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ScorecardIshant Sharma destroyed West Zone’s top order•K Sivaraman

North Zone strengthened their grip on the Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Chennai with a combined bowling performance that bowled West Zone out for 164 and secured a 320-run lead. Ishant Sharma destroyed the top order and legspinner Amit Mishra ran through the tail, taking seven wickets between them. The North Zone openers batted for 14 overs to add 30 runs before stumps, with a day remaining.Six for 1 overnight, West Zone’s slump began in the second over of the day, when opener Kaustubh Pawar fell without a run being scored. The new batsmen tried to build partnerships but were slow. When in-form Cheteshwar Pujara got out to Ishant in the 22nd over, West Zone were struggling at 40 for 4. Bhushan Chauhan and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel batted together for 24.2 overs, scoring 72 runs – the highest stand of the innings. Chauhan was dismissed by Ishant, who had accounted for four top-order wickets. Patel reached a fifty but departed soon after, and West Zone were 128 for 6. The last four wickets added only 36 more.Besides Sharma and Mishra, seamer Rishi Dhawan also helped North Zone with important wickets of No. 3 batsman Murtuja Vahora and Patel. To force a result on the last day, North Zone will want to declare early and bowl West Zone out quickly again.

In early 2011, BJ Watling’s international record read like the careers of so many failed New Zealand openers before him. In the years after Nathan Astle, Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming left the game, New Zealand seemed to trial a fresh opening prospect every six months. Michael Papps, Craig Cumming, Jamie How, Aaron Redmond and Tim McIntosh all arrived and wilted at the top level.Some showed initial promise before quickly waning, but Watling barely made an impact. When he was jettisoned at the end of 2010, he had made only two fifties in 18 international innings, with a top score of 60 not out. His talent was undeniable in domestic cricket, but like Papps, How and Redmond, Watling seemed unable to adjust mentally. He was renowned at home for valuing his wicket and his sound defensive technique, but in internationals, his failures were populated by loose strokes and soft dismissals.But unlike so many others, he wasn’t forgotten altogether. Then New Zealand coach John Wright saw the raw materials of a good player in Watling, and paved his way back into internationals late last year. Soon, before he had even proven himself, Watling was being groomed for a specific long-term role. Brendon McCullum abandoned the gloves in Tests due to back problems, and after short-lived dalliance with Reece Young, Watling, Wright said, would be the man behind the stumps who could also strengthen New Zealand’s batting.He began to repay Wright’s faith, hitting a century against Zimbabwe in his first Test as keeper, but sustained a hip injury before the real test came against touring South Africa. Kruger van Wyk took his place in the XI, and has not relinquished it since, having hammered out a reputation as a battler – exactly the quality a New Zealand top order veering towards spineless was short of.Yet, although his international career had seemingly run aground again, against West Indies in July, Watling suddenly found the steel that had been lacking from his game, making consecutive fifties in the first two ODIs – the first time he had done so in his career. He was injured again after making 40 in the third match, but he had shown enough pluck for New Zealand’s management to keep him in their plans. Against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, Watling finally demonstrated what team management had seen in him for the past two years.Watling may not have even played in the second ODI had Brendon McCullum not withdrawn with a stiff lower back, but as has been his recent habit, he did not squander the opportunity. New Zealand have adopted a conservative top order strategy in recent months, and Watling’s steady 55 saw the venom leave the pitch and provided the platform for Ross Taylor to flourish after him.In the next match, Watling had ground his way to 29 from 54, but soon after, both Taylor and James Franklin had fallen, and he took it upon himself to provide the finishing impetus, as he showcased a more belligerent facet of his game. The Watling that blasted 67 from 34 deliveries to close out the innings at 96 not out, suddenly seemed eons away from the player that had scratched his way through his first two years of international cricket. The offside gaps were pinpointed with purring strokes and the vacant areas in the legside targeted aerially. Lasith Malinga had tormented New Zealand in the previous match, but Watling dispatched him for three consecutive boundaries in the penultimate over of the innings.”He took risks and he hit the ball in the air, it wasn’t all along the ground,” New Zealand captain Ross Taylor said of Watling’s innings. “He showed the power game that he does have. He’s getting a lot of belief in himself, I’m sure, from the way he’s batted in the last two games, and half the battle at this level is self-belief.”Watling had taken 23 innings to compile three scores over 50, but he now has four half-centuries in five ODIs, with an average of 107.66. Some players ease their way into top-level cricket, and others burn hot from start to finish. Watling’s abrupt torrent of runs suggests a dam has burst somewhere, and if he can sustain the deluge, he will remedy his record after two lean years.”The way BJ is batting is outstanding and he just keeps growing and growing as a player It’s terrific, not just for him but also the team,” Taylor said. “He’s not an automatic selection, but I’m sure the way he’s played in the last little while, he’s pushing for that.”

Big picture: Final rehearsal for India

In less than five months, India will face Ireland in their opening game at the 2024 T20 World Cup. While there is the IPL before that, the three-match series against Afghanistan, starting in Mohali on Thursday, is India’s only T20I assignment in between. Incidentally, this is the first time India are playing a bilateral white-ball series against Afghanistan.Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are back in the T20I squad for the first time since India’s semi-final loss to England at the 2022 T20 World Cup. Kohli, though, will miss Thursday’s game because of personal reasons.Rohit’s return also forces a change at the top. Head coach Rahul Dravid confirmed that Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal are India’s first-choice openers in T20Is. They also provide the left-right combination. Jaiswal’s ability to attack from the first ball also makes him a better prospect than Shubman Gill, who is the third opener in the squad.Related

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While Gill has improved his six-hitting ability, his powerplay strike rate in all T20s since the start of 2023 is only 138.44 while Jaiswal’s is 163.69. In Kohli’s absence, Gill could slot in at No. 3 on Thursday but may have to sit out for the last two games.Afghanistan will be keen to build on their gains from the 2023 ODI World Cup. They will play nine T20Is between now and the T20 World Cup. So there is time to finalise the first-choice XI, play it together, and fine-tune it if required.With that in mind, they have picked a 19-member squad for this series. Rashid Khan is also part of the roster but will not play in the series as he continues to recover from back surgery. In his absence, Ibrahim Zadran will lead the side once again.Afghanistan had a hiccup last month when Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq and Mujeeb Ur Rahman wanted to be released from their central contracts and play franchise cricket. But all three are now back in the national team and are expected to play a big role.Rohit Sharma was in good spirits during India’s training session•PTI

Form guide

India WLWWL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Afghanistan WLWWW

In the spotlight: Rohit Sharma and Najibullah Zadran

Rohit Sharma gave India blazing starts at the ODI World Cup, scoring at a strike rate of 135.01 in the powerplay. But it needs to be seen if he can translate the same into T20 cricket. In ODIs, a batter can take an over or two to get their eye in and then line up a particular bowler. T20, a different beast, has little breathing room. One-over spells are the norm here with bowlers’ primary goal being to stop runs. That is a challenge India would want Rohit to overcome.Najibullah Zadran rarely gets the recognition he deserves. Among Afghanistan batters with at least 500 T20I runs, he has the highest average (31.85) and the highest strike rate (139.71). And only Mohammad Shahzad has more 50-plus scores for the country. Of late, Najibullah has been struggling with injuries and form. He was left out of the XI after just two games of the ODI World Cup, in which he scored 5 and 2. But he showed signs of a return to form with an unbeaten 13-ball 28 against UAE in the third T20I last week.

Team news: Samson or Jitesh?

With Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya out with injuries, Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh will get another chance to show their wares. The same holds for Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar in the fast-bowling department, with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj rested. It will be interesting to see whether India pick Jitesh Sharma or Sanju Samson as wicketkeeper.India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Jitesh Sharma/Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Mukesh KumarIbrahim Zadran will lead Afghanistan in T20Is for the second successive series•PTI

In the absence of Rashid, Afghanistan are likely to continue with fellow legspinner Qais Ahmad. However, Noor Ahmed may have to make way for Mujeeb.Afghanistan (probable): 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Ibrahim Zadran (capt), 4 Azmatullah Omarzai, 5 Najibullah Zadran, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Gulbadin Naib/Karim Janat, 8 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 9 Qais Ahmad, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

Pitch and conditions: Win the toss and chase

Out of 40 T20s Mohali has hosted in the last two years, the chasing team has won 26. So the team winning the toss will be looking to bowl first, even though Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran said he didn’t notice much dew in the past two days. At night, it could get slightly foggy with the temperature dropping below 5°C.

Stats and trivia: Will India get lucky with the toss?

• India have now lost 11 tosses in a row. The probability of that happening is 0.0005.
• Rohit needs 147 runs to become the second batter after Kohli to reach 4000 T20I runs.
• Mohammad Nabi needs 123 runs and eight wickets to complete the double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in T20Is. So far, Shakib Al Hasan is the only one to do so.
• Axar Patel is five short of 50 T20I wickets.

Quotes

“Rinku Singh has made a good start in international cricket and he is playing really well. The role we have given him, the finisher’s role, he is fulfilling it. This is another opportunity for him to take his development further. As far as the selection is concerned, that will be decided later but when players perform well, they are always in the selectors’ minds.”
“You see, we have one of the best spinners in the world, and we also have good fast bowlers in Naveen and Fazal. So our aim is to improve our batting skills and we will try to do more in that department.”

Australia will again have uncertainty over Steven Smith’s elbow heading into a major tournament after he was ruled out of the tours to West Indies and Bangladesh.Smith has suffered a recurrence of the problem he had earlier this year and kept him out of action for a period in February and March before he went to the IPL.He returned to action briefly for New South Wales in late March before heading to India and the issue has now flared up again after his stint with Delhi Capitals where he played six matches before the tournament was suspended.It is the same elbow that required surgery in early 2019 while Smith was still serving his ban from international cricket and briefly raised doubts as to whether he would be fit for that year’s one-day World Cup.There are still four months before the T20 World Cup but although a timeline for Smith’s recovery has yet to be mapped out having him fit for the twin tilts at the global title then the Ashes is the priority.Related

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“Unfortunately I can’t tell you how long or how serious it is but it’s something he’s had before and definitely flared up again in the IPL,” national selector Trevor Hohns said. “How long it will take to get it completely right I can’t tell you at the moment, I’ve had no further advice on that, but the main thing is for Steven from our view is to make sure he is fit for the T20 World Cup and of course the Ashes.”Smith would likely bat at No. 3 in the T20I side – although that can be flexible depending on the game situation – and is locked in at No. 4 in the Test team.Another player being managed with an eye on the home summer is allrounder Cameron Green who was added to the large preliminary white-ball squad before it was decided he would not make the trip.He will instead start pre-season with Western Australia with an eye to having a strong lead-in to Test against Afghanistan then the Ashes in the Sheffield Shield, something that those Test players involved in the T20 World Cup won’t be able to do as they quarantine for two weeks after the tournament before going straight into the Afghanistan game in Hobart in late November.Green played all four Tests against India last season where he impressed with the bat, hitting 84 in the second innings at the SCG, but was unable to pick up a wicket. He struggled to have an impact with the ball throughout the summer as he made his way back from a stress fracture of the bat but, barring a major downturn early next season, appears set to take the No. 6 spot again.”At the moment we thought best to leave him here and prepare for the upcoming summer,” Hohns said. “We regard him as a very important component of our Test side who we’ll select in our Ashes squad. He can have a nice winter off, start training and building himself especially for our red-ball cricket.”

Stephen Eskinazi maintained his rich vein of form with an unbeaten 91 from 56 balls as Middlesex halted their four-match Vitality Blast losing streak with a seven-wicket victory over Glamorgan at Radlett.Eskinazi, who had scored 102 not out and 64 in his two previous innings, dominated the Glamorgan bowling to steer the Seaxes to their target of 171 with 14 balls to spare. His efforts outshone a Glamorgan record seventh-wicket stand of 88 from 47 balls between Dan Douthwaite and James Weighell, who both recorded maiden Blast half-centuries to lift their side to 170 for 8.Glamorgan were hampered by the loss of their two leading run-scorers in the tournament – Nick Selman, who tested positive for Covid-19 and Marnus Labuschagne, isolating after being in contact with the opener.Despite that, the visitors opted to bat, but spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, back at Middlesex for the remainder of the Blast, made an immediate impact – bowling three tight Powerplay overs and removing the dangerous Colin Ingram for a duck to finish with 1 for 23.Glamorgan’s reshuffled top order floundered, with only David Lloyd, who hit 29 from 25 balls, threatening to gain momentum before he fell to Steven Finn’s sharply-taken return catch. But, having slumped to 76 for 6, the visitors were revived by the partnership between Douthwaite and Weighell – the latter in particular striking his shots cleanly but also with power and accuracy.The pair took 23 from Finn’s final over, including two sixes from Douthwaite, who was then dropped by Eskinazi off a skier and took advantage to bring up his half-century with another maximum off Daryl Mitchell. Douthwaite holed out next delivery for 53, with Eskinazi taking the catch this time, and Weighell reached 51 before following suit from the final ball of the innings as Mitchell ended with figures of 3 for 37.Eskinazi immediately settled into his groove when Middlesex began their reply, dominating an opening stand of 55 with Joe Cracknell as he struck both Weighell and Prem Sisodiya for successive boundaries. Douthwaite made the breakthrough at the end of the fifth over, having Cracknell caught behind off a thick edge, but Nick Gubbins proved to be an equally capable foil for Eskinazi as the duo added 68 from 52 balls.Gubbins eventually swept Sisodiya to deep square leg, but Mitchell bludgeoned 32 from just 13 balls before John Simpson sealed a rare Middlesex success, clipping his first delivery from Douthwaite for six.

Balls have been raising puffs of dust, edges have sometimes failed to carry to the keeper, and only once in eight innings has 250 been surpassed, but although these are alien conditions, Australia have clinched the ODI series the “Australian way”, according to the acting captain David Warner.The victory in the fourth ODI was the visitor’s most comprehensive on tour, as they ran down Sri Lanka’s 212 with six wickets in hand and 19 overs remaining. Aaron Finch had set the chase off apace with a 18-ball fifty, which featured three sixes and eight fours. His share of a 5.3 over opening stand which yielded 74 runs, was 55. Warner was 18 off 14 balls at the other end, eventually making 19 from 16.”It’s always awesome to have one of your players go off like that and for me it is more of a watching tour to be honest,” Warner said. “I’ve been up the other end or in the dug out watching the guys go about it. But it’s fantastic – I love that Finch comes out and plays his game. That’s how we play. That’s the Australian way. We have always played that way, and as I said to the guys today, you almost know what your role is. The first 10 overs was the new ball and we had to make the most of it.

Chandimal laments Mathews injury

The injury to Angelo Mathews contributed significantly to Sri Lanka’s loss at Dambulla, acting captain Dinesh Chandimal said. Mathews had injured his right calf while batting in the 27th over of the innings, and retired hurt shortly after. Though he later returned to the crease, his running was significantly hampered, and he did not take the field. Mathews was one of two seam bowlers in Sri Lanka’s XI.
“Angelo is one of our major threats with the ball,” Chandimal said. “Without him it’s a major setback. He always gets us a wicket or two. He will have a CT scan tomorrow, but at the moment he looks unlikely to play in the rest of the tour.”
Chandimal also defended the selection of 18-year-old opening batsman Avishka Fernando, who had not played any senior cricket before this match, and was out second ball. “Avishka has scored a lot of runs in the under-19 team, and was batting really well at training. Danushka Gunathilaka, whom he replaced, wasn’t batting that well.”

“It’s about getting a good start in these conditions and make use of that new ball when we’re batting, because otherwise you see what happens when the ball gets old – it starts turning square.”George Bailey top-scored for Australia for the second match in a row, converting Finch’s start into a win with a 85-ball 90 not out. He had again been impressive against Sri Lanka’s spinners, using his feet often, and using the sweep and reverse-sweep better than any Australia batsman has done on the tour.”We had to learn to adapt,” Warner said. “Look at the way George Bailey came in and reversed and swept and backed his game plan. The way he has played in the subcontinent in the last couple of years, his form has been outstanding, and the way he finished it off today was superb.”It was Australia’s attack that perhaps played the more definitive role in the match, however, dismissing Sri Lanka for a total captain Dinesh Chandimal suggested was at least 40 runs below par. John Hastings was the visitors’ major weapon, taking a career-best 6 for 45 to follow his 2 for 41 on Sunday. Hastings was especially successful through the middle overs.”He’s been a very good bowler for a long time now and he’s a very cagey one – you have to respect him,” Warner said of Hastings. “I know when I’ve played against him in the past, he’s just so hard to get away. In these conditions he is very challenging to go after, and it showed tonight. His skills were fantastic and there’s probably a reason he got a personal best.”The other string to his bow is that he can hit a long ball. We look around our team and our squad that we have had the last two years – we’ve got some very good allrounders in Australia. I think we’re in a very good paddock and that’s the fantastic thing about Australian cricket.”Although his team has won the series, Warner was critical of the surfaces that have been prepared this series. He said he would rather see pitches like the one at Trent Bridge, on which England made a record 444 on Tuesday. Sri Lanka’s ODI venues have been consistently low-scoring over the past decade. A score of over 300 has never been successfully chased down on the island.”It’s hard to gain momentum when the wickets prepared are like this,” Warner said. “I speak from an Australian cricketer’s point of view – we’re about growing the game. When it comes to one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket you like to see more of a contest where you’re scoring over 300 runs and you’re chasing down totals. Sitting back last night and watching England score 400, then coming out here, busting our backsides for both teams scramble to 200 – it’s probably not ideal for people coming out here to watch that kind of cricket.”It’s a little bit disappointing from our point of view because it’s not the way we like to play. We like to play an aggressive brand of cricket. We like to entertain the crowd. So far, it’s been very difficult to try and do that. From the Sri Lankan spectators’ point of view – for them I’d like to see fours and sixes and big hits. At the moment it’s probably not that way.”When you see games like the England match last night – that’s what I love about cricket. I love that kind of atmosphere, and that’s why as a youngster I went to watch the game. But if you come here and you play five games like that, on wickets like they have here at the moment, it is going to be very, very tough to draw a big crowd all the time.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSandeep Sharma profited from seam movement and took 4 for 62•AFP

India Red and India Green approached the country’s maiden first-class game with the pink ball with as much excitement as fear of the unknown – the fall of 17 wickets in the day might point to the latter – before coming out with the feeling that it wasn’t an entirely alien beast. It was by no means a jolt-free afternoon and night, though. India Red, having elected to bat, combusted to 161, before India Green hobbled their way to 116 for 7 when they weren’t busy fighting malfunctioning floodlights.The build-up to the game resembled a carnival rolling into town. Despite its usual thrills of stilted clowns and puppet shows, it is often the Ferris wheel that becomes the showstopper. When a sizeable crowd of flag-waving, chirpy fans made their way to the grass banks of the Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, India’s latest domestic season had found its Ferris wheel, this one sheathed in pink.

Bowlers surprised by pink ball durability

Pragyan Ojha and Kuldeep Yadav, who claimed three wickets apiece on the opening day, said they were surprised to see the pink ball retain its sheen even after a substantial period of play. A liberal coverage of grass on the pitch and a reasonably lush outfield may have contributed to that end.
“I think for the first time we never had a problem of maintaining the ball – you just have to rub, you don’t need anything to shine the ball,” Ojha said. “It was something we were experiencing for the first time. If we play with the red ball or the white ball there will be some changes to the ball, it deteriorates. I don’t think [it will be a problem for the spinners].”
Kuldeep, the left-arm wristspinner, admitted to finding it difficult to grip the ball initially. “I had to keep it rough. I think there is a lot of difference when compared to the red ball,” he told . “You get a lot more grip on the red ball, and a lot more turn. If you get used to the pink ball, you can get it to drift and turn. If the shine is maintained, it helps in getting drift and dip.”
He also said it was difficult to spot the shiny side of the ball while batting in the afternoon. “It becomes difficult for the batsmen to pick the ball when both sides of the ball retain their shine. There is no problem sighting the ball in the night,” he said.

The first session was instructive in tempering a few popular notions about the pink ball, like its exaggerated early swing, for instance. Exhibit A was provided by India Green’s Ashok Dinda and Sandeep Sharma, who got the new ball to seam a lot more than swing. Despite a grass coverage of 4mm on the pitch, there wasn’t any excessive lateral movement. That India Red slumped to 67 for 6 at the end of the first session was more a consequence of some poor shot-making, and good field-placements from India Green captain Suresh Raina, than any demons that lay hidden inside the pink ball.Dinda said during the tea break the ball stopped swinging and seaming once it had become relatively older, and thereby the bowlers were looking to target the stumps. He said there was no turn on offer, but there was enough evidence to the contrary with spinners accounting for six wickets. There was adequate assistance for both fingerspin and wristspin, with Pragyan Ojha and Jalaj Saxena of India Red, and Kuldeep and Akshay Wakhare of India Green getting fairly appreciable turn.On a day when wickets fell in a heap, Abhinav Mukund was the most successful batsman on either side. Mukund’s 77 was instrumental firstly in India Red reaching triple figures, and then his 50-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Anureet Singh, who swished his way to 32 off 21, helped the team cross 150.Mukund admitted to having trouble with sighting the ball at practice on Monday, but said there were no such issues during the match. “I was timing the ball well personally. I couldn’t sight it quite well in the nets yesterday, but today was better and it was a good experience,” he said after the first day’s play.”To be honest, I didn’t have much of a problem [sighting] today. I thought I was timing the ball and getting into good positions. The ball was holding on to the wicket sometimes, sometimes [it was] skidding on. It’s a new experience. We don’t play with the Kookaburra in domestic cricket; it’s a new experience for a lot of cricketers.”India Green had begun in similarly shaky fashion, with Nathu Singh accounting for all the three wickets that fell inside the first eight overs. Nathu, like Sandeep earlier in the evening, profited when he held the seam upright. Robin Uthappa was dismissed by a jaffa that cut back sharply to shave the top of off stump in the seventh ball of the innings, while Jalaj Saxena slashed one that didn’t bounce as much to be caught behind. Nathu’s swerving in-ducker in his next over caught Rajat Paliwal on the shuffle to leave India Green at 31 for 3. Raina and Parthiv Patel then restored calm with a 41-run stand. But after Kuldeep ran through the middle order, Saurabh Tiwary, the last recognised batsman, remained the key to India Green securing the first-innings advantage.