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He has scored 854 Test runs at an average of 77.63 in 2021, but as good as he has been this year, Dimuth Karunaratne has bigger goals in mind. Of Sri Lanka’s Test batters, only Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have hit more than 10,000 runs. Karunaratne only has 5406 in the bank at present, but wants to be Sri Lanka’s first opener with a five-figure tally to his name.”Scoring 10,000 runs is my main target. I don’t know if I’ll be able to achieve that, but that’s what I’ve got in my mind,” Karunaratne said after hitting 147 and 83 in Sri Lanka’s 187-run victory over West Indies in Galle. “If I can continue this form, I’ll be able to get close to 10,000 runs. I like to improve as much as I can, and whenever I finish a match, I’ll go and check where I am on the Sri Lanka run charts, to figure out how many I need to score to pass someone.”Karunaratne is within touching distance of three of Sri Lanka’s best ever batters, in Thilan Samaraweera (5462 runs), Tillakaratne Dilshan (5492), and Marvan Atapattu (5502). Although he is already 33, what is encouraging about his record is that since 2018, he averages 47.97, when he had averaged 37.08 before that.”If I score another 100-150 more runs, I think I can surpass a few more players,” Karunaratne said. “I’d also like to play 100 Tests.”His outstanding run tally in this match had come despite a long layoff from top-flight cricket – Sri Lanka having played their previous Test in early May (Karunaratne is no longer picked for ODIs). And although there was a domestic 50-over competition scheduled for October and November, many of those matches were washed out by the north-east monsoon, and in the games Karunaratne did play, he made only 17, 7 and, 18.”I was quite worried before the Test because I hadn’t been able to train. I started training in October, and we were mainly doing fitness work. There weren’t a lot of skill sessions – only about five or six because of the rain. The weather didn’t give us a chance to play many domestic matches either, and even in the games I did play, I didn’t make a lot of runs. From the day I came here to Galle I worked really hard, but there was definitely a doubt as to whether I can score runs.Related

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“With my calibre, I think if I get a start I can convert it into a big score. There was a nervous start in the first innings, but eventually I came into rhythm and that carried through into the second innings. I still think I haven’t reached my peak form though.”Having now hit six consecutive 50-plus scores in Tests, Karunaratne is one shy of equalling the world record for such a streak. He has also struck four centuries since January.”I think it’s a lot to do with experience,” he said of his consistency. ” When it comes to conditions, I know now when there’s going to be a lot of turn, or when there will be a little less. I’m sharing that information with the youngsters as well.”And knowing that I had scored a lot of runs earlier in the year, there was less of a fear of failure also.”

Dhananjaya de Silva came to the crease with Sri Lanka only 23 runs ahead, with three wickets down, and their most experienced batter injured an unable to play normally. By the time his work ended on day four, Sri Lanka were 279 runs ahead, with two wickets still in hand, in firm control.De Silva, in sublime touch for much of this knock, was 153 not out off 259 balls by stumps, put on 78 alongside Pathum Nissanka to rescue Sri Lanka from immediate peril, and made 51 with Ramesh Mendis during a second session in which West Indies’ spinners made a four-wicket charge, but it was with No. 10 Lasith Embuldeniya with whom he produced the most consequential and perhaps match-defining partnership – an as-yet unbeaten association of 107 runs, during which he completed his eighth Test century, and breezed past 150, plundering 73 runs off 98 balls from a tiring attack.He was dropped twice – both times off the bowling of Veerasammy Permaul. On 5, wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva could not hold on to a big edge, though this was an incredibly difficult chance, the ball traveling quickly and hitting only the tips of his gloves. The opportunity West Indies will rue more came when de Silva was on 116 and attempted a slog sweep with the field spread. Permaul got himself under the swirling top edge as he ran toward the sight screen, but ultimately could not wrap his fingers around the ball. If he’d caught that, Sri Lanka would have been nine down with a lead of 218. It’s possible West Indies would already have been batting by now, chasing a difficult but not outlandish target.The earliest stretch of the de Silva-Embuldeniya stand had been tense. Embuldeniya had come in with Sri Lanka only 179 ahead, and with Permaul having taken two wickets in quick succession with the second new ball. De Silva was batting on 80, and so the hundred was in sight as well. But the pair settled into a rhythm – de Silva farming the strike to give Embuldeniya only the last two or three balls an over, where possible. Though de Silva didn’t always attempt to hit boundaries early in those overs, largely because Kraigg Brathwaite had positioned fielders on the rope.Embuldeniya scratched his way through that period, facing 20 balls before de Silva was able to complete the century. After that, de Silva moved up the gears. He hit Roston Chase behind point for four soon after getting to a hundred, then slammed him over long-on two balls later. The field spread back to him, he ran hard twos, and when Brathwaite brought the seamers back, attacked them as well. Having got to his hundred off his 189th delivery, he added the next 50 off 65.Embuldeniya played an unambitious supporting hand, all the way up to stumps. He faced 110 balls for his 25. He did not hit a single boundary, but was largely good in defence. West Indies, through this period, seemed ragged and short of ideas. Brathwaite bowled a strange spell in which he occasionally tossed the ball up almost comically high.West Indies will be kicking themselves for letting the situation slip, after having surged through the middle session, and having kept the opposition in check even before lunch. Sri Lanka had begun the day still three runs in arrears, and with two inexperienced batters at the crease. Permaul got one to bite to take Charith Asalanka’s inside edge, which popped up off the pad to short leg, in the first hour of play. And although Nissanka completed his third fifty of the series in the company of de SIlva, he was out the ball before lunch too – lbw to Chase.Chase struck again in the afternoon, pocketing a return catch off Dinesh Chandimal, before Brathwaite was the beneficiary of the only wicket Sri Lanka truly threw away in the day – Mendis holing out at deep midwicket the over before the second new ball was due. Permaul removed Suranga Lakmal and Angelo Mathews cheaply with that new ball. He finished the day on 3 for 100 – West Indies’ best analysis.

Big picture

Scotland’s unbeaten run at this year’s World Cup came to a crashing halt against Afghanistan on Monday. Several dubious records were bagged on the way as they lost nine wickets to Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan, a signal that quality spin is an Achilles heel for this team.Their first shot at leaving that performance firmly in the past will come on Wednesday against Namibia, the only other Associate team remaining in the World Cup. With three teams from the subcontinent in their group, and New Zealand to boot, both Scotland and Namibia will have earmarked this fixture as the place to pick up two sure points.For Namibia, it is the first match of this stage, and a chance to get started with a win before any thoughts of upsetting the bigger teams later on. For Scotland, it’s a little more urgent than that. They were the most dominant side in the first round and starting with losses to the two teams they would consider closest to them in stature will sour what has already been a historic campaign.The teams have already played each other twice this month before the World Cup began, and have won one game each.*

Form guide

Namibia WWLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Scotland LWWWL
Scotland would want to prove the loss to Afghanistan was an aberration•ICC via Getty

In the spotlight

Gerhard Erasmus has already sealed his status as a Namibia great, as the captain who has led them to what will now be back-to-back T20 World Cups. His fifty against Ireland brought them into this stage of the tournament, and was described by Player-of-the-Match David Wiese as the more important of the two knocks that helped seal qualification for them. He’s been out cheaply against Scotland the last two times they’ve met, and will be looking to set the straight when it matters the most. Erasmus is Namibia’s top-scorer in this format and will be expected to set the tone on WednesdayGeorge Munsey has been looking like a man in form without yet making a big score. At the top of the order, Munsey has shown shades of his destructive best, and will be looking to go deeper in the innings as Scotland look to put behind their batting failure from earlier in the week. Munsey bats in what is the best phase in these conditions and Namibia will consider him one of the main threats.

Team news

Neither side is likely to change their XIs.Namibia: (possible) 1 Zane Green (wk), 2 Craig Williams, 3 Gerhard Erasmus (capt), 4 David Wiese, 5 JJ Smit, 6 Jan Frylinck, 7 Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, 8 Pikky Ya France/Stephen Baard, 9 Ruben Trumpelmann, 10 Michael van Lingen, 11 Bernard ScholtzScotland: (possible) 1 Kyle Coetzer (capt), 2 George Munsey, 3 Calum MacLeod, 4 Richie Berrington, 5 Matthew Cross (wk), 6 Michael Leask, 7 Chris Greaves, 8 Mark Watt, 9 Josh Davey, 10 Safyaan Sharif, 11 Brad Wheal

Pitch and conditions

The forecast has Abu Dhabi’s temperature hovering about 30 degree celsius during the start of this evening fixture, among the coolest evenings in the tournament so far. It’s a pitch that’s shown assistance for fast bowling as well recently, but evening fixtures have generally taken the pitch out of the equation at this venue, with dew being a much bigger factor. Four of the last five wins have been for the team batting second. It is, however, among the friendlier venues for bowlers in this format due to the long boundaries.

Stats and trivia

• These teams have played each other in Abu Dhabi previously, but that was in the World Cup qualifiers back in 2012. Scotland lost that game as well
• Safyaan Sharif is set to play his 50th game for Scotland. He is their top wicket-taker in T20Is with 57, 30 of which have come in the UAE in 22 innings
• With seven sixes, Wiese is currently tied at the top with Evin Lewis for most sixes in the tournament

Quotes

“Financially we weren’t where we wanted to be, but as a team we weren’t really performing. And to think of tournaments like qualifying tournaments, we tend to just fall away at the end. We knew we really had to turn around, and it’s really been an effort to do that. It had to be some great role play within Cricket Namibia – from the coaching staff to the board members to the administration itself – that have followed to buy into one vision and go some way. And now we sort of I guess at the peak and reaping those rewards which is great. And hopefully continue going upwards.”
“Namibia are a very good team. I actually said before the Cup started that I expected them to go through. I’m kind of pleased that they did. They’ve got everything covered – they’ve got experience, they’ve got a really good fielding unit and very tidy bowling. So we know enough about them, we’ve played against them three or four times in the last, maybe three years now. There’s no real surprises but at the same time we do expect to go out there and win.”

Rachin Ravindra had fairly a low-key return to the scene of his first Under-19 World Cup from more than five years ago, falling for a golden duck in New Zealand’s drubbing in the first T20I against Bangladesh. Two days later, Ravindra claimed 3 for 22 – his best T20 figures – to stall Bangladesh’s progress after their openers had struck up a 59-run stand.At first, Liton Das unleashed a slog-swept six to unsettle Ravindra, but the left-arm fingerspinner responded by shortening his length, finding some turn and having the batter playing on for 33 off 29 balls. Next ball, he tricked Mushfiqur Rahim to such an extent that a master of these conditions was stumped for a duck. The hat-trick ball was darted into the surface, stopping on it so much that Shakib Al Hasan almost spooned a return catch.Ravindra had success bowling at the death too, sliding one away from Mohammad Naim’s swinging arc and having him dragging a catch to long-on. “Yeah, it was nice,” the up-and-coming allrounder said as he recalled the spell. “I think it was good to be able to break up partnerships a little bit and contribute a bit; ultimately lead to a few poles and a couple of dots. It was good to have those comms, especially Tommy [Latham]; just discussing with them [about] how to go about it and I think that sort of helped me a lot in being able to bounce off those senior guys.”Ravindra said that pushing the ball quicker through the air and bowling into the pitch is his default mode of operation in T20 cricket. The other left-arm fingerspinner, Ajaz Patel, reaped 1 for 7 in his four overs in the first match with a similar bowling style.”That’s usually how I look to bowl in T20s – trying to bowl a little bit back of a length that sticks hard and in these conditions. It works quite well [here] because the odd ball can skid or turn and it’s quite hard to hit down the ground using that pace.”Related

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Adapting to Dhaka’s pitches as a batter though is an entirely different proposition. Ravindra has made only 10 runs in two innings. It had been a similar struggle at the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, where he managed 58 runs in five innings at strike rate of 54.20.Ravindra understands he needs to do more. “It’ll be nice to bat a little bit longer and hopefully contribute a few more runs towards a win,” he said. “I think it’s about hitting good cricket shots on these sort of wickets. You play good cricket shots, you’re going to get that boundary eventually. You don’t necessarily need to manufacture too much, but seeing the way he [Latham] played to his strengths and hit his sweeps, [it] looks like he was well-prepared.”Despite suffering back-to-back losses and facing a must-win situation so early in the series, Ravindra said the mood in the camp was upbeat and that New Zealand weren’t too far away from clicking in unison.”As I said, the improvement between game one and game two is incredible, maybe on a slightly better surface, but it showed in our batting, especially the way we were able to adapt. I think that’s great signs coming up for our next three games. We can look to take learnings from here and we are still not firing on all cylinders. Hopefully, we can get it right next game and get our combinations right and hopefully [get] a win.”

ScorecardLast August Yorkshire took the immensely far-sighted step of opening a dedicated multi-faith room at Headingley. Let us hope on the second evening of this match that it will be made available to devout believers in Lancashire.If so, the visiting communicants will not be short of supplications and chief amongst them will be that their side can find someone to copy the self-denial of Adam Lyth and lead their side away from the despond of defeat on the third day of this game.The bookmakers’ odds – if we may shift our gaze from God to mammon for a moment – are weighed heavily against such an escape. After conceding a first-innings lead of 150 runs, Lancashire have already lost four wickets in reducing the deficit to nine.Two of the wickets were taken by Jack Brooks but the crucial scalp of Haseeb Hameed was claimed for the second time in little more than 24 hours by Ben Coad, when the opener played across a ball slanting in at the stumps. And Steven Croft departed to a Lyth slip catch when Ryan Sidebottom moved one across him.Visiting hopes probably rest on Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who will go into Sunday morning on 43 not out, and on Dane Vilas, who has already made good runs for the county in his first season. But the shrieks and yells from the Yorkshire fielders that followed each delivery in the evening session were not merely an attempt to kid the batsman that something was happening. A 150-run lead should prove decisive on this pitch and it may not matter that the weather forecast for Monday is very gloomyThat Yorkshire possessed such a handsome first-innings advantage can largely be explained by Lyth’s remarkable feat of concentration and self-discipline. The opener came into this match with 90 runs against his name in Championship cricket this season at a grimy average of 12.85.To a degree, Lyth’s struggles continued in this innings yet he fought his way through them with seven partners, reaching a half-century in 155 minutes off 125 balls and his 22nd first-class hundred in 314 minutes, having hit 13 boundaries.To judge the merit of the innings one has to realise that Lyth is frequently one of the finest attacking strokeplayers in the game. The ball sings off his blade and he can make even his England team-mates in the Yorkshire side appear pedestrian accumulators. Yet here he was, scuttling the nudged singles and tolerating the less than perfect drives for twos.Adam Lyth’s season came to life with a century that might win a Roses match•Getty Images

Lyth was in the 90s for 17 overs and faced 41 balls before pushing Tom Bailey to midwicket to reach three figures. The deep-throated roar from the ranks massed at the Kirkstall Lane End at once saluted its worth. Lyth is Yorkshire in thew and sinew; perhaps he recalled the winter drives from his Whitby home to the Headingley nets when he was moving through the county’s junior ranks. Maybe any sacrifice seems worth it when you may have set up a win in the Roses match.Mind you, Lancashire’s bowlers did all they could to hobble their opponents’ progress during the first two sessions of Saturday’s cricket. Indeed, they may regard the capture of eight wickets for 180 runs in conditions nothing like as testing as Friday’s to be something of a victory.Predictably, perhaps, Ryan McLaren made the first breakthrough when he came round the wicket and squared up Gary Ballance, Vilas at slip taking the first of his three catches from the resultant edge.That wicket took the sheen off what had been a good first half-hour for Yorkshire, the comical highlight of which had been the four byes resulting from a ball bowled by McLaren which swung past the far side of Vilas with the wicketkeeper Davies sprawling in front of him There are few things a Yorkshireman enjoys more than the sight of Lancashire’s cricketers doing a passable imitation of Fred Karno’s Army; so the glee in the Kirkstall Lane Stand when this tiny piece of chaos unfolded needs little imagining.Yet the morning and afternoon’s cricket revealed a team who were determined to keep Yorkshire’s lead in check. Never was this more clearly in evidence than in the close fielding. Eight catches were taken in the cordon during Yorkshire’s innings with the pick of them being McLaren’s right-handed effort to remove Jack Leaning ten minutes before lunch. That wicket was taken by Saqib Mahmood who also removed Tim Bresnan next ball and enjoyed his best day in a Lancashire shirt.Like Mahmood, Jordan Clark took three wickets and they included that of Lyth who played by far the poorest shot of his innings to the ball after he reached his century, a wild drive nicking the ball to Davies; the wicketkeeper also did the needful to get rid of Coad two balls later. Yorkshire’s innings ended when Brooks swung Bailey to Hameed at deep backward square leg and Lancashire’s second attempt began under bright skies.The day’s cricket concluded, though, with the lights on and with the slips’ falsetto cries forming a curious and slightly histrionic accompaniment to every play and miss and every unevenly bouncing ball.Yet the truth is that if Lancashire get out of this game with even five points for a draw it will seem like a win to them and it will feel like a defeat to Yorkshire. For that to happen, though, Chanderpaul, Vilas and probably a couple of others will need to take root. The effect on the visiting players’ morale would be very great and it may also steer supporters away from apostasy in these dark times.

Former South Africa fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe has been charged by CSA for several breaches of its Anti-Corruption Code relating to the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series. He has also been provisionally suspended from any involvement in cricket under the jurisdiction of CSA, the ICC or any other ICC members.The charges include contriving to fix during the T20 tournament and follows the previous bans handed to six players, including former Test wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile and batsman Alviro Petersen.

Significant charges against Tsotsobe

• Contriving to fix or otherwise improperly influence, or being party to a scheme in which attempts would be made to fix or otherwise improperly influence, a match or matches in the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series

• Seeking to accept, accepting or agreeing to accept a bribe or reward to fix or contrive to fix or influence improperly a match or matches in the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series

• Failing to disclose the receipt of a gift or payment that he knew or ought to have known was given to him to procure a breach of the Code or that was made in circumstances that could bring him or the sport of cricket into disrepute

• Failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations to engage in Corrupt Conduct under the Code

“The charges against Tsotsobe follows a lengthy investigation which started around October 2015 by CSA’s Anti-Corruption Unit, and the previous findings and bans imposed on Gulam Bodi, Jean Symes, Pumi Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati, Thami Tsolekile and Alviro Petersen for offences under the Code relating to the 2015 RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Series,” CSA said in a release.”To date Tsotsobe has not been under any form of suspension. Under Article 4.7 of the Code, CSA has now provisionally suspended Tsotsobe from playing, coaching or otherwise being involved in any capacity in any match under its jurisdiction or that of the ICC or any other ICC member.”Tsotsobe, 33, played five Tests, 61 ODIs and 23 T20Is for South Africa in a career that began in January 2009. His last appearances for the national team came 2014. He played 61 first-class matches, 144 List A games and 77 T20s over a 11-year career; the last of those domestic games were in December 2015.

Australia’s cricketers are considering the formal payment MOU offer announced by Cricket Australia (CA) on Tuesday, as the board pushes on with its attempt to break up the fixed percentage of revenue share agreement that has existed since 1998.While CA have agreed with the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) to include women in a single MOU for the first time, the remainder of the offer stays broadly in line with the initial pay submission presented to the players late last year. Talks have so far been the most fractious since the ACA was formed 20 years ago. The offer was formally submitted to the ACA this afternoon.

The proposed changes

• Total pay increases to A$419 million for 2017-22, from the current A$311 million

• Average women’s pay increases by more than 125%, to A$179,000 a year from A$79,000 for international cricketers; it is A$52,000 from A$22,000 for domestic cricketers

• Average international men’s central contract to rise to A$816,000 by 2021-22, with match fees up to an average of A$1.45 million from A$1.16 million in 2016-17

• Average domestic men’s payments to rise to A$235,000 by 2021-22, up from A$199,000 in 2016-17

• Minimum and average hourly pay will be the same for men and women domestic cricketers

• Identical match fees for Women’s National Cricket League and Matador Cup

James Sutherland, the CA chief executive, heralded measures such as equal hourly rates of pay for male and female domestic players, an increase for women of 125% next to their current deals. He also outlined the overall increase in player remuneration from A$311 million over the current MOU period (2012-17) to A$419 million over the next MOU (2017-2022).”We are pleased that the Australian Cricketers Association agrees with us that women, for the first time, should be part of the MOU, and we have proposed a financial model that has gender equity at its heart,” Sutherland said.”Under the proposal, women will receive an immediate average pay increase of more than 125%. As a result, our international women cricketers will see their average pay increase from A$79,000 to A$179,000, as of July 1 this year. By 2021, we expect to see our international women cricketers earning an average of A$210,000.”And our state female cricketers, playing both WNCL [Women’s National Cricket League] and WBBL [Women’s Big Bash League], will see their average remuneration more than double from A$22,000 to A$52,000 this year. Under this offer, we will achieve gender equity by ensuring that the minimum and average hourly pay will be the same for state men and women in 2017/18. In addition, match fees for the WNCL and the Matador Cup will be exactly the same: a one-day game for a state cricketer is worth the same to both men and women.”We are also introducing, for the first time, prize money for the WNCL of A$258,000 and the WBBL of A$309,000 this coming summer.”The Australia’s women cricketers’ fees – those who play international cricket – have increased by 125% to A$ 179,000•Getty Images

One of the most hotly-contested aspects of the initial CA submission was that only the top male players deserved a fixed share of the game’s revenue because they helped provide most of windfall from international matches. Sutherland indicated that CA wanted to offer guaranteed minimums to the players while keeping any blue sky amounts over and above projections for funding other aspects of the game.CA’s figures come with the asterisk that the next round of television rights deals, both for Australian and overseas markets, are resolved over the next 15 months. Sutherland indicated that even if the revenue raised by these deals turned out to be comfortably above current projections, only international players would be entitled to a share in the upside.”We have placed the emphasis on increasing the guaranteed amount that the men will receive, rather than rely on any projected increase in revenue,” Sutherland said. “We understand that the ACA prefers the status quo, but CA believes that the model devised in the 1990s, which is based on a fixed percentage of revenue, has served its intended purpose – to make Australia’s cricketers some of the best paid sportspeople in the country.”It was a means to an end, not something that has to hold us back from providing players with financial certainty, a fair deal for all players including women, and the flexibility to invest in the grassroots of the game.”This is a landmark agreement. We are now looking forward to sitting down with the ACA to work through the details and we are confident we will be able to announce a completed agreement before June 30.”Another pillar of past MOU agreements was CA’s provision of an annual grant to fund the ACA, something the board openly questioned in their initial submission. Sutherland declined to indicate whether this was being maintained in the new offer.”That’s something that is in the detail of the proposal, I don’t want to go into that right now,” he said. “It’s something we can talk about later on. In the first instance we see that as a matter for the members and the ACA to consider and we can talk through that detail in the future.”Both Sutherland and the ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson have spent time with the Test team in India in recent days. The players have so far been united in their rejection of any attempts to break up the revenue sharing model, and have also rebuffed CA’s efforts to negotiate directly with the players rather than the ACA.The national captains Steven Smith and Meg Lanning co-signed a letter to Sutherland to this effect in December after talks broke down. While they have resumed in the new year, the two parties remain a long way apart. Nicholson said that the ACA was positive about some elements of the pay offer, but also stated that much of its detail still needed to be digested before the players respond.”There is a lot of fine print to examine and a lot more forecast information still needed by the players,” he said. “Like all such proposals the devil is always in the details. For the moment, what can be said is that this proposal shows a number of promising signs that indicate that CA has been taking the ACA’s lead on various key points from our MOU submission.”However, with a lack of detail in the terms and conditions that underpin this proposal, the ACA will continue to seek clarification from CA and advise the players on this accordingly. The ACA will respond more fully in the coming weeks.”Australia’s looming series decider with India in Dharamsala should ensure that there will be little further jousting until the Test match concludes.

A glance at the scorecard will tell you Umesh Yadav’s first spell on day three of the Hyderabad Test fetched the wicket of Monimul Haque. What it won’t tell you is the pressure he maintained during the course of a nine-over spell which Shakib Al Hasan, who made 82, termed “the best spell” he has faced in his career.Shakib said Umesh’s late movement both ways on an unresponsive deck made it hard to lay bat on ball. Although he scored 30 off the 34 balls he faced from Umesh – five boundaries included – just how he made Shakib grope and feel for the ball that he yo-yoed away at pace and got it to reverse, added to the intrigue. He also mixed up his deliveries with cutters. There were bouncers too, mostly accurate.There were moments when it seemed Umesh would run through the batting line-up, but had to settle for just the one wicket. The pressure he built up, however, resulted in a wicket at the other end when Mahmudullah was prised out by Ishant Sharma.”Obviously he was bowling really well,” Shakib said. “It was probably the best spell I have faced in my career. The way he was moving the ball both ways, it was tremendous. All credit goes to him. I was thinking I need to be positive at that time. If there is a ball to hit, I will obviously hit it and the rest I will play with soft hands, and make sure that I don’t nick it.”There was nothing much on the pitch. Because we play at Kolkata Knight Riders, I know him very well. Probably this was the best spell I have faced in my Test career. The way he was moving the ball both ways, some balls were unplayable. I am lucky that I survived his spell.”Umesh actually found reverse swing from the 14th over, which was the last over of the second day. His ability to swing it both ways with the conventional method gives him the advantage of getting maximum out of a ball that reverses.”Ishant bowls slightly back of a length. Umesh’s length allows him to swing the ball with the new ball and also with the old ball,” India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar said. “He’s worked a lot on his wrist positions and balance at the crease Ever since the Delhi Test match against South Africa, you’ve seen him giving the breakthroughs that the team requires.”Our seamers Umesh, Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), (Mohammed) Shami and Ishant have chipped in with the crucial wickets right at the top or in the middle part of the innings where the spinners were not able to get the breakthrough. So I think the reason for that many Test victories is not only the contribution of the spinners but the small contributions the fast bowlers have made. That’s why someone like Umesh stands out because I believe that he’s the most improved bowler in the last season and a half.”

The Supreme Court, in a significant reprieve to BCCI and state office-bearers, has allowed them to serve separate nine-year terms at central and state level, permitting a total of 18 years in cricket administration. The clarification on Friday contradicted the Lodha Committee’s interpretation of the court’s order on January 2, when the committee said an office-bearer would be ineligible to continue if he had served nine years in total, whether at BCCI or state level or combined.The confusion over tenure arose after the court modified its January 2 order, which had originally said: “A person shall be disqualified from being an Office-Bearer if he or she has been an Office-Bearer of the BCCI for a cumulative period of 9 years.” On January 3, the court modified that to: “Has been an Office-Bearer of the BCCI or a State Association for a cumulative period of 9 years.”The original Lodha Committee recommendation regarding eligibility, which was passed by the Supreme Court on July 18 last year, had made it possible for an individual to serve nine years each at both BCCI and state level. A BCCI office-bearer’s cooling-off period could have been a three-year term at their state association, after which they could once again contest an election for a BCCI position. And if they won the BCCI post, the ensuing three-year term would serve as their cooling-off period from holding office at state level. An individual could therefore have spent 18 years in Indian cricket administration between the BCCI and his state association.Such a scenario was possible once again after the Supreme Court clarified the uncertainty that arose following the order on January 2 and 3, and reverted the terms of tenure to the original recommendation of the Lodha Committee.The purge of the existing BCCI and state leadership may not be as severe as previously thought•PTI

The Supreme Court also put off finalising the committee of administrators (COA) to supervise the BCCI to January 24. The court had asked amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium and senior legal counsel Anil Divan to nominate people for the COA, which they did by submitting nine names in a sealed envelope on Friday. The court asked the parties not to disclose the names, and pointed out a nine-member panel was “too big”.Upon studying the names, the court asked Subramanium if any of the candidates were over the age of 70, because the Lodha Committee had recommended that BCCI and state office-bearers should be under 70. Subramanium said a few names were over 70 and that the reasons for their inclusion were also listed.On January 2, the court had dismantled the existing power structure of the BCCI by removing the board’s president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke for impeding the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. The court said the board would be supervised by a committee of administrators until new office-bearers were elected once the BCCI implemented the recommendations. The court had directed the COA to supervise the administration of the BCCI through its chief executive Rahul Johri.The COA’s other key function was to ensure that the Lodha Committee’s recommendations passed by the court order on July 18, 2016, were implemented by the BCCI and state associations.Last week RM Lodha, the former chief justice of India and chairman of the Lodha Committee, said the COA would issue a fresh set of guidelines for the BCCI and state associations to adopt the new constitution in accordance with the recommendations. “There has to be [fresh timelines], but that will be done by the administrators. We said we don’t have that much of time, and that there has to be layers of administrators,” Lodha said. “The changes will happen. We will be there to supervise and guide the administrators.”The Lodha Committee was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.In January 2016, the committee released its report, which recommended an exhaustive overhaul of the BCCI’s governance and administrative structures. On July 18, the Supreme Court of India approved the majority of the recommendations and directed the Lodha Committee to supervise the BCCI’s implementations of the same. However, despite the Lodha Committee laying out timelines and other directives, the board did not cooperate because it said that its state associations objected to the recommendations. This impasse eventually led to the Supreme Court removing Thakur and Shirke from office on January 2, 2017.

Edgbaston, Dubai, Sharjah, Christchurch, Hamilton, and now Melbourne: Pakistan’s rise to the No. 1 Test spot and subsequent fall has been punctuated by a series of spectacular batting collapses.On the final day at the MCG, on a still-pristine pitch on which Australia had added 159 runs in the morning in under 30 overs, Pakistan lost their last eight wickets for 100 runs. That sealed their 11th successive Test defeat in Australia and, with it, a chance to go to Sydney with the series still alive.Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, had his own future on his mind, but he struggled to explain how his side ended up losing a Test which they had begun by declaring on 443 by an innings and 18 runs.Pakistan had to bat out a minimum of 67 overs when they began their second innings in a Test in which three days were almost half lost to rain.”There is no explanation,” he said. “Once you are under pressure, from a position when you score [443] in the first innings and are dominating the game, then on the last day you are saving the Test, that pressure sometimes does things like that. And it was sheer pressure. Full credit to Australia, the way they batted and put us under pressure.”Though he acknowledged his side’s batting in pressure situations “is not what it should be”, he did also point towards the limitations of a bowling attack that twice wilted under pressure from Australia’s batsmen.The first time was on the third day when, after a tight opening spell, David Warner and Usman Khawaja rattled along at such speed that they punctured whatever momentum Pakistan had built from Brisbane and their first innings here.Then, on a final day which began with Australia 22 ahead and six wickets down, Pakistan allowed the lead to balloon to 181 half an hour before lunch.”Those two sessions took the game away from us almost,” he said. “From a winning position, you are on the back foot. We just gave the momentum back to Australia. They were a bit lucky they played well, took their chances, and after that we were in no position to attack.”Even today, in the morning session, we could’ve taken a couple of wickets. [Mitchell] Starc played well and that was a big blow for us. If we had taken one more wicket, wrapped the tail up, maybe 50-60 runs deficit, it could have been easy for us to handle the situation.”The taking of wickets has been a particular problem. When Steven Smith declared today, it was the sixth time in the last five Tests Pakistan have played in Australia that the hosts have had the luxury of declaring.Yasir Shah conceded over 200 runs in an innings for the second time this year, continuing a tour in which he has bowled mostly to fields set for run-saving, rather than wicket-taking.”I think as a bowling unit, we couldn’t put pressure,” Misbah said. “When the opposition is playing well and you’re not bowling well, then it is difficult to implement any sort of plan, any sort of strategy. That has been happening to us.”Yasir is a bit low on confidence at the moment. That sometimes doesn’t give you control as a captain. When you have no control, you struggle with your strategies. And it looks to those sitting outside, watching, what’s going on? That’s where I think everything went wrong for us in this Test.”