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West Indies bowling coach Roddy Estwick credited an “outstanding” bowling attack for setting up West Indies’ first-innings lead over Zimbabwe in the first Test at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo. Estwick, who has worked with the team’s bowlers for the last 18 months, gave special mention to legspinner Devendra Bishoo, who had a quiet tour of England but came to the fore with 5 for 79 against Zimbabwe.”Over the last year the bowling department has been functioning well, so I’m not surprised that we were able to bowl them out under our score,” Estwick said. “The bowling unit has been outstanding all year, and once Bishoo came to the party. I wasn’t surprised we restricted them to this score.”Bishoo, who took just three wickets across two Tests in England, picked up the fourth five-wicket haul of his career and ran through Zimbabwe’s top order with a combination of spin, bounce and accuracy in helpful conditions on the second day.”He didn’t have the best tour of England,” Estwick conceded. “It’s a difficult place to bowl. But if you look [at the last year], he got 30 wickets in that period so he’s been quite successful. He got eight wickets in Dubai on a flat track as well, so he does his job. The bowling unit has been outstanding; you can’t fault them. They’ve been able to stay on the park and stay fresh. It’s been a long year but we keep going and we keep getting teams out.”Estwick suggested that West Indies had taken their cue from Zimbabwe’s first-day bowling effort, when the patience and consistency of the seamers set up the spinners’ demolition. “Obviously we learnt from the way that Zimbabwe bowled in their first innings where they were patient and soaked up pressure,” he said. “We tried to do the same thing, block it with our seamers and try to get wickets from the other end.”West Indies’ lead stood at 148, with nine wickets standing, at the close of play, but in what has been a fast-moving, see-sawing Test match so far Estwick also warned against any complacency. “[The pitch] is going to get a bit more difficult because it’s going to lose pace, and that means strokemaking is going to get difficult. Zimbabwe lost 7 for 53 [58] after lunch, so the game can change very quickly on a pitch like this. We’ve got to try and take the game as long as possible. Bat until lunchtime and then assess from there. You can’t get ahead of yourself on this pitch. There’s a lot of cricket left.”

Having become the first England captain to lose a home Test against West Indies for 17 years, Joe Root conceded his players had been beaten by the better side at Headingley but said he did not regret his decision to declare on the fourth evening and would continue to take positive options in pursuit of victory in future.England only managed to take five wickets on the final day – one of them a run-out that came via yet another dropped catch – as West Indies were led home by an unbeaten century from Shai Hope. The result levelled the series at 1-1 and completed a huge swing in fortunes, after West Indies’ innings defeat in Edgbaston, as well as compounding England’s reputation for inconsistency as a Test side.”In hindsight it’s easy to say the declaration might not have been timed right but I thought last night it was a positive thing to do,” Root said. “We’re a side that want to go out there and win Test matches, we got ourselves in a position where we can do that – but credit to the West Indies, they played really well today. They made it difficult to get on top of them, create much pressure against them.”England had been eight down with Chris Woakes, on 61, and Stuart Broad both unbeaten at the crease when they were waved in. With England 1-0 up in the series, it was an attacking move by Root, captaining a Test on his home ground for the first time. Perhaps he should have been more wary of the local lore: of the four captains to lose a Test in England after declaring the third innings, three have now come at Headingley.Sitting uncomfortably alongside Norman Yardley in 1948 and Adam Gilchrist (deputising for Steve Waugh) in 2001, is now Root in 2017. Asked if it had been the most difficult experience of his captaincy so far, he admitted: “It was tough”.Root trusted his senior attack of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who bowled more than half of the overs, but England were again let down by their catching – most damagingly when Alastair Cook dropped Kraigg Brathwaite on 4. Moeen Ali was tried from both ends but, although he did eventually remove Brathwaite for 95 on the stroke of tea, he was unable to maintain pressure as the contest began to tilt towards West Indies.Ben Stokes was not introduced until the 48th over and only bowled five overs, something Root conceded he may have done differently a second time around. While admitting “the surface didn’t misbehave as much as we might have thought or liked”, Root said there had never been any thought of trying to play for the draw once Brathwaite and Hope were settled.”I thought the best chance of slowing things down was to take wickets,” Root said. “As the game progressed, wickets were the best way of us getting the result. It would have been very easy to try and go 7-2 and go at two an over but I wanted to take the positive option and put them under pressure by taking wickets.”Last night we were in a position where we could win the game, it was a fifth-day wicket and maybe we slightly misread the surface. Looking at two guys who’ve taken nearly 900 Test wickets between them, and the other bowlers we have available, on a fifth-day pitch, I thought we had a great opportunity to win the game.”England’s failures were not limited to the final day. Having chosen to bat first – rather than put West Indies’ batsmen in the firing line again after they had been dismissed for 168 and 137 at Edgbaston – Root acknowledged their first-innings total of 258 was not enough. Ben Stokes made a hundred (having been dropped on 9), Root made fifty (having been dropped on 8) but the next-highest scores was Woakes’ 23. West Indies then compiled 427 to give a truer reflection of the pitch.”I think if we’re being brutally honest we weren’t as good as we can be,” he said. “To bat first, win the toss and only make what we did was not anywhere near what we’re capable of. We didn’t see that the ball was moving around and we maybe could have played that slightly differently. Again guys got in and got out and didn’t support Stokesy, I thought he played tremendously well in that first innings. It was a slightly bowler-friendly wicket, it did surprise me having seen it. Sun out at the toss, it looked like a dead-cert bat-first.”The most pleasing thing for me was the way we fought back into the game. Previously, when we’ve been behind the eight-ball, we’ve struggled to do that. I thought we showed great character, great determination and fight to get in a position last night where we could declare and try and get a win. Looking at the back end of day two, that was an unlikely possibility … [just] very frustrating that we weren’t able to take the ten wickets today.”England’s catching has periodically been cause for concern over recent years and there were four drops on the final day, to go with two in West Indies’ first innings. England benefited from seven themselves but it was not enough to keep them ahead in the series.”You’ve got to take your chances in Test cricket,” Root said. “When you get to this level, if you give guys chances, they generally go on and hurt you. It’s been a strange Test match, there’s been so many catches go down. It’s not always the easiest viewing ground … But we have to be better.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEvin Lewis chucks his helmet to the floor to celebrate his second T20I hundred•AFP

Evin Lewis struck the highest score of CPL 2017, bashing 92 off 52 balls as St Kitts & Nevis Patriots maintained their record as the only unbeaten team in the competition. They thrashed St Lucia Stars by 33 runs and are looking strong contenders to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.Lewis wakes up
After scoring five runs last weekend on the spongy pitches of Florida, Lewis feasted on a batting beauty, and the Stars’ wayward bowling unit – 16 wides were part of 23 extras – hitting five fours and seven sixes. His wagon wheel was heavily weighted to the leg side, as he punished the bowlers for straying on his pads with authoritative flicks.He had motored to 88 off 46 balls when rain stopped play after 15.2 overs, causing a half-hour delay. A century seemed certain, but Lewis struggled to regain his touch after play resumed, scoring four off six balls. Eventually, Kyle Mayers’ plan of bowling full and wide paid off as the batsman sliced a catch to a wide slip placed in the 17th over.No mercy NabiMohammad Nabi came to the crease at the fall of Lewis and sent five of nine balls faced to the boundary. Mayers’ first ball to him strayed on the legs and was pulled past fine leg for four and Nabi powered Mayers over cover for four and six through the wind in the final over to finish unbeaten on 24 off 9 balls. The flourish helped Patriots equal the 196 posted by Barbados Tridents two nights earlier on the same ground as both the highest CPL total at the venue and for the 2017 tournament.Hafeez swan songDespite the Pakistan Cricket Board’s demand for all players at the CPL to return home immediately, Mohammad Hafeez, Hasan Ali and Kamran Akmal had at least one more night to leave a mark on CPL 2017. It started off poorly for Hafeez with a golden duck at the hands of Jerome Taylor on a leg before decision that may have been missing leg stump, but by the end of the night he created more positive memories, nabbing 3 for 22 after entering in the fourth over to stifle the Stars chase.Johnson Charles fell to Hafeez’ third delivery for 13, skying a slog that eventually came down into Devon Thomas’ gloves at point after running out from behind the stumps for the take. Akmal’s brief but charmed stay finally ended after six balls, caught at mid-off in Hafeez’ next over by Brathwaite. He took his final wicket – a fortunate return catch off a full toss to Marlon Samuels – on the last ball before drinks to make it 85 for 3, snatching back momentum from the Stars that had been seized by Andre Fletcher and Samuels.No mercy Nabi Part DeuxStars’ top-order has been starved of meaningful contributions early in CPL 2017 but it looked like they were going to get a major one from Fletcher, who had reached 48 at a strike rate of 150 to give Stars hope. But after Hafeez’ spell ended, Nabi replaced him and struck at the end of his first over, spearing in a yorker length ball to beat Fletcher.After left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi beat Darren Sammy with a quicker ball in the 15th, Nabi made further inroads when Shane Watson lunged at a flighted delivery and skied a catch to long-on. Mayers was stumped off a charge down the pitch for Nabi’s third to put the Stars seven down. Nabi should have had another before his spell ended had Brathwaite held on to a relatively straightforward chance coming in from the boundary offered by Mitchell McClenaghan.It hardly mattered though and by the time he grabbed the cap from the umpire for the last time on the evening, he had figures of 3 for 15 and Stars’ equation was 58 off two overs. Some lusty hitting from Rahkeem Cornwall in the final over narrowed the final margin.

Glamorgan have signed South African international batsman David Miller as an overseas player for the NatWest T20 Blast campaign.Miller arrives on Saturday and will be available for six T20 Blast matches, starting with Essex Eagles on July 23, with his last match set to be against Surrey only 12 days later in a packed schedule.Miller is available because he has not being included in the South Africa A 50-over squad that will compete in a triangular series against India A and Afghanistan A which starts on July 26. It is expected he will be part of the four-day squad that play India A in two four-day matches, starting on August 12.He has played 52 T20 internationals and 99 one-day Internationals for South Africa with previous experience in the NatWest T20 Blast for both Durham Jets and Yorkshire Vikings in previous campaigns. The white-ball specialist has enjoyed successful spells for St Lucia Zouks in the Caribbean Premier League and in the IPL for the Kings XI Punjab.He adds to a strong South African contingent in Glamorgan’s middle order which also include Kolpak-registered Colin Ingram and overseas player Jacques Rudolph.Miller’s last outing in Cardiff was at the end of June for South Africa in the third NatWest International T20 when England were victorious.”We are delighted to sign David Miller for a six-game stint,” said Hugh Morris, Glamorgan’s chief executive and director of cricket. “David is a fine batsman, with a wealth of experience in T20 cricket. He is a match-winner and a finisher, proven to be one of the most destructive batsmen in the game at both domestic and international level.”Hopefully his signing will add depth to our batting and boost our prospects of replicating last season’s form when we secured a home quarter-final in the knockout stages.After four matches Glamorgan currently sit in a qualifying position from the South Group having won two games against this weekend’s opponents in Cardiff: Sussex Sharks and Essex Eagles.

Never mind the pace and the wickets, it’s the overs South Africa will miss most from Kagiso Rabada, who has to sit out of the second Investec Test because of a suspension. Rabada sent down 48 overs in the first Test at Lord’s, slightly more than Morne Morkel (46.3) and many more than Vernon Philander, who was injured for much of the second innings (25). South Africa are pondering picking two quicks to make up for Rabada’s absence.”KG has been our spearhead for the last year and a half and he has been bowling very well but it’s also the amount of overs that he bowls,” Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s returning captain, said. “In a three-seam attack, he has been the guy that has been bowling the most overs, so you lose your skill and you also lose the overs that he has bowled.”While du Plessis confirmed Duanne Olivier would definitely come into the XI for Rabada, he also suggested South Africa could include for a fourth quick. Chris Morris could be that bowler and will share the load with Olivier, Morkel and Philander, who has been struggling with injuries on the tour. Philander went into the first Test on the back of an ankle problem that he picked up during a county stint at Sussex, and was then hit on the hand while batting, which kept him off the field for the third afternoon.X-rays revealed no fracture to his hand and he has been passed fit for the second Test but his bowling workloads may still be managed which means that South Africa could be willing to weaken their already weaker suit – batting – to accommodate more bowling options.If anything, that illustrates the value Rabada has brought to the team since making his debut in November 2015. He has played in 18 of South Africa’s 20 Tests and has bowled more overs than any other South African in that time. Rabada’s 531.2 overs puts him sixth on the overall list and speaks to the workload he has had to carry.Though he has not been at his best in this series and has struggled for rhythm, Rabada remains a big threat and South Africa would have wanted to be able to call on him as they look to square the series. Instead, they will have to rely on a different attack but, if du Plessis has it his way, a changed mindset.”We understand where we made mistakes in the first game, it is probably how we respond to that. This is a big test of character for us. It’s just about knowing we can do it and going into this next game and doing it.”South Africa have a hard-earned reputation for fighting back, especially when they are without players. In Australia last year, they lost Dale Steyn to an injury in Perth and then rallied to win the match and the series. This time, they have had more disruption with du Plessis missing the first Test on paternity leave and coach Russell Domingo not in Nottingham after the death of his mother.Du Plessis said he saw some signs that it was all getting to the group when he sat on the sidelines at Lord’s. “There were times when it was too easy for England,” he said. “When they threw a punch back at us, we just sit back and let it happen and expected something to happen and it never did.”With or without Rabada, they intend to counterpunch.

Experience of playing in the IPL helped Ben Stokes compile the “best innings” of his ODI career to date, against Australia at Edgbaston.Stokes plundered an unbeaten century – a career-best 102 – as England overcame a sticky start to their run-chase to secure victory and sentence Australia to an early departure from the Champions Trophy.Stokes had only once previously made fifty – an innings of 69 when England defeated Pakistan at Leeds in 2016 – when batting second in an ODI. And so powerful and clean was Stokes’ hitting against Australia, it earned praise from Virat Kohli on Twitter.Afterwards, as well as crediting the big-match exposure of the IPL, Stokes also suggested the insight of working alongside other top players at the tournament had contributed to his improvement.”I think that was my best innings in terms of chasing,” Stokes said. “I don’t think my record is too flash in terms of chasing for England in ODI cricket. It’s also nice on a personal level to be there at the end of a chase.”The whole thing with the IPL is the exposure you get to big moments in games playing in front of a huge crowd all the time. You get exposed to those situations more.”At Edgbaston we were 35 for 3 but you can just mentally look back to a time in the past and reflect on that and also take confidence in knowing that you have been in that situation before and done well.”You play against the best players in the world, whether batsmen or bowlers. Knowing that you have done well coming into a tournament like this it gives you confidence that you can do well against some of the world’s best batsmen and bowlers.”Stokes enjoyed a successful first season in the IPL. Going into the tournament under some pressure as the most expensive pick in the auction – he was bought by Rising Pune Supergiant for £1.7m – he finished with a maiden T20 century (against Gujarat Lions), 12 wickets and some outstanding displays of fielding to earn the Most Valuable Player award. And, among the top players he rubbed shoulders with while he was there was Australia captain, Steven Smith, who suggested a minor technical change.”He just gave a little tip out in India, something on my technique, something that he felt could help me with,” Stokes said. “Just that I was losing my backside a bit when I was hitting.”I am always trying to get better as a player, no matter how things are going. I’m always trying to expand my game and look into how I can hit more areas or bowl different balls or whatever it is. I’m always looking to learn and am never happy with how I am going. I think once you get comfortable with what you are offering it is dangerous territory to be in.”The most noticeable aspect of Stokes’ batting on Saturday was his composure. Whereas, in the past, he might have become flustered by the match situation or the number of dot balls he faced against a decent Australia attack, on this occasion he gave himself the time to build an innings secure in the knowledge that he had the power and range of strokes to make up time.”I didn’t put any pressure on myself,” Stokes said. “I knew I could catch up. Obviously having someone like Eoin Morgan at the other end, playing like he is does, takes the pressure off. He is always looking to be positive and I think we are boundary-hitters, so we know that if we have a few dot balls it is not going to faze us too much.”We are always going to try to take the positive route regardless of the start that we get, play every good ball on its merit but at the same time we know we have got to be aggressive and on the front foot because that is what has made us such a dangerous team. Being 35 for 3 doesn’t mean there is any real reason for us to change that.”Despite the praise for England’s batting, Stokes was keen to credit the bowlers for their part in England’s success. He praised Mark Wood and Adil Rashid, in particular, with both men bagging four-wicket hauls as England again found a way to claim wickets in the middle-over period during which other attacks have struggled to make much of an impression. He also confirmed that his knee, a source of concern going into the tournament, was giving him no trouble.”There will probably be quite a lot of write-ups about how we chased,” he said. “But the fact that the bowlers managed to restrict Australia to under 300 – when at one stage it looked as if they might score 340 – was credit to how we bowled, for Woody and Rash to get four wickets each on that wicket with that boundary.””My bowling is obviously not back to where I want it to be but I am trying and training to get it back to where I want it to be. My knee is good. The confidence is there now knowing that I am not going to have to worry about it.”England, the only unbeaten side in the competition, took Sunday off and will resume training on Monday in Cardiff. Their semi-final takes place there on Wednesday.

ScorecardA little before noon, Shivnarine Chanderpaul flicked Mark Footitt off his front pad. As he scampered back to complete the second run, Chanderpaul reached his 74th first-class hundred.It was a remarkable achievement, and yet for Chanderpaul it also seemed entirely mundane. He gave a perfunctory raise of his bat, to acknowledge the warm applause at The Oval, briskly punched gloves with his partner and then, without removing his helmet or showing any emotion or discernible joy, was ready to face his next ball. For Chanderpaul, after all, a century is merely a milestone passed on the way to something greater.There are certainties in life: death, taxes and Chanderpaul, shaping peculiarly towards midwicket, playing inside the line of the ball, nudging to the leg side or gliding the ball precisely through the offside, and, more than anything, steadfastly doing everything at his own pace. At 42, among the oldest players playing first-class cricket today, he remains clinical, cold-blooded and utterly unflappable, even after discomfort in his leg necessitated the use of a runner for the last portion of his innings.All the Chanderpaul trademarks were here in eight remorseless hours that made it easy to understand why, uniquely, he four times went 1,000 minutes in Test cricket without being dismissed. Yet, as Lancashire’s position became more assured, so Chanderpaul slowly dared to show off a repertoire of shots so expansive that he once scored a 69-ball Test century against Australia.He gallivanted down the wicket to caress Gareth Batty through the leg side for four, and then greeted Scott Borthwick with a pair of straight sixes hit with the nonchalance of a man swatting away an irritating fly. It was a matter of considerable surprise when he eventually drove Batty to cover. By then, though, after amassing 182 from 328 balls and putting Lancashire in an impregnable position in the game, his work was long done.”I’ve loved playing cricket and the passion for it is still there,” Chanderpaul said. “Always when you come into a new environment you want to show the guys that you’re here to contribute. They look up to you, as the senior player, to go out there and put your head down and hold things together.”On a chilly day at The Oval – Chanderpaul was trembling a little after play – he was again ably supported by Jordan Clark, who began the day with a series of booming drives. By the time Clark was dismissed, clearly aggrieved to have been judged to have edged a sweep to slip off Batty for 140, the two had added 243 for the seventh wicket, only five shy of Lancashire’s all-time record.Clark’s impact would later be felt with the ball, too: his fourth delivery angled in to trap Mark Stoneman, who had driven with panache, lbw for 40. In the next over, Rory Burns was almost strangled by Luke Procter down the legside; Alex Davies’ despairing reaction to shelling the ball suggested a dropped chance.Those two incidents apart, Surrey seemed relatively unperturbed as evening sunshine marked the end of a marathon 104-over day. While Chanderpaul nursed his leg in the dressing room, Burns and Borthwick proceeding attritionally but without any great alarm.Yet, in the final over, Kyle Jarvis found Borthwick’s outside edge, the ball after a sumptuous back-foot cut for four, imbuing Lancashire with hope about what could yet be possible later in this game. Still, they must overcome not just promised showers later in the match, but also a fundamentally benign wicket, save for some seam movement under cloud cover on the opening morning. Now Taunton has been reinvented as Cyderabad, a spin bowling haven, perhaps only Lord’s rivals The Oval as the truest first-class batting surface in the country.And so, after reducing Lancashire to 122 for 6, Surrey spent the next day toiling as Chanderpaul remained serene, adding 135 runs after his reprieve at second slip on the first afternoon. While Footitt remained hostile deep into the innings, snaring Stephen Parry and Jarvis with two short deliveries in three balls – his fifth five-wicket haul in just 12 first-class games for Surrey – the rest of the attack threatened little. The extra pace of Stuart Meaker, not selected for either of Surrey’s opening fixtures, might have been welcome. Then again, Surrey are hardly unique in having being driven to despair by Chanderpaul.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Mohammad Naveed picked up three wickets and effected a run out•AFP

Seamers Amjad Javed and Mohammad Naveed shared six wickets between them to dismiss PNG for 102 and set up a five-wicket win for UAE in the first T20I in Abu Dhabi. Debutant left-arm spinner Sultan Ahmed, who took the the new ball, also impressed by taking 1 for 12 in four overs.UAE lost three early wickets in the chase, but Shaiman Anwar’s 25-ball 39 ensured they completed the win with 29 balls to spare.After UAE opted to field, Sultan struck in the first over to have PNG opener Vani Morea caught behind for a duck. Javed then had Lega Siaka caught at mid-on for a duck as well. By the tenth over, PNG had slipped to 41 for 4, but Sese Bau and Mahuru Dai mounted some resistance with 22 and 31 respectively. Norman Vanua was the only other PNG batsman to reach double figures as Naveed carved through the middle and lower order. UAE folded when Rohan Mustafa bowled Willie Gavera in the 19th over.Mustafa was then the first UAE batsman to be dismissed when Vanua had him caught behind. Before the end of the Powerplay, UAE had been reduced to 46 for 3, but Anwar offset the early wobble, hitting four fours and a six. He was bowled by Reva in the tenth over, and Muhammad Usman soon followed, but Mohammed Quasim and Ghulam Shabber sealed victory with an unbroken 19-run stand.

Pat Cummins has declared his readiness to be unleashed for what he feels will be a second beginning to his Test career, should he play for Australia in the pivotal third Border-Gavaskar bout in Ranchi, more than five years after his memorable debut against South Africa in Johannesburg.Though Cummins had been quietly placed on standby for the India tour in January, getting a visa to travel to the subcontinent among other things, a second Test appearance was the furthest thing from his mind when he was claiming eight wickets for New South Wales last week – in his first Sheffield Shield appearance since March 2011. He had expected to be playing for NSW in Western Australia, as they sought the victory they require to make the Shield final. Instead, Cummins is highly likely to be sharing the new ball with Josh Hazlewood in Ranchi, after the national selectors gambled on his pace and penetration ahead of other candidates with far more cricket behind them.”I knew I was on standby for the tour a couple of months ago but really I thought the bowlers weren’t going to bowl too many overs so hoped they weren’t going to be injured or anything like that,” Cummins said in Ranchi. “So yeah, I hadn’t really thought about coming over at all.”I think for a couple of months, I knew I was going to be [in with] a chance; I had to sort out visas and everything like that a couple of months ago. So, I think it was always kind of part of a plan, along with playing a couple of Shield games. But I think over here they’re not great, bowler-friendly wickets for quicks, which actually means I won’t bowl too many overs. So from that point of view it was always going to be a plan that was pretty comfortable along with playing some Shield games.”In some ways it does [feel like a second debut]. To be honest, it’s not very fresh. It feels like so much has happened in those five or six years. But I think since that day this is easily the most prepared I have been for a Test match in terms of body, form and the length that I have been playing the last few months. So, in some ways it feels like my first game. But being part of the Aussie squad with ODIs and T20s, it is a pretty familiar surrounding.”Cricket Australia’s management of Cummins has been extremely conservative over the past few years, designed to get his body to a point of maturity without any further instances of the foot and back injuries that humbugged him in the years after the aforementioned Test at the Wanderers, where he was Man of the Match in a rousing Australian victory.’In some ways, it feels like a second debut’•AFP

As recently as NSW’s Shield fixture in Wollongong, Cummins was fit and free to play but not risked in order to give him as many training sessions as possible to steadily build up his workload and avoid the “spikes” that CA’s sports science division judge the greatest risk factors for injuries to fast bowlers.The NSW bowling coach Geoff Lawson has questioned the wisdom of taking Cummins to India for matches where he will by definition have to push himself, but Cummins reasoned there would be little difference between a Shield match in Perth and a Test in India. “I was probably going to play the last game for NSW and hopefully the final which would have entailed a lot of overs,” Cummins said.”It’s no different, being over here or playing the Shield game. Having the last six months I’ve had, I am really comfortable. I felt like I tried to bowl with a bit more rhythm in the Shield game [against South Australia] than potentially what I have done in an ODI or something, where I run in and try to bowl as fast as I can every ball. So, I felt like I could bowl six or seven overs in a spell pretty easily and the pace felt like it was coming out pretty good.”Even so, Cummins admitted his eyes had always been on vying for a berth in Australia’s Ashes XI at home next summer, rather than playing a role in the bid to wrest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from India away.”I’d set myself little steps of getting back into the one-day side, and from that hopefully getting back into the Test side,” he said. “But I didn’t think it was going to happen this quickly. I’d always had an eye on the Ashes next year, just thinking that I had to play three or four Shield games to put my hand up for selection. It has certainly come a lot quicker, but I always thought I’d get back here.”As he made abundantly clear at the Wanderers, Cummins is an intelligent cricketer, and he is well aware of the history that may yet be made in Ranchi. Victory in the third Test, in the most difficult conditions imaginable against the world’s No.1 Test side, would be the sort of achievement to set up a young Australian team for years of sustained success under the captaincy of Steven Smith.”Being at home for the first two Tests, I really appreciated how much passion is in this tour and how much Test cricket means. A big Indian tour like this can really identify a team and Steve Smith’s captaincy,” he said. “I’ve just been pumped watching it at home and to be over and potentially being part of the series is really cool.”India is a tour that really brings the team and the squad together, it doesn’t feel like a tour where there are one or two stand-outs. Everyone in the eleven needs to contribute. Winning over here is just one of those things that can bring a team together. And bring them together for the next 10 years or so.”

Following a highly successful debut last year, the Women’s Big Bash League is set to receive greater exposure in 2016-17. The tournament kicks off with a “carnival weekend” in Sydney on December 10 and 11 with six matches, of which four will be telecast on prime time free-to-air television in Australia.Each WBBL team will play at least two matches that will be broadcast live. Overall, that number has increased from 10 to 12 this season, including the semi-finals and final. With an eye towards bringing in a larger audience, 14 of the 59 women’s matches will be held simultaneously with the men’s Big Bash League, which begins on December 20 with champions Sydney Thunder taking on Sydney Sixers.Most significantly, the Ten Network will broadcast the WBBL match between the Melbourne Stars and Sydney Thunder live in prime time on their main channel. This timeslot is believed to be a first for women’s sport in Australia. “We will for the first time broadcast the Melbourne Stars taking on the reigning premiers the Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash League, live from 6.00pm,” Ten chief executive Paul Anderson said. “That will be the first time a standalone women’s sporting competition has been broadcast in prime time on a commercial free-to-air television network’s primary channel.”Among the WBBL-BBL double-headers are the Melbourne derbies on January 1 and 7 and the second Sydney derby on Jaunary 14. The Sydney derby that kicks off the BBL will be a stand-alone event. Last season’s Melbourne derby drew record crowds with over 90,000 people coming to the MCG for both BBL and WBBL matches.Adelaide will host the New Year’s eve matches, with the men’s and women’s Strikers taking on Sixers and Perth Scorchers respectively. Boxing Day features two women’s matches – Strikers v Hobart Hurricanes and Brisbane Heat v Melbourne Stars – and one from the men’s tournament – Hurricanes v Stars. Both leagues will have their semi-finals on January 24 and January 25 and their respective finals on January 28.”We operate on a ‘one club, two teams’ mentality with the men’s and women’s Big Bash Leagues to give fans greater options with this integrated schedule,” CA’s executive general manager of operations Mike McKenna said. “The Big Bash League has become a family-favourite during the summer school holidays and the way the public embraced the Women’s Big Bash League last year shows there is strong demand that this schedule is designed to grow.”The number of BBL matches remains the same at 35, with start and finish dates of December 20 and January 28 as opposed to last year’s December 17 opener and January 24 final. Five matches will be played before Christmas, but there will not yet be any match on Christmas Eve or Christmas night, both ideas having been floated by CA last summer.With television rights negotiations for the next round of cricket fixtures in Australia set to heat up following this tournament, Anderson spoke glowingly of the competition’s effect on his network. “The BBL has become an integral part of summer in Australia,” he said. “Cricket Australia has created and built an incredibly popular and successful competition, and we are thrilled to be able to bring it to all Australians.”Network Ten has always been a leader in broadcasting women’s sport and we are leading the way again this summer. We are proud to further cement our commitment to women’s sport through a landmark deal that will see Network Ten broadcast 12 matches of the Women’s Big Bash League – including four of the matches that launch the 2016-17 season from Saturday, 10 December, live and exclusive on Ten. Ten of the 12 matches will be seen on the main Ten channel.”