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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.”

Match facts

October 13-17 2016
Start time 1530 local (11:30 GMT)1:22

Dujon: Hope younger WI players can learn from experience

Big picture

Pakistan are no longer the No. 1 Test team, having lost the top ranking to India, but they still retain the sense of being champions. They are set to play their 400th Test match, a landmark game in more than one way since it will be played with a pink ball, under lights, at the Dubai International Stadium. It will be only the second ever day-night Test, following the Australia-New Zealand match in Adelaide last year.First-class matches have been played under lights in both Pakistan and West Indies, but the experience is still a new one for most of the players from both sides. The visibility of the ball post-dusk has been a talking point, particularly with the pink ball sporting a black seam, but there is more excitement than anxiety among the players in the lead-up to the Test.The UAE has previous experience of staging pink-ball cricket, having hosted the English first-class season-opener between MCC and the champion county under lights multiple times since 2010. Those matches, however, were all played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Dubai is hosting its first pink-ball match, and it will be interesting to see if the stadium, which has a capacity of 25,000, can draw sizeable crowds for the Test match.Pakistan sit comfortably ahead of West Indies in the rankings table and are playing in familiar conditions, but they will guard against complacency. They will be without their best batsman, Younis Khan, who is resting after recovering from dengue fever, and are likely to feature two debutants as well as a new-look combination with five specialist batsmen and an allrounder slotting into a five-man bowling attack.West Indies lost their most recent Test series 2-0, at home against India, and the margin could have been worse if not for rain. They haven’t begun this tour well either, having been whitewashed in both the ODI and T20 series, and it will not be a surprise if they suffer another 3-0 reverse in the Tests. But they have gained a bit of confidence from their two warm-up games, in which as many as six of their batsmen – Leon Johnson, Shai Hope (twice), Jermaine Blackwood, Shane Dowrich, Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo – made half-centuries, while their bowlers also got among the wickets. It remains to be seen, though, if the No. 8-ranked Test team can make any sort of dent in Pakistan’s proud record in the UAE.

Form guide

Pakistan: WLLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies: DLDLD

In the spotlight

Babar Azam announced himself with three back-to-back hundreds in the ODI series, and Younis Khan’s absence will allow him to showcase his talents at Test level. Pakistan have a strong batting group, and Babar will need to extend his ODI form into his Test debut to make it hard for the team management to leave him out when Younis returns.Darren Bravo struggled in the home Tests against India, but he will be encouraged by the fact that his overseas average (51.18) far exceeds his average at home (29.35). He comes into the series with a bit of form behind him, with an innings of 61 in the second ODI and a 91 for the West Indians in their tour game against the PCB Patron’s XI in Sharjah. Legspinner Devendra Bishoo also impressed in that match, picking up a five-wicket haul in the first innings, and will be relied on to do a lot of bowling if he plays.Darren Bravo scored 91 in the warm-up game against the PCB Patron’s XI in Sharjah•AFP

Team news

Pakistan’s Test line-up has been fairly stable over the last few years, but they have often craved an allrounder to give them flexibility in different conditions. Mohammad Nawaz, who is likely to make his Test debut in Dubai, could be that sought-after player with his batting and left-arm spin. Babar Azam will come in for Younis Khan as he recuperates from his recent bout of dengue fever.Pakistan (possible): 1 Sami Aslam, 2 Azhar Ali, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Misbah ul Haq (capt), 5 Babar Azam, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Yasir Shah, 10 Mohammad Amir, 11 Sohail Khan.With half-centuries in both warm-up matches, Shai Hope has made a case for inclusion in West Indies’ middle order. Marlon Samuels, who has been in poor form in Test matches of late, didn’t play either game, and it will be interesting to see if he retains his place at No. 4. With Roston Chase established as their first-choice spin-bowling allrounder, West Indies will choose between Devendra Bishoo and Jomel Warrican as the specialist spinner to partner him.West Indies (possible): 1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Leon Johnson, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Shai Hope/Marlon Samuels, 5 Jermaine Blackwood, 6 Roston Chase, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Miguel Cummins, 11 Shannon Gabriel.

Pitch and conditions

Temperatures in the UAE have come down and the weather is likely to be cooler than it was during the limited-overs matches. Dew could be a factor, though neither side has complained about it so far. It is understood that the ground staff have used anti-dew spray on the outfield to minimise its impact and reduce the likelihood of spinners experiencing difficulty gripping the ball in the evening.

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan are playing their 400th Test match. They played their first match in Delhi against India in 1952. In their 63 years and 11 months as a Test team, Pakistan have won 128 games, lost 113, and drawn 158.
• Yasir Shah is five wickets short of 100 in Test matches. He has played 16 Test matches so far, and will become the joint-second-quickest to the mark if he gets there in Dubai.
• West Indies have won four Tests and lost 25 while playing away from home in the last ten years. Three of their four wins have been against Bangladesh. The last time they won an away Test against an opposition other than Bangladesh was in December 2007, in Port Elizabeth against South Africa.

Quotes

“I think there could be no better time than this to make his Test debut. He has played mature innings and has developed well. He has played well not only here but also in New Zealand and looks a good prospect.”
“We obviously went down in our last series, but it is a fresh series here and we had a pretty good lead up to this Test series. We have been here quite a while and most of the guys had a good camp in the Caribbean.”

Slowly but surely, the Matador Cup’s national footprint is expanding again. Its New South Wales-centric schedule has been a source of considerable angst among other teams since the tournament was moved to an early season carnival format three years ago, but a smattering of matches in Perth and Brisbane this year mean the Blues will not be the only team playing at home.Last season’s competition was affected by the cancellation of Australia’s Bangladesh tour for security reasons, meaning it was contested by full strength teams across all six states. This time around the scenario is rather different: not only is the Australian ODI team on tour in South Africa, but numerous bowlers, notably Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, are absent injured or resting.This means a knock-on effect for numerous states, most notably South Australia. The reward for emergent displays in both the Matador Cup and the Sheffield Shield last year mean than no fewer than four first-choice Redbacks – Travis Head, Adam Zampa, Daniel Worrall and Joe Mennie – are in South Africa. The coach Jamie Siddons has acknowledged the challenge ahead.”We feel ready despite missing bowlers from last year’s attack and it’s going to be difficult without them,” Siddons said. “But we have a couple of young guys that have some tricks in their repertoire. It’s not going to be easy or the same, we have to find another way of doing it with different types of players and we’re ready and aiming for similar success.”I think it’s really exciting watching the young guys play and the next step is to promote a few more of them like Jake Lehmann, Jake Weatherald, Alex Ross and Alex Carey – who are all really good chances of pushing their names forward now. Our aim is to be successful again and win games and if those guys step up like I think they will we should match last year – maybe we’re looking at batsmen to step up instead of the bowlers this time.”Victoria are another state needing to reach deeper into their squad for bowlers in particular, with John Hastings, Scott Boland and Chris Tremain in South Africa and Peter Siddle and James Pattinson still working their way back from injury. The new coach Andrew McDonald, only recently returned from Leicestershire to replace David Saker, must also work with Glenn Maxwell in the aftermath of the enigmatic allrounder’s ill-timed bid to move to NSW for the summer.McDonald’s old Bushrangers team-mate Brad Hodge has s still more vexing task as the mentor of the Cricket Australia XI, a youthful hodgepodge (no pun intended) of players from across the states who did not make it into the first-choice squads. This is the second of a two-year experiment with the XI, designed to provide additional opportunities for young players against the best of domestic players.The concept has not been universally loved, even if the CA XI recovered last season from a horrid start to win a game over Tasmania and produce a handful of players – Hilton Cartwright, Mitch Swepson, Jimmy Peirson – able to progress further over the course of the season that followed. Many among the states feel the team is emblematic of CA’s desire for central developmental control, rather than simply building the most competitive tournament possible. A lack of any senior players to leaven out the youth, even with the likes of Ben Rohrer, Chris Hartley and Chadd Sayers available, has only heightened that impression.Justin Langer, coach of Western Australia, spoke for many of the tension between development and competition. The Sheffield Shield too has been subject to numerous stratagems designed to help the Australian team overall, but experiments like pink ball matches and the use of Dukes balls for a portion of the shield this season has left Langer and others questioning their wisdom.”We make Cricket Australia very aware that we have to keep the integrity of the game,” he said. “We have the best domestic competition in the world, but it is frustrating at times. This season we will play two pink-ball games, three with red Kookaburras and five with Dukes balls and hopefully six with the Dukes. I like consistency.”Consistent or not, the Matador will afford many players the chance to either secure their state spots at the outset of the season, or put their names in lights for Australian selection into the future. Whether in Perth, Brisbane or Sydney, many a selection question will get closer to being answered.

ScorecardGyanendra Malla top-scored in Nepal’s triumph at Lord’s•Kaushal Adhikari

Nepal inscribed another noteworthy entry in their cricketing history by winning on their first visit to Lord’s on Tuesday in front of several thousand delighted fans. On a sweltering day in north London, a Nepal XI defeated MCC by 41 runs after which the Nepal captain, Paras Khadka, led his players around the outfield to pay tribute to their typically exuberant supporters.Having chosen to bat first, Nepal’s every run was cheered to the rafters by a crowd of around 5000 that spread itself out across the Mound, Tavern, Edrich and Allen stands. Boundaries and wickets brought even greater outbursts of adulation and chants of “Ne-pal! Ne-pal! Ne-pal!” echoed around the old ground as Sompal Kami and Basant Regmi cleaned up the tail to dismiss MCC for 176 in pursuit of 218 in 50 overs.The fixture was arranged as part of celebrations to mark the 200-year-old relationship between Britain and Nepal, with proceeds from the match going towards rebuilding work in Nepal after last year’s earthquake.MCC opener George Adair did his best to spoil the visitors’ party by scoring an even 100 but the left-hander was eighth man out, caught behind off Regmi, with the asking rate rising towards two runs a ball. Nepal’s main contributor was Gyanendra Malla with 39 but there were useful scores throughout the order as they built a match-winning total beneath clear blue skies, a Nepali flag above the pavilion fluttering in the occasional breeze.”Boys were excited, a little bit nervous as well – you can understand, playing at Lord’s just doesn’t happen everyday,” Khadka said. “I think we managed to hold ourselves pretty well.”Everybody contributed bits and pieces, overall it was very good. Batting, we were 20-30 runs short but the boys kept digging in, the wicket wasn’t that easy and the bowlers were very, very disciplined and that was one of the key factors for us to win today.”The result gave the majority of those who had paid £10 for a ticket the perfect summer’s day out – Nepal shirts were de rigueur, although those attempting to unfurl a flag in the stands received a gentle talking to from the stewards, as per Lord’s rules.MCC were captained by former Middlesex and Somerset allrounder Keith Dutch and included former Queensland batsman Clinton Perren and South Africa-born fast bowler Chad Barrett, who made his only first-class appearance for Northamptonshire two years ago.Dutch and Barrett picked up two wickets apiece and Nepal did well to get up to 217 for 8 in their 50 overs after slipping to 174 for 7. Khadka swept the only six of the innings as he and Malla took the score to 104 for 2 but the experienced pair fell in successive overs, as Dutch and left-arm spinner Marc Reingold established a stranglehold on the scoring.Kami and Regmi bolted together a resourceful 42-run stand for the eighth wicket and the Nepal bowlers then proved adept at defending a score. Sagar Pun picked up 3 for 35 with his offspin as only Adair, fellow MCC opener Steve Clark and No. 7 Richard Wilkinson managed to get into double-figures – and, in the case of Adair, a 28-year-old who plays for Hampstead, beyond. His well-paced century, from 122 balls, was warmly applauded by players on both sides.Pubudu Dassanayake, who stepped down as Nepal coach last year after being involved in some of their greatest moments of recent times, joined the celebrations in the dressing room afterwards. Dassanayake has been back working with the side recently as a consultant, arranged by the ICC, and his pride in their achievement was obvious.”These boys, the amount of work they put in, they deserve this, to come and play a game here,” Dassanayake said. “They make a lot of sacrifices and fight always.”

ScorecardRikki Wessels helped get the innings off to a flying start•Getty Images

Despite rapid half-centuries from Riki Wessels and Michael Lumb, Nottinghamshire needed the help of six penalty runs before scraping over the line to defeat Lancashire by two wickets in their NatWest T20 encounter at Trent Bridge.Wessels made 58 and Lumb scored 53 but the home side then collapsed in pursuit of a victory target of 185, before a dramatic intervention from the rule book. Needing 15 runs from the last over, Notts were awarded those six penalty runs as the defending champions hadn’t been in a position to begin their last over before the allotted cut-off time.A Sam Wood maximum, heaved high over the leg-side boundary, either side of a couple of scrambled singles, left Luke Fletcher to clip Arron Lilley away for the winning run, with two deliveries remaining.After Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 56 had helped Lancashire to 184 for 4, Notts had been sent on their way by their openers, with Wessels scoring his runs from 31 balls, with seven fours and three sixes, while Lumb registered his first fifty in domestic T20 cricket since July 2013.The chase got off to an explosive start, with 72 runs coming from the six Powerplay overs. The opening partnership had been extended to 100, a county T20 record against the Red Rose, by the time Lumb hit Stephen Parry to deep midwicket. Wessels was then bowled by Jordan Clark, who also removed Samit Patel for nought, before George Edwards grabbed 3 for 38, as Notts slumped from 143 for 2 to 168 for 8.Earlier, Buttler’s 27-ball 50 ensured the visitors finished their innings on a positive note. Martin Guptill and Alviro Petersen had put 40 on for the first wicket, before Harry Gurney had the New Zealand international caught in the deep for 28. Petersen followed for 21, trapped lbw by Patel, one delivery after lofting the spinner back over his head for six.Patel also removed the dangerous Liam Livingstone, who edged behind to Wessels. The wicketkeeper then handed over the gloves to Brendan Taylor, with the former Zimbabwe captain remaining behind the sticks for the second half of the innings.Karl Brown followed up his Roses’ half century on Friday evening with another handy contribution, although he should have fallen on 39 when he received a grateful gift from a close friend – Steven Mullaney, Brown’s pal from their days together in the Lancashire academy, put down the simplest of caught-and-bowled chances.Wessels, out on the ropes this time, took his second catch of the innings to remove Brown but that only enabled Buttler to take centre stage for some belligerent hitting, late in the innings. Three sixes in four balls, two of them from consecutive Gurney deliveries, helped take Buttler to his half-century and onwards to an unbroken 59-run partnership with Steven Croft.After two defeats, Notts now have their first victory in this season’s competition, while Lancashire’s record now stands at one win and three losses.