ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2015Neil Wagner then bustled in and broke the resistance when he knocked out Mathews’ middle stump•AFPSoon after, Mitchell Santner had Chandimal lbw for 58•Getty ImagesMilinda Siriwardana and Kithuruwan Vithanage counterattacked briefly, adding 48 together…•Associated Press… but Trent Boult and Tim Southee struck with the second new ball•Associated Press

More than anything else, the All-Star Series has given several fans a chance to watch their first cricket match in a stadium and share an experience they are unlikely to ever forget

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Houston11-Nov-2015Forty-four year old Dan Bergstrom, the head groundskeeper of the Houston Astros, admits he is slightly nervous. He has never seen a cricket match before and never thought he would see one “until a few months ago”. Ever since the All-Stars Series was announced, the bespectacled Bergstrom has been “studying, catching up with videos online”, to gear up for the second game of the three-match series on Wednesday.Bergstrom is relieved that Houston’s Minute Maid Park is equipped with a roof, especially on days like Wednesday when the forecast is cloudy with a chance of rain. He understands that the pitch is the “core of the game” and also knows that, unlike in baseball where most home teams want the ball to slow down once it bounces, cricket crowds like to see the ball race to the fence. For five hours on Sunday, while laying the drop-in pitch that had traveled in a truck from New York, Bergstrom and his crew tried to grasp the nuances of pitch science. They quickly figured that it would take them a lot more time to “even get started” on how to prepare a surface.Jude Nesom and his friend Charlie show off their tickets for the game•Siddartha VaidyanathanStanding next to Bergstrom is Isiah John, a 65-year-old security officer, who is yet to see a cricket match. “I spent a lot of time in England in the ’80s and ’90s,” he says, “But there I watched only soccer, no cricket. Now I am trying to understand all about these fours and sixes and wickets. And it’s great to see how passionate these cricket fans are. It’s not so crazy during baseball.”While the majority of the spectators attending the All-Stars Series have watched cricket in a stadium before, there is also a set of first-timers who are getting a first taste of a live match. These include ground staff, security officers, ushers, volunteers, cameramen and – most of all – kids, many of whom have only watched cricket on TV and online (both live and recorded).The cricket stars have conducted clinics for junior cricketers in New York and Houston. The hurried nature of these sessions, and lack of extended interactivity, has meant that some of the kids (and parents) have felt short-changed by the experience. But it has also offered a chance for many young boys and girls to get a feel of a big stadium for the first time, and get close to some legends. Many kids have showed off their autographed bats and a couple boys in Houston said they were planning to “keep it safely, near their beds”. Others have got a chance to ask some of the star cricketers a question or two. And all have been granted tickets to attend the game with their parents.For 13-old Sri Pare, who plays youth cricket in Austin, Texas, the word that came to his mind when he entered Minute Maid Park on Tuesday was “ginormous”. Sri had never been in a stadium before, so “just walking in and seeing all these players like Sachin, it was something else.”Sri’s father Ravi relocated from Hyderabad to the USA 14 years ago. “Sri’s interests are mostly similar to the other American kids in his class,” says Ravi. “He started playing cricket only three months ago. He is mostly obsessed with basketball, and LeBron James. But he watches cricket on TV. So I told him and his brother Pranav to play the game.”(Left to right) Rohit Sanivarapu, Pranav Pare and Sri Pare – junior cricketers from Austin, Texas•Siddartha VaidyanathanNine-year-old Jude Nesom, a student at the British International School of Houston, is finding it hard to believe he has just met Shane Warne. “He is there, there!” he says, pointing to Warne warming up. Jude’s friend Charlie lifts his shirt to show off his vest autographed by Warne.Saad Humayun, a 15-year-old left-arm spinner who lives in Austin, Texas, is looking forward to seeing Daniel Vettori and Graeme Swann at the game. “I went to England a few years ago and was blown away by the cricket there,” he says. “I want to play cricket for England or Australia one day – the Ashes is so amazing to watch on TV.”Many of these junior cricketers may not have seen Tendulkar, Warne and a host of other players in their prime. Sometimes it is apparent that they are slightly amused by their parents’ feverish excitement. But, more than anything else, this series has given them a chance to watch their first cricket match in a stadium. And, as any sports fan will agree, it is an experience that they are unlikely to ever forget.

Steven Finn’s combination of pace, bounce, control and movement ensured England wrested the advantage on a tough day, even as several of his team-mates struggled to shake off an illness

George Dobell at the Wanderers14-Jan-2016It might be exaggerating to suggest England evoked memories of Bert Trautmann, the goalkeeper who played the last 17 minutes of the 1956 FA Cup final despite having sustained a broken neck, or Sam Burgess, who suffered a fractured eye socket and cheekbone in the first tackle of the game but went on to win the Man-of-the-Match award in the 2014 NRL Grand Final. But it is something of an irony that on the first day of the Johannesburg Test, England ended in a relatively healthy position.A little while after lunch, with South Africa on 117 for 1 and half of England’s team looking as green as the outfield, it seemed that this would be the day they allowed their grip on the series to slip.It was not that they had bowled poorly exactly. It was just that they had failed to fully take advantage of conditions that were so encouraging for seamers that, a couple of balls into his first over, Stuart Broad actually rubbed his hands in glee like a pantomime villain stumbling upon a pot of gold.But while James Anderson, in particular, was some way below his best – only three deliveries in his first 12 overs would have hit the stumps and, for much of the time, he had the demeanour of a man with severe toothache – this is probably not the day to be critical of him or anyone else in the England side. For, as player after player nipped off the field for a ‘comfort break,’ it soon became clear that England’s insistence that the squad had shrugged off a recent bout of illness was wishful thinking. Suffice it to say, many of them will have spent a good portion of the last couple of days in their bathrooms.While that may seem more of an inconvenience than a serious impediment, in these conditions – with a hot sun, heavy outfield and relatively large step up to the pitch for bowlers just before the delivery stride – it could make the small percentage difference that separates sides in international sport. Ben Stokes required treatment for cramp and Broad looked as if he should be tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle.In some ways, England were fortunate. South Africa’s batsmen fell, on the whole, to a variety of soft, oddly reckless dismissals on a relatively low-quality day of cricket. They may well rue their failure to exploit England’s weakness.But South Africa are not out of the game. Only once in the previous eight Tests at this ground has a side posted more than 300 in their first innings, and an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 42 has kept the hosts’ heads above water. If the cracks on this surface open, batting last could prove tricky, even against an attack that has not included a spinner. The sense persists that had England bowled a little fuller with the new ball – and both Broad and Anderson were seduced by the bounce in the surface into bowling a little short – they may have caused a great deal more trouble. England’s top order may face a sterner examination.

Both Anderson and Broad have been immaculate over the last year, but there have been times when England seemed overly reliant upon them. It bodes well that Finn is beginning to bowl with the consistency that should make him a fixture in the side for several years

But to have fought back after an unimpressive first session, to take all but one of the chances offered to them in the field – Stokes missed a fiendishly tough chance at gully offered by Chris Morris on 9 – represented a decent day’s work in far from ideal circumstances.It was noticeable once again that Steven Finn was the most impressive of England’s seamers. While he did not quite generate the pace of Stokes – whose quickest delivery was 92.7 mph – his combination of pace, bounce, control and movement troubled the batsmen more than any of his colleagues.He also claimed one of the key wickets. As England have found to their cost before, removing Hashim Amla once set is like trying to persuade Table Mountain to move a little to its left. But here, forcing a stroke from a full delivery on off stump, Finn found the edge with a terrific ball that shaped away. Perhaps, at his best, Amla’s feet might have moved a little more and he may have made contact before the ball had the chance to leave him. But it was a fine delivery.If the wicket of Faf du Plessis owed something to fortune – the batsmen clipped a short ball off his hip to deep-backward square – it was no more than Finn deserved for all his beautiful deliveries that have beaten the bat or the other times that chances off his bowling have gone to ground in this series.There is encouragement here for England. Both Anderson and Broad have been immaculate over the last year, but there have been times when England seemed overly reliant upon them. While they could be forgiven a rare off day, it bodes well that Finn – who was preferred to the ailing Broad with the second new ball – is beginning to bowl with the consistency that should make him a fixture in the side for several years.We knew he generated decent pace and bounce from his first spell in the side. But the ability to shape the ball away from the bat, an ability picked up through hours of working with the Middlesex bowling coach Richard Johnson, brings a new dimension to his bowling and offers England hope for life after Anderson.This was also a markedly improved performance with the gloves from Jonny Bairstow. While none of the catches he took was especially testing, the team management believe his problems to date have largely been caused by lapses of concentration. So to retain the awareness to hold on to all four offered was admirable. Bairstow was also quick to reach the stumps and gather a sharp throw when completing the run-out of Temba Bavuma especially as, judging by the number of times he was obliged to leave the field of play, he is also among those suffering.All things considered, England will be delighted they made it through the day without suffering more damage.

What can we glean from the schoolboy record of 1009 not out, which no one had considered possible or necessary so far?

Andy Zaltzman07-Jan-2016The Cape Town Test will be remembered for different things by different people. Many will treasure the trail of devastation concocted by Ben Stokes. Others will focus on Hashim Amla’s serene resistance, Temba Bavuma’s historic hundred, England’s final-day microwobble, and a general sense that this Test was simultaneously a bit of a disappointment and far better than it might have been. For me, however, it will always go down as the first Test innings in which a team’s Nos. 4, 5 and 6 have all been out between 25 and 30. Root 29; Taylor 27; Stokes 26. Names and numbers that will live in eternity.The main reason for my focus on this particular stat, flumped out unnoticed on the final day, was that an extremely poorly timed post-Christmas holiday caused me to miss not only the decisive majority of the first Test, one of England’s finest victories of recent years, but also the first half of the Newlands match, including the greatest display of sustained leather-bludgeoning in my country’s cricketing history. On the plus side, I did eat more outstanding Italian ice cream than is medically advisable, and a mozzarella that could bring the dead back to life. Swings and roundabouts.England’s first innings had also provided the first instance of Nos. 6 and 7 both reaching 150, and the 571 scored by Stokes, Bairstow, Bavuma and de Kock was the highest match aggregate by sixes and sevens – de Kock’s priceless 5 proving decisive in nudging the Cape Town Test ahead of the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka match in Chittagong from January 2009, when 567 were scored by the middle two positions. So many pointless numbers to enjoy amidst the brutal majesty, the ethereal elegance and the twinkle-footed history.As 600-plays-600 run-gluts go, this was without doubt the most compelling in Test history, aided by the subplot of a possible momentum shift in the series, and adorned with a motley collection of what-if turning points that favoured the batting sides, from England’s impressively varied catalogue of dropped chances to the Morkel no-ball that cost a few crucial overs of Rootedness, to the millimetre of Bairstow’s boot that saved him from being stumped.Nevertheless, the two sets of bowlers between them posted the third worst combined first innings in Test history, taking 11 wickets at 111 apiece. Only in the Lahore Test between Pakistan and India in January 2006, when both sides’ batsmen obliterated the opposing bowlers in a rain-affected slugfest (679 for 7, including two run-outs, versus 410 for 1, including Sehwag spanking 254 off 247), and the more sedately paced but also 1000% drawn Karachi Test of February 2009, when Pakistan topped Sri Lanka’s 644 for 7 with their own 765 for 6. In those games, the bowlers’ first-innings averages were 177 and 115 respectively. A tip of the statistical hat also to the India v New Zealand Test in Delhi in December 1955, when the batsmen of New Zealand (450 for 2 in 176 overs) and India (531 for 7 off 241.5) consorted to give each other’s bowlers the highest collective first-innings strike rate of all time – 278, or a wicket every 46.2 overs.I am now back in my rightful cricket-watching shed for the final two matches of England’s 17-Test marathon that began in the aftermath of a harrowingly awful World Cup, has encompassed an almost heroic level of inconsistency, and is ending with a team that looks like it could become very good indeed. Or continue being entertainingly inconsistent.

Opening bowler Aayush Kamath’s match-clinching 8 for 16, including a hat-trick that demolished Arya Gurukul’s fragile middle order, was sadly overlooked by the world’s media. Cricket is a team game. Let us never forget that

● Cricket loves statistical milestones, sometimes to an unhealthy degree. A player who has clonked a stress-free hundred on a flat pudding is often considered more established than one who has chiselled out a match-turning 70 on a spicy surface with the game in the balance, simply because of that mystically powered “1” in his personal hundreds column. A haul of 5 for 342 outdoes 4 for 0 as a bowler’s “best”.What, then, to make of the first 1000-run innings, planked in stupidly quick time by Pranav Dhanawade for the KC Gandhi English School against Aryu Gurukul?The 1000-run threshold was not, it is fair to say, a landmark that had preoccupied cricket in the way that, say, the four-minute mile entranced the athletics world in the 1950s, given that no one had come within 350 runs of the four-figure barrier at any point in at least the last 100,000 years, if not longer. There had been no near-miss, like Hanif Mohammad’s 499, where he was run out in pursuit of first-class cricket’s first quintuple century. Dhanawade unleashed a bolt from the statistical blue that no one had considered either possible or necessary. We now know it is at least one of those two.One of the most impressive aspects of Dhanawade’s innings, in which 57% of the balls he faced were dispatched to or over the boundary, was that he had the psychological fortitude to be bothered to keep smacking fours and sixes when any sense of a bat-versus-ball challenge must have long since evaporated, and all that was left was boy versus maths.All cricketing achievements must be seen in the context of the opposition, and it is fair to say that the Arya Gurukul team have “room for improvement”. Bowled out for 31, they then conceded a disappointing 1465 for 3 declared, scored at 15.6 per over, before – as so often happens to teams who have shipped 1400-odd in the field – collapsing with the bat again. The declaration proved perfectly timed, with a lead of 1434 just tempting enough to make Arya Gurukul think they could launch a Kolkata-2001-style counterattack.Sadly for them, there was neither a junior Laxman, nor a proto-Dravid in their ranks. They were reduced to 10 for 7 – all seven boys dismissed failing to trouble the scorers – before Sarth Salunke and Tejas Misar frightened the life out of the KC Gandhi XI with a monumental stand of 42, one of the all-time great eight-wicket rearguards, which could have turned the match on its head if only it had lasted 40 or 50 times longer than it did.Opening bowler Aayush Kamath’s match-clinching 8 for 16, including a hat-trick that demolished Arya Gurukul’s fragile middle order (surely the selectors will look to make changes for their next game after five players bagged pairs), was sadly overlooked by the world’s media. Cricket is a team game. Let us never forget that.After the chastening innings-and-1382-run defeat, questions will inevitably be asked about the decision of the Arya Gurukul school governors to appoint Alan Mullally as batting coach and David Gower as bowling coach, rather than the other way round. There were few positives to take away from this mauling, other than opening batsman Salunke’s 13 and 20 not out – Bradmanesque, in the context of his team-mates’ numerically challenged efforts – and two useful contributions by extras (12 and 16).The bowlers, it is fair to say, simply did not give their skipper the control you need in Bhandari Cup school cricket, although the parsimonious young Pratik Bedekar kept an end relatively tight by only being smashed for 13.3 per over. And there will be an understandable clamour in the Arya Gurukul press for wicketkeeper-captain Swaraj Deshmukh to reconsider his position, after he scored a pair, conceded 14 byes, and went for 80 off five overs when he took the pads off. His decision to bat first can now be put alongside Nasser Hussain’s Brisbane 2002 let’s-have-a-bowl howler as one of the great toss-winning bloopers of all time. How differently might the game have gone if it had gone completely differently?Who knows what the future holds for Dhanawade? Even three-figure scores will now have the Twittersphere bleating that he’s over the hill and only in the team on reputation. He has his place in cricketostatistical immortality, the boy who scaled a mountain no one even knew was there.

Plus: the best batting average after ten Test matches

Steven Lynch15-Mar-2016What is the progressive list of the leading Test run scorers, and who has held the record for longest? asked Zobel al Monsor from Bangladesh

Charles Bannerman, who scored a century in the first Test of all in 1876-77, was the first table-topper in this particular list. He played in only two more Tests, and finished his short career with 239 runs. England’s George Ulyett overtook that in 1881-82, and extended the record to 676, but was surpassed in 1884 by Australia’s Billy Murdoch, who took it to 860. Arthur Shrewsbury reclaimed the record for England in 1886, and soon after became the first man to score 1000 runs in Tests: his eventual mark of 1277 stood until 1901-02, when first Joe Darling (1293) then Syd Gregory (1366) went past it. Then things got even more complicated – in all the record changed hands nine times in 1902! In the Ashes series in England, the lead was exchanged during the Lord’s, Sheffield and Oval Tests. Archie MacLaren reclaimed the mark for the home side, and took it to 1432, but then traded blows with another Australian, Clem Hill, who became the first to pass1500, By the end of the year Hill had sole possession, and extended the mark to 3412 – which stood until 1924-25, when the great England opener Jack Hobbs took the lead. He finished with 5410 runs, a record that lasted until 1937, when Wally Hammond went past it – and held the record for a record 33 years. His eventual 7249 runs was not beaten until 1970-71, when Colin Cowdrey nipped past to 7459 – but in 14 months he was overtaken by Garfield Sobers, whose eventual tally of 8032 runs lasted eight and a half years before Geoff Boycott extended it to 8114 in 1981-82. That mark survived less than two years before Sunil Gavaskar – the first to 10,000 – took the lead, and his eventual 10,122 lasted more than nine years until Allan Border went by in 1992-93, on his way to 11,174. Brian Lara surpassed that in 2005-06, going on to 11,953 – but Sachin Tendulkar took the lead in October 2008, and has so far spent more than seven years on top, his final aggregate a commanding 15,921 runs.Was the Six6 match between Ireland and the Netherlands the other day the shortest completed T20 international? asked Henry Davidson from England

The rain-shortened World T20 qualifier in Dharamsala at the weekend was, at 72 deliveries, the shortest T20I so far to produce a definite result. There have been three shorter games in which some play was possible – including Ireland’s match against Bangladesh in Dharamsala two days previously – plus five complete washouts. The shortest completed game before this weekend was New Zealand’s victory over Scotland at The Oval during the World T20 in England in 2009. That was shortened to seven overs per side, but New Zealand reached their target of 90 with six balls in hand.The India-Pakistan Asia Cup T20 match featured no sixes. What’s the highest aggregate in ODIs and T20s without any sixes at all? asked Vinay Narayanaswamy from India

The highest aggregate in a one-day international with no sixes is 549, by South Africa (274 for 6) and Pakistan (275 for 9) in Dubai in 2010-11. Next comes the 533 of the famous match in the inaugural World Cup in 1975, in which West Indies (267 for 9) just sneaked home against Pakistan (266 for 7) at Edgbaston thanks to a last-wicket stand of 64. The highest sixless aggregate in a T20I is 255 runs, in the match between England (129 for 5) and Pakistan (126 for 4) in Cardiff in 2010. The recent match between Pakistan (83) and India (85 for 5) in Mirpur, which produced just 168 runs in all, lies fifth on that list.Have any New Zealand-born cricketers ever played for Australia? asked Pat from Australia

Only three men who were born in New Zealand have played Tests for Australia. The first one was an awfully long time ago: Tom Groube, who first saw the light of day in New Plymouth in 1857, won his only cap in the first Test ever played in England, at The Oval in 1880. He scored 11 and a first-ball duck, and never appeared again. The next Australian Kiwi was the most famous: legspinner Clarrie Grimmett, born near Dunedin on Christmas Day in 1891, played 37 times between 1924-25 and 1935-36 (when he was 44), and was the first bowler from anywhere to take 200 Test wickets. More recently, the left-arm fast bowler Brendon Julian, who was born in Hamilton, played seven Tests for Australia in the 1990s; he’s now a familiar face on TV. In all 23 men not born in Australia have played Tests for them, six in the first match of all in 1876-77 (five from the British Isles and one born in India). The most recent addition to the list is the left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe, who was born in Malaysia in 1984, while his father was serving in the Royal Australian Air Force there. Luke Ronchi, who was born in Dannevirke in New Zealand in 1981, played four one-day and three T20Is for Australia in 2008 and 2009, before returning home; he made his debut for New Zealand in 2013, and has now played nearly 90 matches for them, including one Test. Fawad Ahmed (born in Pakistan in 1982) and Ken MacLeay (born in England in 1959) have also played limited-overs matches for Australia.The Ireland-Netherlands T20I in Dharamsala lasted 72 balls•AFPIn a recent World T20 warm-up game, Colin Munro hit seven sixes and no fours in his innings. What are the records in all formats for sixes when no fours were hit by the batsman? asked Craig Manuel from South Africa

Colin Munro’s seven sixes in that warm-up game against Sri Lanka in Mumbai last week would have been a record had the match been an official T20l, which it wasn’t. As it is, the record remains at five sixes but no fours, which has happened four times – by Abdul Razzaq for Pakistan v England in Dubai in February 2010, Albie Morkel for South Africa v New Zealand in the World T20 in Bridgetown in May 2010, Cameron White for Australia v Pakistan in St Lucia a few days later in the semi-final of that same tournament, and by Ziaur Rahman for Bangladesh against Ireland in Belfast in July 2012. Ziaur faced only 17 balls, Razzaq and Morkel 18. The one-day international record is held by England’s Paul Collingwood, who hit six sixes (but no fours) in his unbeaten 54 from 30 deliveries against New Zealand in Napier in 2007-08. The Test record appears to be four, by Nixon McLean for West Indies v South Africa in Port Elizabeth in 1998-99, and Andrew Flintoff for the ICC World XI against Australia in Sydney in 2005-06 (there may be some other instances in earlier matches, for which precise details are not known).Which batsman had the best Test average after ten matches? Was it Vinod Kambli? asked Rajat Gupta from India

Vinod Kambli actually comes in third on this particular list: his batting average after ten Tests was 93.70, behind only the Australian pair of Neil Harvey (95.00) and the inevitable Don Bradman (96.40). The Sri Lankan Thilan Samaraweera (83.00) comes next, ahead of Herbert Sutcliffe (79.77) and Everton Weekes (75.00). In all there 25 batsmen have averaged 60 or more after ten Tests, a number that drops to 12 if you raise the bar to 20 matches – Bradman still leads the way with 111.92, ahead of Mike Hussey with 84.80 and Sutcliffe on 68.82. Adam Voges currently averages 95.50 after 15 Tests, behind only Bradman’s 100.71. I wonder how long he can keep that up?Send in your questions using our feedback form.

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Mar-2016Tamim Iqbal struggled for timing and fell to Jasprit Bumrah for 13 in a slow start•Associated PressAshish Nehra sent Soumya Sarkar back as the hosts suffered an early wobble•Associated PressShakib Al Hasan then flourished briefly before he top-edged a sweep off R Ashwin to short fine leg•AFPSabbir Rahman and Mahmudullah, however, added 45 together in 20 balls to muscle Bangladesh to 120 for 5•AFPIndia were hurt early in their chase as Rohit Sharma fell to Al-Amin Hossain the second over•Associated PressShikhar Dhawan then combined with Virat Kohli to add 94 for the second wicket and set India’s chase up nicely•Associated PressDhawan fell with India on 99, but Kohli and MS Dhoni took India home with eight wickets and seven balls to spare•Associated Press

Eight editions have produced five champions. How closely have you followed it?

ESPNcricinfo staff29-May-2016

Plays of the day from the World T20 game between South Africa and Afghanistan in Mumbai

Firdose Moonda20-Mar-2016The one-handed maximumSouth Africa dazzled with an array of boundaries in the first six overs but the most eye-catching one came when Faf du Plessis took on Mohammad Nabi. The offspinner dropped one short, du Plessis gave himself room by stepping outside leg stump, went deep into his crease, took his top hand off the handle of his bat and carved the ball over cover using just one hand.The mix-up Quinton de Kock knew Faf du Plessis had his dancing shoes on, so when du Plessis jabbed Amir Hamza into the covers, de Kock thought a quick run was on. Then de Kock saw Mohammad Nabi swooping in and realised it was too risky so he turned back. At the other end, du Plessis had already responded but soon saw it was wiser to turn back. He was late to undo his steps and Nabi’s throw came in quickly for Mohammad Shahzad to catch the South African captain short of his ground.The drop AB de Villiers had just started to threaten when he offered Afghanistan a chance. He sent a Samiullah Shenwari delivery straight back to him. Shenwari had to react quickly in his follow through and got his hands up in time but then it all became too much. He could not hold on as the ball burst through his hands and de Villiers got his 27th run. He would go on to score 37 more.The placementHis ability to hit the ball anywhere he wants had already been on display but to further emphasise the point, AB de Villiers bisected the gap between the stands in the middle of his assault on Rashid Khan. After hitting him through midwicket twice and straight down the ground, de Villiers smeared a short ball straight into the daylight that peeped through a gap in the stand at midwicket. That also brought up fifty for him, off 24 balls.The poser Mohammad Shahzad probably knows he is not model material but that did not stop him from striking a pose after a perfect lofted drive. As the Kyle Abbott delivery was sent cleanly over long-on, Shahzad held his stance: head down, bat straight, elbows high. And there he stood.The misfield Faf du Plessis had specifically asked for discipline from his attack but he may need to extend that to include his fielders. Mohammad Nabi sliced David Wiese to short third man, where Imran Tahir was stationed. Tahir failed to move quickly enough to his left and by the time he got there, the bounce had the better of him. Tahir could not even get a hand to the ball as it disappeared past his legs and onto the boundary. Wiese’s figures were already mangled, but that didn’t help.

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2016Soon after the drinks break, Rahul got to his third Test ton with a six over wide long-on•AFPAfter a wicket-less first session, West Indies struck early in the second when Pujara was run-out by Roston Chase for 46•Associated PressRahul, though, added 69 with Virat Kohli before he was caught behind off Shannon Gabriel for 158•Associated PressKohli looked fluent before chipping a catch to short leg for 44•Associated PressDevendra Bishoo then had R Ashwin lbw late in the day as India slipped from 277 for 2 to 327 for 5•Associated PressAjinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha, however, ensured India still finished the second day in a dominant position, leading West Indies by 162 with five wickets in hand•Associated Press

With the plot of the Test yet to be written by the team that took the initiative, Australia’s spinners adjusted to their detriment, thereby conceding the advantage to the hosts

Daniel Brettig in Colombo16-Aug-2016Dimuth Karunaratne’s momentary doze on the batting crease and Peter Nevill’s sharp response to stump him, released a torrent of sanctimony familiar to anyone who has read much about the Olympics these past two weeks. The spirit of cricket had been trampled on by Nevill’s alertness, reinforcing Australia’s reputation as a team up to no good – or so the opinion went.Nevermind that Karunaratne had ignored the fact the ball isn’t dead until it has returned to the bowler, or that wicketkeepers the world over are perpetually trying to catch a batsman out in this way and Nevill was a rare one to succeed. The moment drew out a chorus of tut-tutting that only really abated when Adam Gilchrist emerged to tweet the following: “Nothing unethical about this one. Just a little bit lazy by batsman.”Later, an instance was found where Darren Lehmann had been dismissed in more or less the same manner by Romesh Kaluwitharana in a 1996 ODI. A little like Mankading, Nevill’s stumping provided another instance where batsmen should be more conscious of checking their privilege.There was another cricketing point to the farrago, one of far greater import to Australia and borne out further as the fourth day at the SSC went on. If it was going to take an alert Nevill’s moment of opportunism to manufacture a wicket for the spinners on a turning and deteriorating pitch, then the tourists were going to be waiting a long time to get through Sri Lanka’s batting. How true this turned out to be, as Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal set about building a handsome lead.Irrespective of the result in this match, Australia’s cricketers, coaches and selectors were hoping to see signs of progress over five days, especially in the departments of batting and spin bowling. While Mitchell Starc has been the outstanding Australian performer in the series, and Josh Hazlewood has offered sturdy support, pace was always something of a sideshow in these climes. The greater onus was on the batsmen to build partnerships and big scores, and the spinners to take wickets through unrelenting pressure on helpful surfaces.The inclusion of Shaun Marsh and the batting evolution of the captain Steven Smith allowed for the former to occur at least in part on days one and two. Their partnership was something for the top six and their mentors to take home to Australia with a sense that at least two players had been able to show the way – even if the rest failed to capitalise on it.But the same could not be said for Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland when their turn came to exert an influence on the match. Rather than coming into their own on the same pitch Rangana Herath was able to use to harvest six wickets, Lyon and Holland were frustrated at length by impish Sri Lankan batting and their own inability to find the consistency required of spinners against opponents raised on a steady diet of slow bowling.Lyon and Holland are both bowlers capable of delivering high quality stuff – their best offerings are arguably more potent than those of Herath, being whirred down from greater heights and so able to gain greater bounce while also being loaded with plenty of revolutions. However the ability to land ball after ball in the same small area of the pitch while close-in fielders sweat on batting errors is what counts most in Asia, and on that count both have been found wanting.For this, a large degree of credit needs to go to Sri Lanka, who have manipulated fields by canny use of sweep shots and heaves over the top at well-chosen moments. As their latest centurion Kaushal Silva put it: “We were positive. When you play on this kind of a wicket you need to manoeuvre the fielders around, you can’t have fielders in catching positions. Our guys played shots and reverse swept so they had to put a fielder there. Those are the little things you need to do when batting, especially the sweep we did it quite often in the series, so that helped us to move the fielders so that they had to do something different which is not their plan.”Nevertheless, Lyon and Holland needed to be able to counter with their own consistency, and a strong self-belief to stick at the task. Wicketkeeper Peter Nevill has had a ringside seat to this contest, and agreed that neither Lyon nor Holland has been allowed to get into any sort of comfortable groove. “Our spinners have done their best to adapt as best they can and I think it’s been an admirable effort, but their batsmen have played spin exceptionally well and made it very hard for a spinner to settle,” he said. “They’ve swept really well, used their feet well, so a lot of credit’s got to go to their batsmen.”What will be most troubling for Lehmann, Smith and the selection chairman Rod Marsh is the fact that day four in Colombo was a much better opportunity for Lyon and Holland to influence the outcome than any other juncture of the series. Certainly it was a world away from the scenario they faced in Galle, when a large first innings lead had been conceded. This time around the game was finally balanced entering the second innings, with the narrative to be written by the team that took the initiative through skill and mental sharpness.But rather than Lyon and Holland making use of the lessons they have learned over the past two weeks, it was Sri Lanka who emerged the stronger, as Australia’s spinners kept on trying to make adjustments in terms of pace, length and arm path. Both men landed the occasional delivery in the perfect spot, eliciting sharp turn and bounce. But they did not do so often enough to corner their opponents, and when the wickets did start to come later in the day, Sri Lanka’s lead had already assumed proportions never successfully chased on this ground. These belated breakthroughs were arguably serving more to open the game up for the hosts than the visitors – the opposite of what Australia had hoped for.Having made his debut in Sri Lanka five years ago, Lyon is now the most senior member of the Australian team in terms of Test matches played. He is also the song master, entrusted with the job of belting out after Test match victories. It will be a source of enormous frustration for him that he has not been able to emerge as a decisive force in this series, and cause for the selectors to ponder the right combination to take to India next year.When the review of Australia’s defeat is undertaken as the chief executive James Sutherland has promised, more time will be spent analysing Lyon’s failure to perform as the lead strike bowler on tour than on an opportunistic stumping effected by an aware wicketkeeper. It should be, anyway.