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South Africa ensured their first series win in India in 25 years by building on their lead for nearly five hours. While the declaration, setting India more than they have ever been set at home, seemed a touch conservative, the visitors went to stumps needing eight wickets on the final day to take away all 12 WTC points from this Test and consign India to their second whitewash at home in 12 months after 12 years of spotless series record.As it often happens in such match situations, the same pitch that South Africa batted on, looking untroubled for 70.3 overs, began to look unplayable in the 15.5 India got to play. Marco Jansen didn’t even bother with swing and seam, and began to bounce Yashasvi Jaiswal before getting him out on the cut shot. Simon Harmer, who has out-bowled the home spinners, continued his dream series with a dream offbreak to bowl KL Rahul through the gate, and came desperately close to getting B Sai Sudharsan out lbw.The day began with curiosity around how much South Africa valued the 12 full points from this match vis-a-vis ensuring they give India no chance to threaten their series lead. Turns out they were in no mood for adventure. Especially as the ball started to turn more consistently in the first session of the fourth day than it had done at any point before. Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar got long spells in. Jadeja got Ryan Rickelton caught at extra cover, but then India did what they have struggled to do all Test: get wickets on defensive shots. Jadeja beat Aiden Markram’s outside edge and hit the off stump, Washington got one to bite at Temba Bavuma’s glove and settle in the hands of backward short leg.As three wickets fell for 18 runs, South Africa remained slightly cautious. Tristan Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi, though, managed to keep the threat of spin out with their sweeps and reverse sweeps. After Rishabh Pant missed a stumping off Stubbs, the No. 3 batter limited his options to just the sweeps whenever he wanted to force the pace.3:49

Can India’s youngsters grind out a draw?

Stubbs and de Zorzi added 101 for the fourth wicket, 41 of those in sweeps and reverse sweeps. Like Stubbs in the first innings, de Zorzi fell one short of a fifty, beaten on the sweep for a change. It was mid-afternoon and South Africa led by 466, but they still continued to bat at normal pace.Related

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Only after the lunch break did Stubbs get a move-on to try to complete a Test hundred, but even this charge was not frenetic. The team management gave him all the time as he scored 32 from the last 19 balls he faced, taking the lead past the 542 that Australia attained in Nagpur in 2004. He slog-swept Jadeja to go from 88 to 94, but Jadeja slowed the ball down to beat a repeat attempt. Stubbs still was the highest run-getter in the series (163), and would need a big effort from someone in the final innings to be eclipsed.That effort wasn’t coming from the openers. India have done this to many a visiting side – just when everybody thought they had been too conservative with the declaration, the pitch would magically change its nature and wickets would start falling.Something similar happened when Jansen ran in and started bowling short. In the first over itself, he had Jaiswal fending uncomfortably. One didn’t pop up, the other landed just short of second slip. While Jaiswal managed to ramp him once, he fell to his favourite cut shot again. Since Jaiswal’s debut, nobody has scored more Test runs with the cut off fast bowlers than his 291, but no one has got out as often as his seven times. Nobody has played as many false shots as he has on the cut to the fast bowler: 68. He averages 41.57 on the cut against fast bowlers, but has fallen to this shot four times in his last eight innings.3:19

Saba Karim: Spinners need long spell to set up batters

Rahul was more traditional in the route he took to fight for a draw. He scored just 6 off 30 balls, but the 30th was a bewitching dipping, drifting delivery, which had him playing well away from where he thought it would originally pitch. In panic, he turned his drive into a flick, but it wasn’t enough to plug the gap created between his body and his bat. Harmer was again level with Jansen for most wickets in the series: 12.Harmer came extremely close to taking the lead when he appealed for lbw against Sai Sudharsan. In all likelihood, the on-field call for not-out was down to an inside edge, but the replay showed the ball had hit the pad first. However, the ball tracking returned an umpire’s call on impact, saving Sudharsan to fight another day.India somehow survived the rest of the day but it looked like a wicket could fall anytime. South Africa now have six hours to take eight wickets because the light has consistently dipped by 4pm, not allowing any extra play.

Former Sri Lanka captain and batter Hashan Tillakaratne has been appointed the new head coach of the Sri Lanka women’s team, SLC confirmed on Wednesday.He took up the role officially on June 1 and will be contracted up to December 31, 2021. It is understood that an extension is a mere formality, with SLC set to renew several contracts at the end of the year. Tillakaratne will likely be in the position for a further two to three years.His first job will be in preparing the team for the 2022 ODI World Cup and Commonwealth Games qualifiers scheduled for early next year. SLC also confirmed that it is looking at arranging “one or two” tours in the next few months. The Sri Lanka women’s team hasn’t played any international cricket since the T20 World Cup last March, owing to the pandemic.”It’s an honour and a privilege to work with the girls,” Tillakaratne told ESPNcricinfo. “They’re very talented and skilful. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”Tillakaratne, a World Cup winner who was also in charge of the Sri Lanka Under-19 side from 2018 to 2020, is the most high-profile appointment for the post of women’s head coach. The move, he believes, is a sign that SLC is seriously looking at popularising the women’s game in the country.”What they want is to justify the money being put into women’s cricket by the ICC,” Tillakaratne said. “Everyone knows about Chamari Athapaththu, but there are other talented girls also. They just need to be handled properly.”While Tillakaratne hasn’t had a chance to link up with his players yet, in his capacity as coach in Sri Lanka’s high-performance set-up he had seen several of the national players first-hand. As such, he already has a few plans on where improvements can be made.”We need to analyse and identify what our strengths are. One key aspect I’m looking at is their fitness. Right now, the girls are doing their fitness workouts on their own, and they’re sending us over their video clips. So they’re quite keen and committed, that’s a plus point.”During his playing career, Tillakaratne was renowned for his dogged displays with the bat and his impressive close-in fielding. In 83 Tests, he racked up 4,545 runs at an average of 42.87, while his 200 ODIs brought him 3789 runs at 29.60. Having made his debut in 1986, he retired from international cricket in 2004 and all forms of cricket in 2006, before turning his eye towards coaching.

Leaving aside the odd season of injury comebacks, it’s been 15 extraordinary years since James Anderson last went into a home summer as anything other than England’s attack leader. You have to go way back to the India series in 2007, when his second Test five-for at Lord’s hinted at the bowler he was about to come, for the last time Anderson was genuinely out to prove his worth, rather than cement the credentials he had already established.And so it was an oddly cagey Anderson who faced the media in Leicester on Monday, at the behest of the Test sponsors LV= Insurance, but before he’d had any cast-iron assurances that his name will be back in the frame for another Lord’s appearance, when the squad for the first Test against New Zealand is announced on Wednesday.”Until that squad’s picked I’m not counting on anything,” he said. “My job’s to try and prove that I’m in good form, take wickets for Lancashire and help them win games. That’s all I’m bothered about, and then we’ll see what happens whenever the team is announced.”Chicken-counting aside, however, Anderson’s return for his 170th Test appearance, and 96th on home soil, is a given. Not only has he proven his form and fitness on the county circuit – including with the eye-catching dismissal of his former England captain, Joe Root, in last week’s Roses clash – he and his long-term sidekick Stuart Broad are just about the only capped England seamers available to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum as they prepare to begin their captain-coach alliance in a fortnight’s time.Saqib Mahmood and Matt Fisher, both of whom debuted in Anderson’s and Broad’s absence in the Caribbean, have succumbed to stress fractures, the same complaint that Sam Curran is currently returning from, while Craig Overton and Chris Woakes – who shared the new ball in Antigua in March – are labouring with knee injuries. Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are coming back from elbow operations, and Ollie Robinson – the man who ought to be in possession – has been a fitness concern since struggling through the Hobart Test in January.Anderson and Broad, on the other hand, just keep rumbling on. “I don’t know, it’s just luck I guess,” he said of their longevity. “We still love playing, we’re really hungry to take wickets, and still love that feeling you get from it. I’ve spoken to Stuart a lot over the last few months, we still feel like we’ve got a lot to give the game, whether it’s for Notts or Lancashire, or for England.”Nevertheless, Anderson admitted that, with his 40th birthday approaching in July, his omission for the West Indies tour had caused him to reassess his priorities as he enters his 20th season as an international cricketer.”I definitely questioned it, yeah,” he said. “I talked it through with my family as well, and they saw it as I did, that I feel like I’ve got more to give to the game. The longer time went on, the more I was with the Lancs lads doing pre-season training. I was still doing the gym work, and I wasn’t bored of it. I wanted to be there doing it, irrelevant of what was going to happen in the summer.”If I play the whole season for Lancashire, then great. If I get a Test call-up then brilliant, but at the minute I’m really enjoying playing cricket. It did come into question, I guess – do I want to do I want to carry on? But in my head, I quickly decided I did want to see what happened this year.”James Anderson attended a #Funds4Runs community initiative in Leicester•LV= Insurance/#Funds4Runs

And if there were any residual doubts, then they were emphatically quashed by the 11th and most recent of his first-class wickets this season – the uprooting of Root’s off and middle stumps at Headingley on Sunday, as Anderson’s typically frugal figures of 15-7-17-2 briefly set Lancashire up for a final-day victory push against Yorkshire.”I did enjoy that one, it was nice to get a player of Joe’s quality out,” Anderson said. And it was doubtless all the sweeter given that Root had still been England captain for the Caribbean tour, and therefore was at least complicit in Anderson’s controversial omission.Did he say anything to Root when he got him out? “Absolutely not, no. Didn’t need to. Just pick the two stumps off the ground,” Anderson said. “We do talk. We’ve not fallen out or anything. Yeah, we chatted. I spoke to him before he announced that he was stepping down. There’s still a huge amount of respect between the two of us so there’s no animosity.”The biggest thing for me [on Sunday] was that we were pushing for a win,” Anderson added. “Obviously he got 140 in the first innings; we know how good a player he is. A few of our guys were seeing him up close for the first time and realising how good a player he is; they all commented on it. It was fruitless in the end, but we were pushing hard for that win, and he was the best player so it was nice to get the best player.”Three months after the event, Anderson says he hasn’t had a full explanation for his omission from the Test squad, and still doesn’t know whether there was a perceived issue with his attitude in Australia, where his eight wickets at 23.37 couldn’t prevent a 4-0 series loss. However, with his focus now back on adding to his England-record tally of 640 wickets, his thoughts are firmly fixed on the coming summer, as he hopes to help the new team hierarchy pick the performances up after a torrid 12 months.Related

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“It’s gone now. It’s history. I’m not bothered about what’s gone in the past,” he said. “All I can control is what I do in the future. I’ve got to try to prove that I’m still good enough to play international cricket and keep my fingers crossed that the selectors and the captain think so as well.”I don’t think from a performance point of view my confidence would have taken a knock. I felt like I bowled well in Australia and since I’ve been bowling back in England I’ve felt like I’m in good shape and bowling well. So from that point of view I feel like I know what I’m doing and I don’t think that will change, really.”I guess you do start questioning other things when that sort of thing happens – is it something I’ve done around the group or whatever else? I guess that’s the one thing that you start thinking about. But when it comes to cricket I’m pretty confident that I’m doing okay.”Anderson will be reassured too by the vote of confidence he received from Stokes after his accession to the Test captaincy, and is ready to return the compliment after seeing glimpses of his leadership style during the Ashes campaign.”He’s a natural leader and the lads all look up to him in the dressing-room,” Anderson said. “When he’s had the opportunity to be captain… I think there was maybe an hour in Australia, and you could see he’s got a real good tactical brain on him. He’s the hardest trainer in the group and sets the example of how to be an international cricketer.”We’re at quite a low point at the minute as a Test side. Where we are in the Test championship, we’re going to have to do something serious to be able to turn it around and get back up towards where we want to be, towards the top. I don’t think that necessarily happens overnight. But with Brendon and Ben, we’re never going to take a backward step. It could be a really exciting time for English cricket.”James Anderson and other England cricketers surprised Leicester Electricity Sports Cricket Club during an inter-squad friendly game organised by Test partners LV= Insurance. The club will receive support to train a new coach and relaunch their women’s team as part of LV= and the ECB’s commitment to support 4000 coaches through their #Funds4Runs community initiative. Visit Funds4Runs for more information

The match is off, but the fight for the result may just be starting.At present, as the ECB and BCCI sift through the fallout of the Test that never was, we know neither the result of the match or the series. We don’t know if the series will be finished in the 2022 English season, or if a one-off Test will be scheduled to mitigate for the substantial losses incurred by this one. We do not even know, for sure, what the insurance implications are.The basic facts are these: if the Test is deemed, by the ICC, to have been called off due to Covid, the game will be treated as abandoned. As a consequence, the series will finish (at least for now) as a 2-1 victory to India. This scenario would also mean the ECB receiving no insurance payout as it is not covered for this eventuality.But if the ICC decide India have effectively forfeited the match, the game will be awarded to England and the result of the series will be deemed to be 2-2. This scenario would also enable the ECB to make a claim for an insurance payout.The compromise solution, offered by the BCCI, is the rescheduling of this game. With India’s white-ball sides due to tour England in 2022, there would appear to be small window available for such a solution, though even then it is unclear whether the match would be treated as standalone or a completion of the current series.”We have to just take a breath and ask the ICC to formally adjudicate on the result of this,” Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said. “The BCCI have offered to reschedule the match, which is good news. But whether that is part of this series, a fresh one-match series or the first match of another series, I don’t know yet.”These are the things that we need to take some time over. I know that fans will be anxious to know. Players are, too. But we do need to take some time in these situations.”Though both boards’ public statements sounded conciliatory, ESPNcricinfo has learned that, behind-the-scenes, the action has been every bit as competitive as anything we have seen on the pitch. The ECB has asserted that, if there is no rearranged date for the game, then the Test should be deemed to have been forfeited by India. That would not only square the series at 2-2, but would allow the ECB to claim insurance payouts on lost revenues, which could well exceed GBP 30 million (USD 41.6 million approx.).The ECB is not covered for Covid-impacted cancellation by insurance. While Harrison did originally seem to imply it was in an interview on Sky Sports, he later clarified to confirm it was not. Instead, he confirmed that all ticket-holders will be refunded by the ECB. Crucially, he argues that the match was not called-off due to a Covid outbreak, but due to of a Covid outbreak.A significant amount of money could be lost over the Old Trafford Test’s cancellation•Getty Images

The ICC’s World Test Championship conditions accept Covid outbreaks as an acceptable reason for abandoning a match, a tour or a series if it has a “significant impact” on a team’s ability to field a team. Whether they accept the of Covid as a reason for abandonment remains to be seen. Harrison – and separately Dinesh Karthik, who worked with the Sky commentary team during the series – both implied that it was fatigue from bubble life as much as anything else that drove the decision.”There is a tangible difference between those things [forfeit or cancellation], Harrison said. “This is not a Covid cancellation. This is a match cancelled because of serious concerns over the mental health and well-being of one of the teams. There is a difference. But it doesn’t make a difference in respect of a ticket buyers; they will be paid back in full. It makes a difference in terms of the ECB balance sheet.”You can’t be flippant about issues of mental health, and this is what this is about. India have been wonderful tourists, but they have been here for a long time. Playing at this level, week after week, is difficult. Even if we feel we are emerging from the pandemic, life is different for the players. When Covid creeps into an environment, it can accelerate very quickly.”Related

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The ECB remains adamant that Covid in itself was not the reason for the abandonment. It points out that the entire India squad was tested on Thursday – the day before the game – and all the results were negative. In principle, therefore, they had around 20 players from which to pick.However, four members of the support staff – first head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar, and later on physio Yogesh Parmar – had tested positive, while the other physio Nitin Patel had been identified as a close contact in the first batch of cases. Parmar had been working closely with players over recent days, with Patel staying away from the squad. As a result, players in the India squad have expressed nervousness about mixing, fearing the virus could be incubating within the group.Harrison was at pains to point out that the IPL was not a relevant factor in India’s decision making. Players from both teams involved in the competition are now hoping to arrange flights from the UK to the UAE on Saturday, with a six-day quarantine period likely to be necessary. The tournament is set to resume in the UAE on September 19 after also being put off in May after a Covid outbreak in the bubble. Any player testing positive in the UK would have to isolate for a minimum of 10 days.”Let me be super clear,” Harrison said. “I don’t think the IPL has anything to do with this. This is not a situation which has been created by the rescheduled IPL. I fundamentally do not believe that for a second.”With the game currently deemed “cancelled” – not “forfeited” – the onus will be on the ECB to have that decision overthrown. If it is to do that, it will have to contest it under the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee, which is currently chaired by Michael Beloff QC. A private pay-off before reaching that stage is also a possibility, though the offer of another Test next year may suffice.If the matter does come before such a committee, the whole affair could become quite messy. The ECB is likely to claim the India team breached protocols by attending Shastri’s book launch – he is being referred to as “patient zero” within the England camp – and will maintain the game was called off because senior India players simply refused to participate. The details of what constitutes a breach will be important, given that Harrison said teams were no longer in biosecure bubbles.”We’re in managed, living standards, which is a much better and more healthy place for players to be in the long term,” he said. “But it does carry with it some risks. Let’s be clear: we were never trying to sell this as a Covid-free environment, we were trying to sell this as a Covid-managed environment for our Indian friends who have been in bubbles for a long time as well as the England players, this was a really important part of them being here for a three-month period over the course of this summer.”The India camp is likely to argue that it lost faith in any protocols and point to the three pitch invasions from the YouTube blogger, Jarvo, as evidence of failures in security. They will also point to England’s abandonment of their tour to South Africa at the end of last year. Then, while a couple of England players did initially test positive for the virus, they were subsequently found to be false positives.For spectators, meanwhile, the host club, Lancashire, has guaranteed a refund. They are not, however, able to refund travel or accommodation costs. Lancashire’s chief executive, Daniel Gidney, described the club as “devastated” by the development.

Australia captain Matthew Wade called his side’s capitulation in the final T20I against Bangladesh “not good enough for an Australian cricket team” and said it was down to the batters to find ways to score runs in tough conditions.The series concluded with Australia bowled out for 62, their lowest T20I total, having made a high score of 121 across the five matches.While echoing Dan Christian’s remarks that the surfaces were unlike any he had played T20 cricket on, and did not expect them to be replicated at the T20 World Cup, Wade noted how Bangladesh had been able to wrangle their way to enough runs in four out of the five matches and that spin had also caused problems in the West Indies where Australia also lost 4-1.Related

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“There’s not a lot of positives to take out of it, to get beaten in the fashion we did, especially tonight, was not good enough from an Australian cricket team regardless of the personnel we’ve got here,” Wade said. “The reality is we need to get better at spin, myself included. There’s a lot of players in this team who need to find a way to score runs in these conditions.”[Bangladesh] are a terrific team in their own conditions, their spinners bowled really well, and they still found a way to find the extra runs and that’s something we can definitely get better at doing. Whether they came a little harder at the front and that is something we maybe needed to do earlier.”Wade was confident the less experienced batters among the group would not carry baggage away from this tour and laid the blame for the run-scoring woes to the more senior figures.”I do not blame the young players one bit,” he said. “Myself, Moises [Henriques], Dan Christian, we are all experienced players and we needed to do better. Those [younger] guys got the opportunity to experience these conditions and if they take it as a learning opportunity to become better players, as we all should, then at least we’ve learnt something.”I’ve played a lot of cricket and they are certainly the most challenging T20 international pitches I’ve ever played on. What they’ve seen out here will be very valuable going forward but it’s on the senior batting group, we needed to get more runs. If the batters can go back and find a way to get those extra runs in challenging conditions that will hold us in good stead.”The final lead-in to the World Cup for Australia remains to be confirmed with talk of a potential series against Afghanistan and West Indies in Sri Lanka which would overlap with the resumption of the IPL. Wade said he expected all the players who opted out of this tour due to bubble fatigue to be available for selection. Steven Smith was kept out with an elbow injury and how someone of his skill was missed in Bangladesh.

Having lost their opening game of the season despite scoring 205, Royal Challengers Bangalore were in danger of losing again, this time despite bowling their opponents out for 128. But they pulled through, fighting their way past Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowlers on a DY Patil Stadium pitch with variable bounce, as Dinesh Karthik, held back tactically in the batting order, struck the winning blows off his old team-mate Andre Russell, who bowled the final over with a wounded right shoulder.This has been an IPL of quick pitches with early movement, and fast bowlers have never had it better in the powerplay. It’s still early days, of course, but neither their collective average (24.00) nor their economy rate (6.75) in this phase has been bettered in any previous IPL season.KKR vs RCB ended up heavily influenced by powerplay wickets, with the two sets of fast bowlers bagging three each in that phase. The difference between the teams, in the end, came down to what came afterwards.Sent in, and mindful of the significant advantage that dew has given chasing teams this season, KKR’s batters kept going hard. The strategy could have come off on another day, but on this day it backfired; they were bowled out for 128 with seven balls unusedA tempered approach might have brought them 150, and that might have been a winning total. Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee reduced RCB to 17 for 3 in their chase, but the smallness of the target allowed RCB to take their time. It allowed Sherfane Rutherford to play the second-slowest IPL innings of 40 or more balls without fear of putting his team too far behind the asking rate, and it allowed him to add 48 with David Willey at less than a run a ball.That partnership ensured RCB’s early slump didn’t turn into a collapse, and that KKR’s spinners didn’t make the kind of dent Wanindu Hasaranga had done earlier in the day, while bagging 4 for 20.Plus, each time the asking rate got close to uncomfortable, an RCB batter stepped up to play a cameo. Shahbaz Ahmed hit 27 off 20, then Harshal Patel and Karthik found routes to the boundary when the equation got to 15 off 10.Short ball does the early damage
RCB went into this match with four fast bowlers, and it turned out they had read the surface well. Akash Deep made two early incisions with his bouncer to the left-hander, angling across them and not always reaching them at a predictable pace or height. That was it for Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana. Mohammed Siraj had Ajinkya Rahane caught on the square-leg boundary with another short ball, and KKR ended the powerplay 44 for 3.Dinesh Karthik scored a crucial 14 not out off seven balls taking his side to a win in the final over•BCCI

Intent, intent, intent
KKR’s response to those early wickets was to promote Sunil Narine as a post-powerplay pinch-hitter. And the hitting wasn’t to come only from his end. Shreyas Iyer took on Hasaranga in the first over with the fields spread out, and picked out long-on. This didn’t temper Narine’s approach – he flat-batted Akash for a four down the ground and top-edged him for a six over the keeper’s head, before being dismissed by Hasaranga while miscuing another attempted big hit.Hasaranga then bowled Sheldon Jackson first ball with a brilliant, dipping googly, but even at six down KKR weren’t relenting. Sam Billings picked out long-on in Harshal’s first over, leaving Russell as the only recognised batter left.Russell hit Shahbaz for a pair of sixes in the 13th over, before Harshal removed him in the 14th, frustrating him with a series of short balls, denying him anything in his hitting arc, and finding his edge with one that bounced a little more than expected.Southee holed out in the next over to leave KKR in danger of being bowled out within the middle overs, but Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy ensured the innings stretched into the 19th, putting on 27 off 26 balls, the fourth-highest 10th wicket stand in the IPL.Umesh and Southee go into Test-match mode
Umesh found Anuj Rawat’s edge with the second ball of the RCB innings, with extra bounce and a bit of seam movement in the corridor. Virat Kohli came in and stroked the first two balls he faced for sublimely timed boundaries, but Umesh had his revenge in his next over, getting one to nip away from Kohli, who fiddled and nicked behind.In between, Southee squared up Faf du Plessis and had him caught off the leading edge.With Willey – promoted to No. 4 – and Rutherford taking their time early on, the powerplay ended with RCB 36 for 3.Narine tightens the screws
Chakravarthy endured a rare bad day, dragging the ball too short on occasion and offering a little too much width, but Narine was his usual parsimonious self. With neither batter taking a chance against him, he got through his first 2.5 overs while conceding just eight runs. And the pressure eventually led Willey to attempt a forcing shot only to pop a catch to midwicket.At that point, RCB were four down and needed 67 from 54 balls.The fast bowlers have had it all their way in the powerplay this IPL•BCCI

Tactical cat-and-mouse
With the wicket falling at the end of the 11th over, Shahbaz walked in at No. 6, pushing Karthik – who prefers pace on the bat in the slog overs to spinners in the middle – further down the order. KKR countered by pulling Narine out of the attack, potentially reserving his last over for Karthik’s entry.Russell replaced Narine, and Shahbaz hit two crucial blows off him in the 13th over: a cleared-front-leg hit over midwicket, and a short ball pulled over backward square leg, both clearing the boundary.Umesh and Southee came back to give away just eight off the next two overs, leaving RCB needing 36 off 30. Shahbaz was out stumped in the next over, off Chakravarthy, but not before hitting another six, stepping out to meet the ball on the full and launch it over the on side.Harshal and Karthik finish it off
Shahbaz’s dismissal and Karthik’s entry brought Narine straight back into the attack, and RCB played out his final over carefully, taking just four singles from it. With 24 needed off 18, they seemed in control, but KKR made an attacking bowling change, bringing Southee on in the 18th. It may have been forced, with Russell’s troublesome shoulder not letting him bowl out his quota, but it meant that one of the last two overs – if Russell could bowl the other – would have to be sent down by the sixth bowler.Southee turned the match once more, picking up two wickets in the 18th. Superb work in the field contributed to both dismissals: the agile Jackson, diving to his right to grab an inside-edge inches off the ground, helped send back Rutherford; and Russell, turning around and running back from mid-off, took a superbly judged-catch when Hasaranga miscued a hit over the infield.KKR messed up a far simpler bit of fielding in the next over, however, as Umesh threw to the wrong end with both Karthik and Harshal stranded at the same end. Harshal made them pay with two fours in the second half of that 19th over, bowled by Venkatesh: a scoop over short fine leg and a flat-batted club to bisect long-on and deep midwicket.It left seven to get off the last over, and Russell, still clutching his shoulder gingerly, volunteered to bowl it. The first one was a fairly well-directed short ball, but Karthik saw it early and pulled it far beyond the square leg boundary. A drive between the bowler and mid-on off the next ball ended the game, bringing much relief to an anxious RCB dugout.

The Temba Bavuma era of white-ball cricket begins later this week, with a series against Pakistan which is intended to kickstart South Africa’s next three World Cup campaigns. Bavuma has been appointed until 2023 and will be in charge for two T20 World Cups and a fifty-over one, and while it is too early to list things like becoming global champions among his aims, Bavuma hopes to use this series to establish a brand of cricket that South Africa can carry through his tenure.”We have the opportunity now, building up to 2023 to the World Cup, to define our style of play and how we want to go about our business,” he said. “If you look at South Africa, we have always been a more than competitive ODI unit, even to the point where the guys have got to positions of No.1. For me, it’s about trying to define a style of play, create something that makes us accountable, and most importantly, to be able to institute that style of play in any conditions or any occasion.”While Bavuma did not specify what this new strategy will entail – team management has spoken about playing ‘smart but aggressive’ in the recent past – he has identified one area that needs improvement. “Mentally, that’s somewhere we probably need to improve a lot more in terms of getting stronger,” he said.South Africa have become known for crumbling under pressure in big moments at major tournaments but since the 2019 World Cup – where they were the first team to bow out – they have also become known for their rapid decline. They currently sit fifth on the ODI rankings and sixth in T20s and have only won one of their last six white-ball series as administrative chaos has bled onto the field and uncertainty has engulfed their approach.As an indication of the level of experimentation South Africa reached, they have handed out six ODI and seven T20 caps since the 2019-20 summer, and are on to their third captain.After Faf du Plessis was replaced by Quinton de Kock in February last year, de Kock has now been succeeded by Bavuma. None of these appointments appear to have been part of a plan. Du Plessis stood down as Test captain following South Africa’s defeat to England last year and was then stripped of the white-ball leadership. De Kock took over, and was also asked to temporarily lead South Africa in Tests which unfairly overburdened him. He was thensidelined from the leadership role in all formats. It is understood that de Kock wanted to continue the white-ball captaincy but after South Africa’s sorry trip to Pakistan earlier this year, they believed wholesale changes were necessary.Now, they face Pakistan again, having had two months of international inaction thanks to Australia’s cancelled Test tour and they seem to have a clean slate. At least, that’s how Bavuma makes it sound. “The mood is optimistic,” he said. Though the challenge is steep.For a start, South Africa will lose a quintet of key players after the second ODI as Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje head to the IPL. Their absence could well be a major disruption to Bavuma’s first series in charge, but he chose not to see it that way. “It’s not as disturbing now that we are aware of the arrangement that is in place,” he said. “For the first two games, we’ve got all our best players. It’s important that we get positive results. That’s not to say we are conceding the result in the third game. We believe we have got worthy enough replacements. I don’t think it’s that disturbing and we respect the relationship between CSA and the BCCI.”When the big five leave, South Africa are likely to award more new caps, and players like slog-overs specialist Sisanda Magala, seamer Lizaad Williams and allrounder Wihan Lubbe are among those in contention.”The guys who are here can take comfort in the fact that the World Cup squads will be coming from this group, so it’s important that guys acknowledge that there is an opportunity and that they know where they can fit in within that squad,” Bavuma said. “My message to the young guys is that the opportunity is there and make sure you keep churning out those performances.”It will help that Magala and Williams will be used to conditions at the Wanderers and SuperSport Park, their domestic home grounds, because it’s rare to play cricket in South Africa in April. Bavuma expects the Highveld to be even more bowler-friendly than usual. From his recollection of a T20 competition played in April 2018, he said: “it seemed to suit seam bowling a bit more, with the ball swinging. But the wickets still become favourable for batting, so even though the challenge will be a bit more with the seam but I think there’s something in there for the batters.”He also sees it as an opportunity for the team to test their adaptability, knowing that surfaces won’t always suit them. “In the long run we want to test ourselves a lot more in unfavourable conditions and see if we can execute our brand of cricket in all conditions,” he said.At this point, South Africa are still in their short run, with just seven fixtures against Pakistan before a two-month winter break. Their real work will start in June, when they hope to tour West Indies in a series that was postponed from last year, before heading to Ireland and possibly Sri Lanka and India before the T20 World Cup. That will be the first true test of Bavuma’s leadership and so for now his task “is to inspire and try and get the guys in spaces where they can perform as well as they can for the team.”

A total of 17 wickets fell across two innings, Tamim Iqbal made a stroke-filled 44-ball half-century, and West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite turned out to be one of the unlikely bowling heroes on a day dominated by spinners, as West Indies held on for a 17-run win to seal the series 2-0.However, that West Indies were able to wrest control of a middling 231-run chase for Bangladesh was largely down to the superb exploiting of the turn and bounce on a deteriorating Dhaka pitch by Rahkeem Cornwall, who led the charge as West Indies claimed the Test in an extended final session, wrapping up their first overseas series win since 2017.The win was sealed almost 35 minutes past the scheduled close of play, with Jomel Warrican spinning one sharply from a length outside off as Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who had started a late attack when he was running out of partners, shaped to defend. The edge was travelling low to the right of Cornwall – who else – and the big man dived to his right to pluck out a catch, sparking off big celebrations in the away camp.Iqbal had raised visions of a Bangladesh win with his half-century, hitting eight of the nine boundaries struck in an opening stand that raised 59 off the first 12 overs of the chase. He drove fluently against seam, and chipped down the wicket against Cornwall, and swept Warrican with ease. Sensing the need for a change, Brathwaite brought himself on, and removed Sarkar off his first ball, tempting him into a poke outside off, that took wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva’s pads and fell to Cornwall at slip. Four overs later, the captain tempted Iqbal into a lofted shot towards cover, and on the stroke of tea, Cornwall got one to jump off a length to Najmul Hossain Shanto, taking his glove and then his body before dropping to short leg.After the tea break, the captain Mominul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim briefly appeared to have taken charge of the chase, putting together 23 runs and eschewing risks while facing up to the spin of both Cornwall and Brathwaite. An inspired bowling change came in the shape of Warrican, who got the second ball of his spell to draw Rahim forward, spin across, taking a feather edge through to Da Silva. Bangladesh were left at 115 for 5 when Mohammad Mithun, who had spanked a six by chipping down the wicket, was picked up at leg gully off Cornwall to a ball that turned and bounced across him.Mushfiqur Rahim edged one from Jomel Warrican through to Joshua Da Silva•AFP/Getty Images

Joined by Liton Das, Haque was able to bring the target down to double figures, but appeared anxious to increase the scoring rate, going down the wicket and lofting the ball into vacant spaces on the on side on a couple of occasions. Eventually, he fell to a catch at leg gully as well, Warrican claiming two of three wickets for the day. When Das was smartly caught by Da Silva for 22, and Taijul Islam misjudged a quicker one fired in straight at him, both to Cornwall, the end seemed near at 163 for 8.Miraz and Nayeem Hasan, though, put in a dogged effort, with Miraz beginning to show signs of aggression as the 200-mark neared. Brathwaite brought himself on for another spell, and after firing two down the pads for eight runs as byes, he bowled one fuller and straighter, and Hasan played it with the pads and was given out leg before. With No. 11 Abu Jayed for company, Miraz opened up, striking a six over mid-wicket and then a reverse-sweep for four off successive Cornwall deliveries to bring the target down below 20. Unfortunately for him and Bangladesh, he couldn’t get the team over the line.The day began with West Indies still over 150 ahead and the first over from Jayed to Bonner suggested a long toil ahead for Bangladesh, with the seamer erring in both line and length, allowing Bonner to whip him towards deep midwicket and deep-backward square leg, besides driving towards deep cover.Jayed, who was quick to correct his line and length after the wayward opening over, delivered the first wicket of the day when he pinned nightwatchman Warrican in front of the stumps. That brought Kyle Mayers to the crease, and he punched a short ball first up through the gap between mid-on and mid-wicket for an emphatic four. Mayers later played around his pads against Jayed, operating around the wicket, and departed for 6. Jermaine Blackwood showed early intent, casually lofting the third ball he faced from Jayed over long-on for six. However, on 9, he fell to Islam, wheeling away economically from one end. Islam tempted him to stretch forward, spun the ball across his edge, and Das whipped the bails off with the batsman’s back foot still on the line.Da Silva walked in and set about disturbing the length of the spinners by pulling out a sweep against Islam for four to get moving. He appeared at ease through the rest of his stay, with a slog sweep against Nayeem Hasan, and a cover drive against Jayed taking the West Indies lead beyond 200. However, he fell to the ninth ball after lunch, with Islam getting one to spin across his front foot defensive prod, and took the edge through to slip. Alzarri Joseph struck a massive six over mid-wicket, but fell for 9, when a leading edge off Islam took a deflection off silly mid-off and was gratefully accepted at cover by Najmul Hossain Shanto.Hasan then struck twice in what turned out to be the final over of the West Indies innings, getting Bonner to lose his patience in attempting an awkward reverse-swipe, and going through his legs to rattle the stumps.Cornwall was the last man out, holing out to Rahim at deep mid-wicket, completing a remarkable collapse of four wickets in just 21 balls. The 117 posted by West Indies was their second-lowest ever against Bangladesh, but there has been something different about this West Indies team in the Test series, despite them missing a number of more experienced players. There have been crucial batting contributions from almost all of their players, and captain Brathwaite’s bowling changes and field placements have also been spot on. On the day that mattered, though, it was Cornwall and Warrican who came to the party and made the most of the conditions to seal a famous series win.

Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor has revealed that the ICC is about to “impose a multi-year ban” on his international career after he allegedly delayed reporting a corrupt approach “by an Indian businessman”. Taylor had met with the businessman in October 2019 after being asked “to discuss sponsorships and the potential launch of a T20 competition in Zimbabwe”.Taylor delayed reporting that meeting in India because, he said, he wanted to protect his family. He describes substance abuse having taken place during that meeting in a statement on Twitter, which he says led to him being allegedly blackmailed. “We had drinks and during the course of the evening they openly offered me cocaine, which they themselves engaged in, and I foolishly took the bait.” The men he had met, Taylor said, stormed into his hotel room the next day, and threatened to release video of the substance abuse unless he carried out spot-fixing for them. He was given USD 15,000 – which he said he took to flee India – and told it was a deposit for a future payment once the fix was carried out.Related

• How Brendan Taylor got into a fix

• Brendan Taylor banned for three and a half years for failing to report approach without delay

• Brendon Taylor says he failed drug test after his final international game in September 2021

• Taylor's statement: 'Walked into a situation that changed my life'

• Heath Streak handed eight-year ban for corruption

“It took me 4 months to report this offence and interaction to the ICC,” Taylor said. “I acknowledge this was too long of a time but I thought I could protect everyone and in particular, my family. I approached the ICC on my own terms and I hoped that if I explained my predicament, my genuine fear for our safety and wellbeing, that they would understand the delay.”Unfortunately, they did not, but I cannot feign ignorance in this regard. I have attended many anti-corruption seminars over the years and we know that time is of the essence when making reports.”Taylor also said he had “never been involved in any form of match-fixing. I may be many things but I am not a cheat. My love for the beautiful game of cricket far outweighs and surpasses any threats which could be thrown my way.”The ICC has yet to comment on Taylor’s statement, and if he does – as he said – face a ban on his international cricket career, it’s worth noting he does not have much of one at the moment: in September last year he retired from international cricket, after a 17-year career.Taylor’s statement does reveal, however, some of the difficulties in playing for Zimbabwe, which led to him eventually being prescribed a strong anti-psychotic medication. He said that at the time of the incident he hadn’t been paid by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) for six months “and it was questionable whether Zimbabwe would be able to continue playing in the international arena”.Another former Zimbabwe captain, Heath Streak, was banned by the ICC for breaches of the anti-corruption code in April 2021. Streak was coach of the side during the World Cup qualifiers in Harare in 2018 and revealed in a recent interview with that the coaching team had agreed to forfeit pay during that period, hoping that if Zimbabwe qualified, the ICC prize money for doing so would enable payments to be made eventually. Zimbabwe did not qualify for the 2019 World Cup.Taylor revealed that he will be “checking into a rehabilitation centre” from January 25th in order to deal with the substance abuse.”I will admit that the past two years have been incredibly challenging, both personally and professionally and it is from absolute rock bottom that I am trying to climb out of this mess I made. My family and friends have been incredibly supportive of me and it is clear to me now that I have a much bigger problem which for some time has needed addressing.”And so, I would also like to let you know that on Tuesday the 25th of January I am checking into a rehabilitation centre to get clean and to get my life back on track. I have to tell my story now because I know people will want to hear from me. To try and understand what led to this point. But for many weeks I will be away and trying to get better.”l owe it to myself and to my family to get clean and to put them first. I have let a substance take control of me and impair my vision, my morals and my values and it is time that I prioritise what really matters.”Taylor captained Zimbabwe in 71 games between 2011 and 2021 across the three formats. He was full-time captain between mid-2011 and mid 2014, before Zimbabwe went the split captaincy route and Taylor remained in charge only in Test cricket. Then, at the end of the 2015 World Cup, he retired from internationals and went to the UK on a Kolpak deal aged 29. In late 2017, he ended his Kolpak deal and returned to Zimbabwean cricket.

Sri Lanka are in talks to tour Pakistan for a series of three ODIs which will be vital preparation for both teams ahead of the Women’s ODI World Cup global qualifier that starts on November 21 in Zimbabwe. If the tour goes ahead the matches will be Sri Lanka’s first in 18 months, since the T20 World Cup in February-March last year.Talks for the bilateral series have happened as an eleventh-hour arrangement after the ECB pulled their men and women’s teams from a tour of Pakistan in mid-October citing concerns over the players’ “mental and physical well-being” as well as security.ESPNcricinfo understands that Harshitha Madavi will likely lead Sri Lanka given Chamari Athapaththu, the regular captain, had taken the SLC’s permission months before this series was ever in the works to go and play the WBBL. She is currently in Adelaide, undergoing quarantine with the Perth Scorchers.If these three ODIs are confirmed – and the PCB said it is still a “work in progress” – Sri Lanka will fly out to Pakistan on October 15, following a seven-day self-isolation period. A practice game is also on the schedule.Related

• Sri Lanka Women to not tour Pakistan in October as SLC-PCB talks fall through

• Hashan Tillakaratne named Sri Lanka's head coach

• Zimbabwe to host Women's ODI World Cup qualifier

• SLC rolls out plan for women's T20 league in October

Considering they may be coming out of an 18-month break from international cricket, newly-appointed women’s head coach Hashan Tillakaratne has been focused on doing what he can to get rid of the players’ ring rust.”From October onwards we’re trying to play at least nine games with the Under-17 side boys,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “We also finished a three-week practice program in Dambulla, which went off very well. So what we’re trying to do is go through the process and give them more challenges in due course.”SLC say the lack of playing time for the women’s team has not been for want of effort. Ashley de Silva, the board CEO, said they had been trying to get a home series against Pakistan since the start of the year but could never figure out the timing.”There was a time that we wanted to get them [Pakistan] down to Sri Lanka, but due to the fact that we were playing so many tournaments, we couldn’t create so many bubbles at the same time,” he said. “We were also having problem with the resources; we couldn’t find the necessary amount of doctors to handle so many bubbles.”We were going to host them here, but then we had two tours (for the men’s side) with the South African team and then the Indian team. On top of that there were bubbles and training for some other teams as well, such as the A team. So we couldn’t find the resources to handle so many bubbles.”But we were on the lookout for a window. Now that the window has opened up, and they invited us, we jumped at the idea.”The SLC had announced a four-team 50-over women’s invitational tournament set for October, but that is unlikely to happen now, with the turnaround between the team’s return from Pakistan and their flying out again to Zimbabwe on November 15, a little over two weeks.