where he was asked about how he had acquired the gifts of patience and temperament that so define his batting.”I think when it comes to patience, it is all hard work,” he said. “I started playing cricket at the age of eight and then I played [my] first game for the state [junior] team at the age of 13. Since then, I have been playing this format and I think the experience [of] playing in the domestic circuit and working hard day in, day out, is paying off now.”At times during his innings in Ranchi, it seemed as if Pujara had entered a meditative state.”I can say that, at times, I am in that zone where things are happening for me because of that experience, because I know how to do things, how to continue batting and how to continue concentrating for a longer period of time. I know what to do, how to focus, how to switch off and switch back [on] again. I have been doing it in domestic cricket for a long period of time, which is helping me now.”Does he have any cues, before the ball is bowled, to help him switch on again?”Not really,” Pujara said. “I believe in practising well, preparing well before the series, so I am always confident when my preparation is good. I don’t really think when I am batting in the middle, I try and keep my mind really blank.”Having played an innings as epic in scale as he did in Ranchi, how difficult does Pujara find it to recover, physically and mentally?”I focus on my diet,” he said. “I try and sleep on time and have a good sleep. Do some recovery sessions, have a massage. Those sort of things, I have some routines once the match finishes, I try and focus on that, I give a lot of importance to recovery.”I don’t know mentally – I think you just have to be up for it. Mentally, you can’t do anything extra to just come out of it, but when you’re tired you just have to motivate yourself and the ultimate goal is to win matches for the team and win this particular series.”With the teams locked 1-1 ahead of the decider, India have arrived at a new Test venue whose location is unlike any other international ground in India, and whose pitch – at least in domestic cricket – always offers something to the quicker bowlers. Asked about this, Pujara said India weren’t too fussed about the conditions they may be playing in.”It looks like a good wicket,” he said. “I think we have played a lot of cricket even in Dharamsala. We have played enough first-class cricket, we know the conditions. We will just try and focus on things which we want to focus on rather than worrying about how the wicket will play.”We have played enough cricket on different pitches throughout the season. So I don’t think the wicket will matter a lot to us. We are very confident, the way we have played throughout the series. Apart from the first Test match, we have played very good cricket. So we would look to continue that and win the series.”In the days leading up to the match, the BCCI announced its new list of centrally contracted players. Pujara was promoted to the top grade for the first time in his career.”It’s good to be recognised, but at the same time, we’re in the middle of a series and I don’t want to think about the contract,” Pujara said. “We have an important game coming up and I would still like to focus on the game and prepare well. We have practice the next couple of days so we’d like to focus on that.”

The pitch used for the first Test between India and Australia in Pune has been given a “poor” rating by the ICC match referee Chris Broad.Australia won the Test match, which ended in the post-tea session of day three, by 333 runs, bowling India out for 105 and 107. India’s match total of 212 runs was their lowest in a home Test in which they had lost all 20 wickets. Spinners accounted for 31 of the 40 wickets that fell during the Test.According to the ICC’s pitch and outfield monitoring process, a pitch is said to be poor if any of the following apply:

• The pitch offers excessive seam movement at any stage of the match
• The pitch displays excessive unevenness of bounce for any bowler at any stage of the match
• The pitch offers excessive assistance to spin bowlers, especially early in the match
• The pitch displays little or no seam movement or turn at any stage in the match together with no significant bounce or carry, thereby depriving the bowlers of a fair contest between bat and ball

In accordance with Clause 3 of the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, Broad submitted his report to the ICC, expressing concern over the quality of the pitch. The ICC has forwarded the match referee’s report to the BCCI, which now has 14 days to respond.

What they said about the Pune pitch

“I don’t think it was any different from the turners that we played in the past. We just didn’t play good cricket.”

“I think it was certainly a wicket that would more likely suit the Indian players. I think it evened up the contest a lot more.”

“There were small cracks running all through the surface (smaller cracks tend to open up faster than the big blocks), the topsoil was so loose that the first time it met the spikes underneath the players’ shoes, it started peeling off, and the surface felt abrasive on the touch.”

“It was dry, it had cracks but this was the first time I saw on an Indian turning pitch that fragments of the pitch, little bits on the top of the pitch, were missing before the first ball was bowled”

“I don’t think you could call it a good cricket pitch but sometimes I have seen these pitches produce exciting games. I wouldn’t like to see one of these for every Test but every now and then they provide a bit of variety”

Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s General Manager – Cricket, and Ranjan Madugalle, ICC’s chief referee, will review the BCCI’s response and study footage from the match, before ruling on whether or not the pitch was substandard.The penalty for a pitch that is ruled substandard for the first time – as would be the case for Pune, which was hosting its first ever Test match – is “[a] warning and / or a fine not exceeding USD 15,000 given together with a directive for appropriate corrective action”, according to Clause 4 of the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process.Indian pitches have been under the ICC scanner for a while. In December 2015, the Nagpur pitch was rated poor by the ICC match referee Jeff Crowe after India had defeated South Africa inside three days.Earlier this month, the ICC chief executives committee, backed by the ICC board, decided to punish severely venues that presented substandard pitches. A system of imposing demerit points against each venue was proposed by the Chief Executives Committee. The proposal will be ratified at the ICC annual conference in June and subsequently, the news rules will take effect.”It was agreed that a system of demerit points be introduced, similar to the new Code of Conduct system. Demerit points will remain active for a rolling five-year period. When a venue accumulates 5 demerit points, its ICC accreditation will be suspended for a period of 12 months. Should a venue reach 10 points, its accreditation will be suspended for 24 months,” an ICC release said.

A total of 351 players, which includes 122 capped internationals, will feature in the IPL auction, scheduled to be held in Bangalore on February 20. The final roster was pruned from the original list of 799 players, after the eight franchises submitted their wishlists to the IPL.Fast bowler Ishant Sharma is one of the seven players with a maximum base price of INR 2 crore – approximately US $298,000 – for the tenth player auction. The other six include three England players – allrounder Ben Stokes, ODI and T20I captain Eoin Morgan and allrounder Chris Woakes – two Australian fast men Mitchell Johnson and Pat Cummins, and Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews.In the initial list there were 160 capped players from nine countries – none from Pakistan – and 639 uncapped ones. The final list also contained six players from the Associates, including five from Afghanistan: captain Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad, Rashid Khan and Dawlat Zadran. Shahzad and Rashid have the highest base prices among the five at INR 50 lakh. UAE batsman Chirag Suri was the other Associate player in the list.Seamer Sudeep Tyagi, who has played four ODIs, is the only one to have been cut from the original list of 24 capped Indian players.Considering they will have to put a majority of their players back into the auction in 2018, some franchise officials said they would not be too aggressive in buying players this season. However, they did agree that there would be considerable interest in the English players.Although the IPL is yet to decide on the retention rules, franchises expect the right-to-match option to be available. This allows a franchise to buy back a specific number of the players they have released for the auction by matching the highest bid those players attract. If they match the bid, they get the player.

Bangladesh squad for first Test

Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed, Nurul Hasan, Subashis Roy
In: Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed
Out: Shuvagata Hom, Mosaddek Hossain

Mushfiqur Rahim has been named in Bangladesh’s 15-man squad for the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington, with the selectors expecting him to recover from his hamstring injury in time to play. Pace spearhead Mustafizur Rahman has been rested, meaning Taskin Ahmed – who is yet to debut in Test cricket – is likely to lead the bowling attack when the match gets underway on January 12.Bangladesh have made two changes to the squad that was picked for their last Test, against England in Dhaka. Shuvagata Hom and Mosaddek Hossain have been left out while Rubel Hossain and Taskin are included in their place.Bangladesh have already lost the ODI and T20 series, so a strong line-up was expected for the Test side. While the batting line-up remains similar to the one fielded in the other two formats, the pace-bowling attack is very inexperienced.With 23 Tests, Rubel is by far the most experienced member of it. Like Taskin, Subashis Roy has never played in the longest format, while Kamrul Islam Rabbi has played just the two Tests. Three of these four will likely make the XI, with spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mehedi Hasan (also only two Tests so far) likely to complete the bowling-line up.The players outside of the squad who are present in New Zealand are Mustafizur, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mosaddek, Shuvagata, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Ebadot Hossain and Tanbir Hayder – Bangladesh have been taking their extended preliminary squad, which had trained in Australia earlier, along on this tour. A decision on which of these players to send home will be taken over the next couple of days.The decision to rest Mustafizur comes ahead of a busy season for Bangladesh – they play a Test in India next month, followed by a full tour of Sri Lanka in March, before preparation for the Champions Trophy in England begins. He might feature in the second Test, though.

Trevor Bayliss has described speculation over Alastair Cook’s future as captain as “a pain in the backside” and insisted that the dressing room is united in its support for him.Cook’s future has been called into question since he gave an interview to the magazine on the eve of the Bangladesh and India tours in which he said: “Deep down I don’t know how much longer I am going to carry on. It could be two months, it could be a year.”Suspicions he was preparing to step down only escalated after Cook described Joe Root as “ready to captain” following defeat in the Mumbai Test. That result meant England had lost three Tests in succession, four of their last five and five of their last seven. From a position where England were a result or two from reaching the top of the Test rankings in August, they are now facing the prospect of dropping to fifth if they lose the final Test of the series against India in Chennai.But Bayliss, the England coach, is clearly in no doubt that he wants Cook to continue. Describing Cook’s record as “fantastic”, Bayliss acknowledged that talk of him standing down had become a distraction.”I think everyone, to a man, in the dressing room would be disappointed if he wasn’t captain,” Bayliss said. “But when it’s constantly in the media all the time, it’s a bit of a pain in the backside. Especially when no one around the team believes that or thinks that. It’s a little bit aggravating.”I suppose anyone who’s done the job for that long, there’s always going to be questions towards the twilight of his career. But the job he’s done with the group, I think, has been fantastic.”Bayliss was especially frustrated as talk over Cook’s future had, he felt, detracted from “all the good things” England have achieved on the tour. And it is true that, while the scoreline is grim, England can take some comfort in the emergence of a couple of promising top-order batsmen, in Keaton Jennings and Haseeb Hameed, and the improvement in Adil Rashid’s legspin bowling.”It takes the focus away from all the good things we’ve done on this tour,” Bayliss said. “I think we’ve played some good cricket here. We’ve got to give credit where credit’s due: we’ve played good cricket and they’ve played even better cricket.”Bayliss now plans to speak to Cook and Andrew Strauss, the managing director of the England team, to resolve the uncertainty over the captaincy.”We’ve had some discussions in the past,” he said. “But those two guys – Cook and Strauss – have obviously had a big history. I’m sure we’ll have a chat between the two or three of us.”Bayliss has previously stated that he expected Cook to be captain for the Ashes series in 12 months’ time. “He’s talking about the next Ashes series and being out in Australia,” Bayliss told the BBC last week. “Sometimes there are little comments made along the way and they get blown out of all proportion.”He’s certainly up for the fight. I haven’t had any discussion with him any other way and that’s what we’ve been working towards. I was as surprised as anyone when I saw that in the papers.”

Perth Scorchers have been fined for breaching their salary cap ahead of the 2016-17 Big Bash League.The team was $5000 over the salary cap of $1.3 million and were fined $150,000, of which $145,000 was suspended pending no further breach of the cap for five years.Cricket Australia said the Scorchers had reported the breach themselves.”Following a thorough investigation, we understand that this was not a purposeful breaching of the rules by the Perth Scorchers, and this has been taken into account for the purpose of fixing an appropriate penalty,” Cricket Australia’s Head of Integrity, Iain Roy “The Perth Scorchers understand the seriousness of this error and have accepted the fine imposed by Commissioner Lewis and we thank them for working with us during this investigation.”This serves as a timely reminder that the integrity of our game is a high priority and we won’t accept this being compromised.”The 2016-17 season of the BBL begins on December 20. The Scorchers play their first game on December 23, in Perth.

KP Bhaskar, Delhi’s head coach, has said a systematic overhaul of Delhi cricket is needed if they are to stay competitive in the Ranji Trophy. His comments followed Delhi’s meek surrender to Karnataka inside eight sessions in Kolkata. Bhaskar, who himself had played 95-first class matches over 14 years and was a prolific run-scorer for a strong Delhi side in the ’80s, termed the current system “ineffective”.The chaos surrounding their build-up to the domestic season every year, he said, was one of the reasons why Delhi struggled. The chaos isn’t entirely of the team’s making; administrative hassles, Bhaskar said, couldn’t entirely be looked at in isolation as it impacted both age-group and senior sides competing under the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) banner.This year, the coach’s appointment was made with less than a month to go for the season, and the team didn’t get together until two days before their Ranji Trophy opener against Assam in Vadodara. A two-day practice game that was scheduled for September 26 and 27 against Uttar Pradesh was called off because the DDCA couldn’t find a ground to host the match. This even as curators and ground staff threatened a strike for unpaid wages and bonuses.”I got the team two days before the season started,” Bhaskar said, when asked about Delhi’s preparation when compared to some of the other sides which had pre-season conditioning camps and tournaments. “There was not much of mental preparation. Whatever was happening was whatever they were doing on their own, so I really don’t know. That is something which we need to work on. The system has to fall into place; we have to have more opportunities of playing exposure, and try to build a team before getting into the Ranji Trophy.”Last year, too, the team had to wait till the eve of their Ranji Trophy opener to know who the coach was. Ajay Jadeja, initially appointed head coach, didn’t travel with the team because he felt “his opinions and inputs don’t matter”. He was replaced by Vijay Dahiya. Then there was also the issue of factions within the DDCA naming three different probables lists for the Ranji Trophy. Their pre-season camp was further mired in controversy, with nobody to oversee the initial nets sessions at the Feroz Shah Kotla and no certainty over who was running the team.Expecting the players to perform without a proper system in place, Bhaskar said, was tough. Among the things that needed to change, he said, was the system of merely playing in 40-over games in the build up to the Ranji Trophy. “Look at our batting,” he said. “We don’t have three-day formats; we don’t really play in pre-season tournaments like Buchi Babu or KSCA invitational. So currently we are only finding ways to work around it.”Another aspect Bhaskar wanted looked into was the talent pool; he said it wasn’t being streamlined properly because of selection issues. “Last season, we had 45 different players playing for Delhi Under-23s. So think of it, how long it is going to take for the talented players from there to reach the Ranji Trophy?”Tomorrow, if things don’t improve, we may have 50 players playing across eight games in the Ranji Trophy. Things need to be put in place, but at least we’ve made a start now. Things are looking good. Justice Mudgal has taken the initiative [of cleaning up the DDCA mess]. Let’s hope things improve.”