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Glamorgan have joined the race to try to sign left-arm pace bowler Paul Hutchison, who is being released by Yorkshire at the end of the season.But although skipper Steve James is believed to have spoken to the 24-year-old Leeds-born bowler other counties have confirmed an interest including Warwickshire, Lancashire and Northamptonshire.The only problem for Glamorgan is that Hutchinson is injury prone and has spent a lot of this season out of action.Hutchison represented England at Under-17, 18 and 19 and seemed destined to go all the way, but has got bogged down because of injury.On top of that, Yorkshire have a plethora of seam bowlers, including Darren Gough, Chris Silverwood, Ryan Sidebottom, Steve Kirby and Gavin Hamilton on their books, so they cannot keep everybody happy.Recruiting a left-armer would no doubt interest Robert Croft when it comes to bowling into the rough to right-handed batsmen.If Glamorgan do grab his signature he would be the county’s first left-arm seamer since Simon Dennis left the club a decade ago, and he would be the county’s first non-overseas signing since Alex Wharf was recruited from Nottinghamshire two seasons ago.

An intriguing final day lies in prospect at Cheltenham, with Gloucestershireset 323 to win on a pitch that remains slow, but batsman-friendly.Bowlers have needed to work hard for their wickets throughout a tightly-contested match and Gloucestershire coach John Bracewell is far from daunted by his team’s task. “We need to lay a solid foundation and try to keep wickets in hand,” he said. “If we can do that up to tea anything will be possible in the final session.”
Warwickshire will consider themselves favourites after a solid, ifunspectacular second innings batting effort that saw them bowled out for 316with the final ball of day three.Nightwatchman Keith Piper, unbeaten on eight overnight, top-scored with 69off 161 balls, with 10 fours, while Dominic Ostler, Trevor Penney and DavidHemp made valuable contributions.Battle of attritionIt was a battle of attrition in the College Ground sunshine asGloucestershire’s bowlers stuck to their task well and managed to breakthrough every time Warwickshire got into a position to accelerate towards adeclaration.The morning session saw the visitors progress steadily from 38-1 to 121-2,losing only Michael Powell for 28, caught at short extra cover prodding atpace bowler Ben Gannon.By tea it was 208-4 after Piper and Ostler had taken their third-wicketstand to 90. Both fell in the same Jon Lewis spell after Warwickshire hadbeen 177-2 and looking to raise the tempo.Piper gave a regulation nick to fellow wicketkeeper Jack Russell, whileOstler’s 153-ball innings of 54, including 6 fours, was ended by an lbwdecision as he pushed half forward.Penney and Hemp then put Warwickshire in a strong position again with astand of 62 before Gannon dismissed both, finding a good rhythm from thelonger run-up he is experimenting with in this game.Penney’s 42, off 70 balls, included some of the brightest stroke-making ofthe day, while Dougie Brown’s 25 kept the scoreboard ticking towards a handylead.Harvey’s disciplined line and strengthBut from 252-4 the final total was a disappointment. Ian Harvey added fourlate order wickets to the five he collected in the first innings.Sharp catches off his own bowling accounted for Ashley Giles and Neil Smith.And when last man Ed Giddins was bowled for a duck the last three wicketshad fallen in the space of four Harvey deliveries.The Australian all-rounder returned 4-71 for match figures of 9-100, whileLewis and Gannon deservedly claimed three victims each for maintaining adisciplined line and length.There was an old fashioned feel about the cricket in the beautiful CollegeGround setting, with no trace of the cavalier approach which so ofteninfiltrates Championship matches from the one-day game.Spectators brought up on more adventurous play had to be patient. But thecontest was never less than absorbing and there is every prospect of afinale worthy of the bumper Cheltenham attendances, which are expected tototal 30,000 by the end of the Festival on Sunday.

Here is a fact. Victoria is at the bottom of the Pura Cup four-day competition.With the way they played on the first day against the West Indies, on a pitchwhich was somewhat slow, but did help the faster bowlers earlier on, one willhave to wonder where the West Indies is in the swing of things at this level.They certainly did not look like the Test team they will be come next week, evenwith the fact that the XI they put out for this four-day game is almost the Testteam itself.Maybe the final score itself was a misleading fact. That the West Indies made167 at all was due almost entirely to the contributions of three batsmen,Sherwin Campbell, who made 29 before he slashed wildly and was caught at thewicket; Ridley Jacobs, who made 28 before he ran himself out, a not uncommon occurrence; and Mahendra Nagamootoo, who after making a pummeling 48, tried abit too hard for his 50 and was well caught by Test selectee Colin Miller,running back at mid-wicket. Simple mathematics suggests that between them,Campbell, Jacobs and Nagamootoo managed 105 runs. That means that the otherbatsmen, including Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jimmy Adams, andRamnaresh Sarwan, could only manage 62 runs. It was simply a continuing storyof poor batsmanship, even giving some credit to the Bush Rangers’ bowlers.What is damning about this is that the same recklessness that ensued when theWest Indies had been bowled out for 132 at Perth last week was again veryevident at the MCG. Already it has been suggested that the discipline necessaryto play well here in Australia is missing. Unfortunately for the West Indies,there is not much time left to correct such faults. Next week this time, the 1st Test at Brisbane would have already been under way. The more things change,the more they remain the same.”We really wanted to bat out the first day”, suggested Sherwin Campbell, theteam’s vice captain. “Being the opening batsman for any Test team brings muchpressure. It is very important, in my case both as an opener and the vicecaptain, that I stay there (at the crease) as long as possible and then allowthe team to gather themselves around me. Maybe both my form and my luck havebeen good for the two centuries I have had so far, but really, it comes down tospending as much time at the crease as is possible.”While it took Campbell all of 160 minutes to get to his 29 from 126 deliveries,so intent he was on survival, the entire West Indies innings only lasted justover twice Campbell’s stay at the crease, 336 minutes. This is only anotherindicator that no-one else, not even the ultra-aggressive Nagamootoo, seemedintent on playing out time, as such.Matthew Inness, the lively left handed opening bowler for Victoria, looked muchbetter than his more illustrious team-mates, Damien Fleming and Colin Miller,the former just coming back from a broken finger, the latter already selectedfor Test No. 1, next week. Inness worked hard, bowled straight at the batsmenand the stumps, and was aided and abetted by some terrible batting. He clearlyjustified his captain, Darren Berry’s decision to field first. Berry himselftook five catches to help his bowlers, none more spectacular than the one heheld, diving to his left, low down, to dismiss the dangerous, focussed andpromising Brian Lara, from Miller’s bowling.Already it is being suggested everywhere that all of the Test matches thisAustralian summer would finish with at least a day to spare, with the WestIndies losing all of them. If the batting, especially that of Brian Lara, ShivChanderpaul, Jimmy Adams and Campbell himself, do not come through, the WestIndies will surely struggle much. Sarwan, incidentally, seemed to have lost his”bounce.” He had better find it quickly.Miller and Fleming bowled creditably, with Miller swinging the ball well when heoperated as a fast bowler, but Inniss deserved his best figures ever, beatinghis 6-70, against New South Wales, achieved earlier this year.The only bright spot for the West Indies was Nagamootoo. His aggressionsuggests that he could well be selected in the Test for his batting, even thoughhe is supposedly, primarily, a leg-spinner. This West Indies cricket team needsevery run it could get, from anyone willing to provide it. With Wavell Hindsand Sarwan fighting for that final middle order position, Nagamootoo could findhimself batting ahead of Ridley Jacobs even.Sherwin Campbell also suggested that he was disappointed. “Since the Test matchis the next game, we certainly are looking to get some good scores here at theMCG. Hopefully, the batters would get a second hit in the 2nd innings, andmaybe we will do better. We definitely need some more runs and much moreconfidence going into the Test. Test match cricket means that we will have toup our game somewhat. We know that we have not batted well here. Our shotselection was poor. We must focus on batting longer. While our batters mightbe overall confident, we are not capitalizing on the starts we have beengetting. We can always say that one should learn from mistakes, but the focusand concentration must be there daily.”If the showing on Day 1 of this last game before the historic 1st Test match isto go by, the West Indies has a lot of work to do in a few days before Test No.1. It could be very messy come next week.

A whirlwind 94 by Australian Jimmy Maher and an impressive all-roundperformance from Robert Croft helped Glamorgan to a 111-run victory overWorcestershire in their Norwich Union National League Division Two clashat Cardiff.The Queenslander fell six short of his first league century but notbefore he had shared in a match-winning 151-run partnership for thesecond wicket off just 20 overs with Croft after Glamorgan hadwon the toss.It was the backbone of Glamorgan’s 305-6 – a record league score for thecounty beating the 294-4 against Surrey at Pontypridd in 1999.Both Maher and Croft scored their half-centuries from just 41 deliveriesas the Worcestershire seam attack was put to the sword. The visitorsweren’t helped by their fielding which saw Croft dropped three times andMaher once on 65.The off spin of Graeme Hick slowed Glamorgan up and also accounted forthe wickets of Croft and Maher in the space of two overs. Maher’s 94came up off 76 with 18 fours.The rest of the Glamorgan innings couldn’t quite match the scoring rateof Maher and Croft but at the end Adrian Dale cruised to a 36-ball 50.Worcestershire started their reply in encouraging manner reaching 100 inthe 15th over but at the cost of three wickets – Anurag Singh, JamiePipe and Phil Weston.Worcestershire’s hopes rested on the shoulder of Hick and Vikram Solankibut both fell victim to Croft who produced a superb spell of three for31. Once those two perished the visitors innings slowly subsided andthey were bowled out with 10.3 overs remaining.

The Haryana-Orissa tie at Cuttack ended in a draw at the end of the lastday. The low scoring game finished just before the scheduled close.Having secured a first innings lead, Haryana were in a strong position. Atthe end of the third day, Haryana were 279/8. They added just 9 runs totheir overnight score and took the field on the morning of the last day.Orissa were set a stiff target of 340 off 82 overs. They did not attemptto go after the score at any point. Losing wickets at regular intervals,Orissa somehow managed to stave off the Haryana bowlers. The fact that thetop score was 49 from RR Parida shows clearly that none of the batsmencould get going.Sonu Sharma who picked up seven wickets in the first innings could notrepeat his performance. Sharma, Jain and Dalal picked up two wickets eachas Orissa slumped to 210 for 6.Both Orissa and Haryana had no chance of qualifying for the next phase ofthe tournament. At the end of the match, Haryana had 8 points and Orissafinished on 14, well short of the leaders in the their group.

Peter Bowler, a stalwart of over 250 first class games, celebrated histhirty-seventh birthday with his third century of the season as Somersetevened up its County Championship clash with Durham at Chester-le-Streettoday.To experienced Bowler watchers, news of this latest century will come as nosurprise as the situation was tailor made for a man of such a temperamentand application. He restarted his innings at 62 today and built slowlytoward his landmark, so much so that he had still not ascended to it bylunch. When it did come – in a minute over six hours and from 283 balls -the generous and spontaneous applause that it prompted from the crowd was ameasure in itself of its quality and importance. By the time that SimonBrown (3/69) eventually found a way to beat his defences with an offcutter, he had reached 107 and had added a magnificent 157 in partnershipwith the almost equally resilient Graham Rose (82*) for the seventh wicket.The pair had taken Somerset from a dire position to one of near paritywith the Durham first innings of 292. That the tail enders could onlycontribute another thirty-five to the total after Bowler made his exit onlyreinforced the centrality of their twin contributions.Here a word of praise needs to be devoted specifically to Rose, anotherplayer nearer to forty years of age than thirty. When the Somerset inningswas eventually terminated at 280, he was left only eighteen short of hisown century – one that would likewise have been well deserved. To add tohis good day, he then had opener Michael Gough (5) edging to second slip asDurham revisited the crease. With the score on 29, he struck again, thistime causing first innings centurion Jon Lewis (12) to shoulder arms andignominiously lose his off stump to a delivery that kept slightly low as itswung in toward him. His was a fabulous all-round performance.Regrettably, late interruptions for rain and bad light then clippedtwenty-four overs off the day just when the match had entered perhaps itsmost critical phase of all. With Durham positioned at 73/3 by day’s end,it seems that both teams will need to play aggressively in the morning ifan outright result is to be engineered.For the home team today, John Wood (5/88) was easily the pick of thebowlers – his heart and gusto infectious on a hot morning. Its cause was,however, badly hampered by the loss of Melvyn Betts (1/22) to a knee strain.

ScorecardMark Footitt picked up three wickets on day two•PA Photos

Glamorgan took a strong grip over Derbyshire at Chesterfield despite another four wicket haul from England fast bowling hopeful Mark Footitt. National Selector James Whitaker was at Queen’s Park for the second day running to watch the left-arm paceman but it was Glamorgan’s batsmen who caught the eye as they scored more than 66% of their 410 for 9 declared in boundaries with former Derbyshire allrounder Graham Wagg making 62 from 64 balls.Wagg was one of four Glamorgan batsmen to pass 50 but Derbyshire responded well to reach 122 for 2 at the close, 288 runs behind with Billy Godleman unbeaten on 49 from 119 balls.Derbyshire needed a response after bowling poorly on the first evening but Colin Ingram was the only wicket to fall in a morning session reduced to 45 minutes by rain. The South African looked set for his maiden Championship century for Glamorgan until he tried to cut Footitt for his 20th boundary but carved the ball into the hands of deep-backward point.Craig Meschede passed 50 in the Championship for the fourth time this season and Derbyshire added to their problems when they dropped catches off consecutive balls. Shiv Thakor spilled a return chance when Meschede was on 60 and Godleman failed to hold on when Wagg edged Footitt to third slip when he had scored only 7.Dropping a player who had scored a double century and 94 in his previous two Championship games was always likely to prove costly and Wagg duly enjoyed himself again, driving Wes Durston’s offspin for successive sixes to reach 50 from 62 balls. Tom Taylor defeated another drive to uproot his off stump but Wagg and Lloyd had put on 87 in only 14 overs and Glamorgan continued to prosper from too many “four” balls to the extent that maximum batting points arrived in the 78th over.The declaration came nine balls after tea leaving Derbyshire with 40 overs to negotiate before the close and Godleman and Hamish Rutherford looked comfortable until a run out lifted Glamorgan. Godleman turned the ball into the leg side and called Rutherford through for a single but Ruaidhri Smith swooped on the ball in his follow through and hit the stumps with the New Zealander short of his ground.When Chesney Hughes played across one in Smith’s next over, Derbyshire were wobbling but skipper Wayne Madsen survived a dropped catch on 17 to help steer his side to within 139 runs of the follow-on target of 261 although Glamorgan are well placed to push for what would be a record fifth consecutive championship victory.”I think we are still on top, unfortunately we put down a chance tonight and there is a lot of work to be done,” Wagg said. “But there’s a lot still in the wicket so if we put the ball in the right areas we should pick up some wickets in the morning.”Rutherford added: “The first hour is key tomorrow and if we can get through the first 30 overs and only lose one that would be ideal to get back into it the game.”

Match facts

November 13-17, 2015
Start time 1030 local (0230 GMT)3:27

Brettig: How much can New Zealand improve in a week?

Big Picture

One day was all it took for Australia to play New Zealand out of the first Test at the Gabba. At stumps on the first day of this three-Test series Australia were 2 for 389, New Zealand’s bowlers were broken of spirit and, in a couple of cases, of body as well. This Trans-Tasman Trophy series promised so much, with a rebuilding Australia apparently ripe to be threatened by a more experienced New Zealand outfit. The more optimistic of New Zealanders say their team often starts slowly in a series; they must be thankful, then, that this one will be played over three Tests. Their chance for redemption arrives this week at the WACA.New Zealand’s one enormous positive to come out of the Brisbane Test was the apparent ease with which Kane Williamson handled Australia’s bowlers. In scoring 140 and 59 he appeared mostly untroubled, and will again be key at the WACA. Williamson’s efforts prompted exceptionally high praise from former Australia captain Allan Border. “Of all the gun batsmen going around, he would be the one I’d choose to bat for my life,” Border told Fox Sports. “Technically, he’s probably as equipped as any of them because I think he can take that technique to all different types of pitches … He does everything correctly technically. He’s very still at the crease, plays all the shots. I think he’s equally as comfortable against the spin and pace bowling.”But he needs support, with both bat and ball. New Zealand’s bowlers took only eight wickets at the Gabba, and each one cost on average 102 runs. You don’t have to be a statistician to realise that is not the formula required for a successful Test performance. For Australia, most things went right as they continued their 27-year unbeaten run at the Gabba. Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja made maiden Test hundreds, David Warner picked up a century in each innings, and the bowlers created ample chances for 20 wickets despite a few dropped catches. On the pacy, bouncy WACA pitch, Mitchells Starc and Johnson will again be a threat, along with Josh Hazlewood.

Form guide

Australia: WWLLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

New Zealand: LWLWW

In the spotlight

The stage could be set for something special from David Warner this week. At the Gabba he became the third batsman in Test history to have scored a century in each innings of a Test on three separate occasions, and the ease with which he handled New Zealand’s attack must concern them. Add to that the fact that he loves batting at the WACA, where in three Tests he has to his name 180 from 159 balls against India and 112 against England, and New Zealand could have a problem on their hands. No batsman in the world has more Test runs in the past two years than Warner’s 2527, and no batsman has more hundreds than Warner’s 11 in that same period.The other left-handed opener in the match is unlikely to score quite as quickly as Warner, but might still cause some frustration for his opponents. At the Gabba, Tom Latham showed signs of getting under the skin of the Australian bowlers, through nothing more than leaving the ball judiciously and scoring in his trusted areas. In both innings he did the job of taking the shine off the new ball but was unable to go on and reach a half-century. Williamson can’t do it alone for New Zealand at the top of the batting order and Latham might be the man with the temperament to provide him the strongest support.

Team news

Australia’s captain Steven Smith has named an unchanged team, which means more drinks and Sheffield Shield duty for Peter Siddle while ensuring stability in the team that enjoyed a strong win over Brendon McCullum’s men in Brisbane. “Same team,” Smith said on Thursday. “Conditions are going to be pretty similar to the Gabba, the groundsman thinks there’s going to be a fair bit of pace and bounce.”Australia: 1 Joe Burns, 2 David Warner, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Adam Voges, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Peter Nevill (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Nathan LyonNew Zealand will be forced to make at least one change, with allrounder Jimmy Neesham having flown home due to a back injury. Tim Southee was unable to bowl in the second innings in Brisbane due to a back problem but remains a chance of playing at the WACA. Mark Craig is expected to move up to No.7, which would allow a four-man pace attack. The make-up of that bowling group remains to be seen, but as an original member of the squad Matt Henry might have the front-running to replace Neesham.New Zealand (possible): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Brendon McCullum (capt), 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Mark Craig, 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Tim Southee/Neil Wagner, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Trent Boult

Pitch and conditions

The WACA lost its famous pace and bounce for a few years but has in recent summers returned to the characteristics for which it was known in its heyday. Expect plenty for the fast bowlers in this surface. The forecast is hot and sunny, with a top temperature of 36C on the first two days.

Stats and trivia

• Mitchell Johnson needs just one wicket to move ahead of Brett Lee and into outright fourth on Australia’s all-time Test wicket tally
• David Warner needs 72 runs to reach 4000 in Tests; if he gets there at some point in his next three innings he will become the fourth-fastest Australian to the milestone, after Don Bradman, Matthew Hayden and Neil Harvey
• Kane Williamson has the highest Test average of any New Zealander with at least 1000 Test runs: 47.19

Quotes

Ross Taylor has been ruled out of New Zealand’s tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa after undergoing minor surgery for a groin injury. Taylor suffered a blow to the groin during training a day before the third ODI in Harare and will miss the remaining two matches against Zimbabwe, as well as the following two T20Is and three ODIs against South Africa.A New Zealand Cricket release stated that with 16 players in the squad, no replacement will be required for Taylor. James Neesham took the batsman’s place in the New Zealand XI for the third ODI against Zimbabwe.

The BCB is in discussion with Zimbabwe Cricket to cut one Test from the bilateral series to be held in January next year. Naimur Rahman, the BCB cricket operations committee chairman, said that the proposed reduction was due to Bangladesh’s preparations for the Asia Cup T20 and World T20 tournaments following the Zimbabwe series.

Domestic season schedule announced

The Bangladesh domestic season will begin on September 17 with the National Cricket League first-class tournament. The Bangladesh Premier League will span four weeks in November and December, after which the second first-class tournament, the Bangladesh Cricket League, and the marquee List-A competition, the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, will complete the 2015-16 season.
BCB director Naimur Rahman said they are trying to set a consistent domestic calendar and hoped there would not be the usual delay in starting these tournaments.
Proposed tournament dates
National Cricket League, Sept 17-Nov 8
Bangladesh Premier League, Nov 25-Dec 25
Bangladesh Cricket League, Jan 5-Feb 20
Dhaka Premier League, Mar 11-May 9

The tour was originally scheduled to have three Tests, five ODIs and three T20s. Now it is likely to have two Tests, three ODIs and three T20s with Zimbabwe landing in Dhaka on January 11, and the tour ending on February 18.ESPNcricinfo has learned that the Bangladesh team management was consulted before the matter was discussed in a meeting of board directors and officials on Monday. Naimur said the team management wanted to reduce the number of ODIs to two but it will still remain a three-match series. However, it was learned that there has been some consensus between the two boards about the number of ODIs to be reduced to three from five.Bangladesh’s remaining international commitment in 2015 is the two-match Test series against Australia in October. After the Zimbabwe series ends in mid-February, Bangladesh will play in the Asia Cup T20 tournament from March 1 to 10. The following day the team will be off to India for the World T20, which will end on April 3.Naimur said the BCB is waiting for ZC to give its view on the tour composition, after which it will be placed in the board meeting for approval. “We are still in talks with Zimbabwe. We have proposed to reduce one Test,” Naimur said. “They said they will let us know after discussing among themselves. We have to consider the cricketers’ rest and recovery, at the same time we are committed to playing ODIs and T20s after the Tests. So we have to prepare accordingly. That’s why we are reducing the number of Tests so that we can prepare for T20s.”The concern is also about the fitness levels of Bangladesh’s fast bowlers in Tests. “Our frontline pace bowlers are already suffering from injuries. We have to think of their recovery.”I always want to play. We had more Tests but we also have other commitments. I later saw that it wouldn’t be possible to play more Tests realistically.”Naimur insisted that Test cricket remains important for Bangladesh, as they are holding domestic first-class tournaments like the National Cricket League and Bangladesh Cricket League, but they gave priority to T20s this time because the players do not have the physical ability to play an extra Test in a season dominated by T20s.”Because Tests are important, we are using tournaments like BCL and NCL to prepare players for the longer version. But we also have to think what might happen to a cricketer who plays three Tests, three ODIs and three T20s.”We know that our cricketers’ physical condition hasn’t reached that level. We have to think particularly about the pace bowlers.”