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ScorecardMichael Hogan’s captaincy of Glamorgan has begun in fine style•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Glamorgan secured back to back victories under new skipper Michael Hogan as they completed a nine wicket success over faltering Worcestershire with a day and a half to spare at New Road.Hogan led from the front with the ball, claiming the first three wickets in Worcestershire’s second innings as they were bowled out for 129 after resuming on 34 for 1 to leave Glamorgan requiring just 16 to win.He finished with 5 for 38 from 14.2 overs to follow his 5 for 49 in the win over Durham – his initial match in charge – and also received excellent support from Timm van Gugten and Lukas Carey.It was the first time the Welsh County have won two Championship games in a row for two years since a sequence of four successive victories in June 2015.Hogan has replaced Jacques Rudolph as Glamorgan’s four-day captain until the end of the season and launched his tenure with a thrilling two wicket win at Swansea.But this was a more convincing triumph and all the more satisfactory against a side who had won their opening four Championship games and inflicted an eight wicket defeat on them inside seven sessions at the SWALEC Stadium.Rudolph also showed a welcome return to form after relinquishing the captaincy with his first Championship hundred for two years to lay the foundations of a Glamorgan recovery from 58 for 6 on the opening day.Worcestershire, in contrast, have suffered two defeats in a row after a quartet of victories to launch the campaign.It is not the ideal preparation for their Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final with Yorkshire Vikings or Surrey at New Road on Saturday.Several of their middle order batsmen are struggling for form and only 19-year-old Josh Tongue and skipper Joe Leach posed a major threat with the ball in this game.The big plus for them will be the return of all-rounder John Hastings after Australia’s exit from the ICC Trophy and the hope he can help galvanise the squad to reproduce their early season form.Hogan had sent back Daryl Mitchell yesterday evening and made the first two breakthroughs this morning as Brett D’Oliveira was trapped lbw and Joe Clarke departed to a head high catch by Will Bragg at cover.Ben Cox tried to cut Lukas Carey and Colin Ingram at first slip held onto a juggling catch before Tim van der Gugten struck in successive overs.The out of form Tom Fell battled away for 33 off 87 balls but then fell victim to a superb head high catch by Ingram and in the next over Ed Barnard nicked through to keeper Chris Cooke.The procession continued after lunch as the final four wickets fell to Hogan and Carey for 10 runs in 5.3 overs.Leach chopped Hogan onto his stumps, Whiteley steered Carey to gulley, Tongue nicked the same bowler through to keeper Chris Cooke and Nathan Lyon swung at Hogan and was bowled.Glamorgan lost Nick Selman – bowled by Barnard for three – in reaching their modest target.

ScorecardIt was just after tea when the question arose in the Edgbaston press box: ‘Has any side ever lost their first three Championship games in a season by an innings?’Whether they have or not*, the fact that the question came up provides a fair reflection of the mood around Warwickshire at present. Kumar Sangakkara had just reached his 50 with a pull so dismissive you half expected him to ruffle the bowler’s hair and ask him what he wanted to be when he grew-up and Mark Stoneman had just reached his second Championship century against Warwickshire this season. Warwickshire still had a first innings lead of almost 100 but the sense persisted that, if Surrey decided to make pelts from the Warwickshire players before the end of this match, there wasn’t much to stop them.In the grand scheme of things, the Warwickshire performances this season don’t even register in a ‘top 10’ of their shockers of the last 20 years or so. And, in a way, that is more of a worry. Because it’s not that they’re playing that badly. They’re just up against sides that are substantially better than them.The second day here exemplified it. Presented with a flat pitch and a strong batting line-up, Warwickshire’s bowlers might have been a fraction tighter. But, basically, they put the ball in pretty good areas, they showed their variations and they demonstrated their heart. But they lacked the pace, the skill or the assistance to break through against a strong side and might reflect that, playing against Sangakkara with one boundary as short as this is like covering yourself in bacon and going to pet a tiger.The truth is, Warwickshire failed to make use of a good batting surface in their first innings. While they undoubtedly had the more testing conditions on the first day, it is worth remembering that they were 126 without loss at one stage. And it’s worth remembering, too, that they were 290 for 4 when Surrey took the second new ball. The final six wickets added only 42 and that included a tenth-wicket stand of 28.Why? Because Surrey’s bowlers – younger, hungrier and yes, a bit quicker – gained a little bit more from the surface and in the air. And Warwickshire’s batsmen, all too often crease-bound and flirty, were not equal to it. Surrey will bowl much better than this in much more helpful conditions.Perhaps Warwickshire were a bit unfortunate. The weather was substantially brighter on the second day and there was no need for floodlights. But by losing their final seven wickets for 69, they pretty much forfeited the opportunity to bat in such conditions. Besides, they still had four wickets in hand when they resumed on Saturday.Most of all, they were unfortunate to come up against two fine batsmen. Stoneman, who has now scored three centuries in his last five Championship innings (he finished his Durham career with one against Hampshire), looked terrific. Having made 165 against Warwickshire on his Championship debut for the club a couple of weeks ago, he dealt with Keith Barker’s swing expertly and looks hungry to ensure this move to Surrey brings the rewards he wants. That career average – in the low 30s – is no reflection of his class.Maybe, on another day, he might have been dismissed without scoring. Certainly his first scoring stroke was his least convincing with Ateeq Javid, at point, flinging himself to his right but finding the sliced drive just out of reach, while later, on 83, William Porterfield at gully should have held on to a sharp chance offered off the admirably persistent Chris Wright.Those moments apart, he looked wonderfully solid and unhurried. He played within himself and, when the bowlers strayed, either picked them off with deflections – he took 18 off one Barker over without needing to play a shot in anger – or cut or drove without fuss or trouble. He added 116 with Scott Borthwick, the pair of them running so fast that it proved impossible for Warwickshire to stem the flow, and then 140 with Sangakkara. It was some surprise when he was adjudged to be leg before and not just because it seemed a little high.As for Sangakkara… to see him skip down the pitch and thread his drive off Jeetan Patel between the fielders in the covers; to see him pull and upper cut sixes when the seamers dropped short; to see him somehow cut Patel behind square so that the ball gained speed as it split the field… however many times you’ve seen him bat, however many centuries you’ve seen and whatever you think of the standard of county cricket, it was refreshing, it was classy, it was beautiful. If you’re in the Edgbaston area on Sunday – hell, if you’re anywhere near the Midlands – it may be worth coming to witness him reaching the 58th first-class century of his career. There won’t be too many opportunities and they really don’t come along like this very often.Not that Warwickshire will be thinking in those terms. They have to believe they can turn around this match – they do still lead by 33, after all – and this season. We’re not even in the last week of April. The sense from those watching, though, is that while they may not have sunk yet, they have struck the iceberg.*Admit it, you were wondering about sides which had started the season with a hat-trick of innings losses, weren’t you? Well, thanks to statistician Andrew Samson we know that Somerset (in 1899) and Glamorgan (in 1922) both lost their first four Championship matches in a season by an innings. But no team has ever lost three by an innings before the end of April. Warwickshire supporters will be hoping they are not on the cusp of history.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:44

Moonda: Maharaj the ingredient SA looking for

South Africa were spun to a three-day victory by Keshav Maharaj’s career-best 6 for 40, the second-best figures for a spinner at the Basin Reserve, a ground not famed for the role of the slower bowlers, as New Zealand collapsed after tea for 171. That left South Africa with a simple target of 81, which was knocked off in the extra half hour. New Zealand’s top order again struggled, slipping to 90 for 5, then the last five wickets were whisked away for 16 runs in 36 deliveries.Once South Africa built a first-innings advantage of 91, it was always going to be difficult for New Zealand to take anything from the match – they had only twice overhauled bigger deficits – but the manner of their demise was out of character for a side that prides itself on resilience. While losing the top three to Morne Morkel’s pace and bounce was understandable, to let the opposition left-arm spinner take six – with many handed to him on a plate – marks this down as one of New Zealand’s poorest batting performances in recent times, even with the qualifier of Ross Taylor’s absence.Morkel claimed two in his opening spell, including Kane Williamson for his second failure of the match, before Maharaj started to make his mark. During a 14-over stint in the afternoon, he removed Henry Nicholls and James Neesham in the space of five deliveries with New Zealand still a run behind.Jeet Raval, who made a gusty career-best 80, stopped the bleeding alongside Wellington recovery specialist BJ Watling until tea but there was to be no miracle this time. Raval had been given three lives when he was finally stumped by Quinton de Kock – who a short while earlier missed a similar chance – which sparked the cave-in of the lower order. While some of New Zealand’s batting was soft, Maharaj’s bowling was beautifully controlled – as his economy rate under two would attest – and he was able to feed off the pressure created by the quicks.Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada, even though they claimed just one wicket between them, provided a clinical examination of the batsmen’s techniques: Philander with seam movement and Rabada with pace – he particularly roughed up Raval, pounding him on the gloves, in a passage of play the opener gained much kudos for surviving.Jeet Raval battled through the majority of the day with a career-best 80•Getty Images

After the brief skirmishes at the start of the day, when Morkel equalled his highest Test score, the contest went up a level as South Africa’s quicks armed themselves with the new ball. Morkel immediately caused discomfort and Tom Latham’s torment did not last long, when he sparred at a length ball and offered a simple catch to gully.It meant Williamson was again exposed with the ball still very new and his stay was brief when Morkel made one straighten from off stump to graze the outside edge. Kumar Dharmasena did not detect the very thin nick, but this time du Plessis’ call for DRS – which was almost instant – was spot on and they had kept Williamson to a return of just three runs in the Test.Broom did not have to stew too long on the prospect of a debut pair when he tapped the ball into point for a single. He was then given a thorough working over by an exemplary spell from Philander who probed and beat his outside edge with waspish movement. A couple of deliveries were like 130kph legbreaks and survival was the only option. That he achieved, but he couldn’t carry on far beyond the interval. In Morkel’s first over after the break, he edged behind where, in a replay of the first innings, de Kock took a flying catch in front of first slip. This time, though, the catch would have reached Hashim Amla, and it took a few moments for team-mates to realise de Kock had grasped it.Then followed a crazy over of batting against Maharaj – it would not be the first – who had already been donated a few wickets in this series. Firstly Nicholls, who needed treatment for a blow on the hand, under-edged a sweep against a wide delivery into his stumps and then five balls later, Neesham came down the pitch, flicked in the air and the ball was plucked out at midwicket by du Plessis’ latest blinding catch.For close to two hours, Raval and Watling warmed the hearts of the Wellington crowd on a cold day, but there was always the knowledge South Africa had wicket-taking options at hand. Just that Maharaj would not have been top of the list at the start of the series. He tossed a delivery wide to Raval, drew him out of the crease, and this time de Kock – who yesterday spoke about the battering his hands had taken on the tour – completed a swift piece of work.In his next over, Maharaj produced a delivery he’ll want to frame for the rest of his career, the ball pitching on middle and spinning past Colin de Grandhomme’s outside edge to hit off stump. The rest was inevitable: Tim Southee slogged to long-off, Jeetan Patel fell to a Kagiso Rabada short ball and the helpless Watling heaved into the deep.South Africa’s chase was without much difficulty although Stephen Cook completed two lean Tests when he edged to the slips. Dean Elgar top-edged a swipe against Neil Wagner moments before the extra half hour was taken, leaving Amla and JP Duminy to complete the formalities. This outcome will leave New Zealand in a quandary. They did not want green seamers for this series, for fear of aiding South Africa’s quicks, but the prospect of a turner in Hamilton could play into the hands of a man having the time of his life.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsIn a nutshellFor a large number of people, this was the day the PSL finally fulfilled its purpose: giving Shahid Afridi the platform to win a game for his side once more. In a contest between two teams where it looked like neither wanted to win at times, Afridi scored a 23-ball 45 to give Peshawar Zalmi a last-over, two-wicket win over first-place Quetta Gladiators.The chase of 129 appeared comfortable for Peshawar near the halfway mark, whatever demons the pitch contained. But it was the demons in the mind that really frightened Darren Sammy’s men, and, as has been the theme of the competition over the last few days, Peshawar found a way to complicate a straightforward chase. Five wickets were lost for two runs over 12 balls as Quetta looked like they were about to do to Peshawar what Peshawar had done to Lahore on Friday.Then Afridi – yes, Afridi! – restored some sanity to proceedings in a crucial 37-run partnership with Mohammad Hafeez, before taking charge of the run chase. He threatened to run out of partners, and overs, but finished the match with two fours off the first two balls of the 20th.Peshawar had earlier kept the opposition down to 128 by exploiting the prodigious turn the surface provided, putting Quetta on the back foot immediately when Mohammad Asghar dismissed both openers in the second over. Rilee Rossouw and Kevin Pietersen then consolidated with a mature 86-run partnership, but superb death bowling by Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali meant Peshawar could never build on the good work earlier, and only 16 came off the last four overs as Quetta limped to the end of the innings to a total they couldn’t quite defend.Where the match was wonWhen a collapse of the magnitude that struck Peshawar today happens, it’s not unusual for a side to crumble altogether. So when 50 for 1 became 52 for 6, it was imperative for Peshawar to slow things down and take the sting out of the game so heads could be cleared and brains unscrambled.Hafeez and Afridi played a vital role for the 6.3 overs they were together. They might have added only 37 runs in that period, but in a small chase, the asking rate was never going to be as much of a problem as the wickets in hand. When Hafeez finally nicked Tymal Mills – who in his own right was also sensational – to Sarfraz Ahmed, the asking rate was still under ten. With Afridi there, the game was on.The men that won itThat it was a good pitch for the spinners was fairly obvious, but what most caught the eye were the bowling efforts of Wahab and Hasan, whose combined figures of 8-0-39-4 were testament to their excellence. Hasan was impressive at both top and tail of the innings, varying his pace intelligently and nailing the yorker almost on command, in addition to taking three catches. Wahab’s most impressive attribute was his raw pace and bounce in the death overs, which was simply too good for Peshawar’s middle order as they began to lose wickets in a heap. A perhaps unintentional contribution from Wahab came in the dismissal of Umar Gul, who went off rubbing his hand and didn’t bowl an over during Peshawar’s innings.Moment of the matchIn a game of small margins such as this one, Zulfiqar Babar will look back at his first over and think he might have done better. Defending 128, Quetta would have wanted a good start but Zulfiqar, mildly put, failed to provide them that. The first four balls of the innings all went for wides. One even escaped Sarfraz and cost Quetta a couple of extra runs, and it wasn’t until the fifth ball went down that a legitimate delivery had been bowled. The over included one more wide after that, and despite only four runs coming off the bat, Peshawar had eleven on the board at the end of their first over. It might not have been decisive, but it certainly wasn’t helpful.Where they standPeshawar take Quetta’s place at the top of the table with this win, with the Gladiators slipping to second. Both sides are on nine points, but Sammy’s side has a superior net run rate.

Hundreds from Afif Hossain and Yasir Ali for East Zone and from Naeem Islam for North Zone saw both teams settle for a draw in Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. Both teams batted over 150 overs in their respective first innings as East Zone took three points – compared to North Zone’s one – courtesy an 86-run lead.Afif, who scored 105, and Imtiaz Hossain (81) batted for over 52 overs on the first day in a first-wicket stand of 197 runs. Yasir came in to bat at three-down and remained not out on 110, before East Zone were all out in the 170th over for 490. Yasin Arafat and Sunzamul Islam shared three wickets each.In response, North Zone fell from 61 for 0 to 66 for 3, before Naeem struck a 284-ball 100. Useful contributions from Dhiman Ghosh (40), Suhrawadi Shuvo (59) and Sunzamul (54*) towards the end took North Zone to 404 before they were all out in the 152nd over.With 21 overs of play left on the final day, East Zone extended their lead to 178, as they finished on 92 for 1 before play ended. Imtiaz struck another 44 runs to remain not out with Tasamul Haque (32*).Shuvagata Hom’s all-round performances helped Central Zone eke out a draw against South Zone in Fatullah. Hom finished with a maiden ten-wicket haul, and contributed with the bat, too, scoring a crucial hundred in the first innings followed by a half-century in the second after his side were set a target of 279.Hom took six wickets in the first innings after Central Zone put the opposition in to bat. He prised out South Zone’s top three and then returned to take three quick wickets in the lower order after two fifty-plus stands. Tushar Imran anchored South Zone with a knock of 81 off 168 balls and shared two partnerships that helped the side recover from the poor start – 61 for the fourth wicket with Mohammad Mithun and 91 for the fifth wicket with Al-Amin. Sohag Gazi’s brisk 47-ball 43 also helped lift the score past 250 as South Zone folded ten runs later.Central Zone took a first-innings lead of 39 runs after they were all out for 299. Hom’s 100 – off 125 deliveries – came after they were reduced to 132 for 6. Abdur Razzak’s four wickets ensured a small deficit for South Zone. Razzak then returned with the bat to top-score for South Zone with 76 after they were struggling at 195 for 7. Along with Shahriar Nafees, who struck 72 runs at the top, he helped South Zone to 317 with Hom collecting another four wickets, thereby setting a target of 279.Central had to settle for a draw, after they could manage only 190 for 5 in 79 overs with Hom top scoring with 52.

Scorecard
1:19

Important to improve with each game – Porterfield

A fiery start by Namibia’s opening pair was wasted thanks to a middle-overs intervention by spinners George Dockrell and Jacob Mulder as Ireland rallied back in the field to hold Namibia to 146, eventually chasing down the target with two balls to spare in a five-wicket win. The victory ended Ireland’s six-match winless streak in Twenty20s and kept them alive for a spot in the semi-finals while Namibia’s second defeat of the tournament made them the first team eliminated from contention for a spot in the knockout round.Louis van der Westhuizen blazed his way to 50 off 25 balls as part of an 81-run stand in just 8.4 overs. But he and fellow opener Stephan Baard fell in the space of six balls and despite being well-positioned at the halfway stage at 89 for 2, Namibia could only muster another 57 off the final ten overs. Teenage left-arm fast bowler Joshua Little produced an excellent final over, taking his two wickets while conceding just two runs by mixing his pace to perfection.Ireland lost Paul Stirling and captain William Porterfield inside four overs and could have been three down inside the Powerplay when Kevin O’Brien took on Gerrie Snyman’s arm at midwicket for a dicey run. O’Brien, on four with the score 48 for 2, gave up as the throw came at the non-striker’s end but narrowly missed. It allowed his partnership with Stuart Poynter to eventually reach 48, Ireland’s biggest of the match, and set them up to chase down the target, with Gary Wilson striking a nerveless 38 not out off 28 balls.Mulder manipulates momentumLegspinner Mulder took some punishment from van der Westhuizen in the seventh over, yanked over square leg and then driven over long-off for a pair of sixes in a 17-run over. Mulder was taken out of the attack and replaced by Craig Young at the Pavilion End, who beat the burly left-handed batsman for pace on an attempted pull and induced a return catch.Porterfield then brought Mulder back from the Scoreboard End in the 14th over, and with two right-handers to bowl to, he caused problems for Namibia. Craig Williams lofted a catch to long-off on Mulder’s second ball back, the first in a string of six dots. Four of those were bowled to Gerhard Erasmus, whose frustration reached a tipping point in Mulder’s next over when he skipped down the track but couldn’t reach out to a delivery bowled well wide of off stump as Wilson whipped off the bails for Mulder’s second wicket. He wound up conceding just 10 off his final three overs in what was a match-turning spell.Jacob Mulder delivered a decisive spell to restrict Namibia to 146 after a blazing start•Peter Della Penna

Losing focus lateNamibia only conceded 14 extras in their first two games, but most of them have come at crucial moments. On Sunday, UAE needed 25 off 18 balls when Jan Frylinck bowled two wides and a no ball during a pivotal 18th over to release pressure. Ireland entered the 16th over needing 41 off 30 balls, but Frylinck overstepped to Gary Wilson on the fifth ball of the over.Erasmus, who took a spectacular one-handed catch on the midwicket boundary earlier to dismiss O’Brien, took an easier grab at long-off on the next ball. However, he forgot about the free hit and flicked the ball in the air in mini-celebration to allow Wilson back on strike for a crucial second run. Another misfield at midwicket ended the over to allow two more for Wilson as Namibia continued to unravel.Where’s Bernard?Following the dismissal of O’Brien in the 11th over, left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz bowled a maiden in the 12th to heap pressure on new batsman Greg Thompson, including a pair of very strong lbw shouts that were turned down. He conceded eight in the 14th over, at which point he had figures of 3-1-13-0. However, captain Sarel Burger took him off in favor of Frylinck for that crucial error-filled 16th and Scholtz never came back for a fourth.”Even though he’s a great spinner, at that situation of the game we had a discussion between myself and him and he was feeling that the guys obviously were looking to take him on,” Namibia captain Sarel Burger said after the game when asked why Scholtz wasn’t bowled out. “I think with the position we were in the game, we decided to go more towards the death bowlers and guys who specialize more in death bowling.”Porterfield said he was a bit surprised not to see Scholtz come back.”Watching from the sideline, I thought he would’ve bowled the fourth to last over from the far end,” Porterfield said. “But they obviously they had plans and lads that they go to and it [usually] works out. Kevin should have bowled four overs today, but we got a wicket. We broke it up with Jacob and then Jacob went quite well and it just meant we didn’t bowl Kevvie out.”

Opener Priyank Panchal became the first batsman from Gujarat to aggregate 1000 runs or more in a Ranji season en route to his century against Tamil Nadu at the KSCA Stadium in Belagavi. Panchal reached the mark in his 11th innings, the fewest taken by a player since the 2000-01 season. It was Panchal’s third hundred in as many matches, coming on the back of a double-century against Mumbai and a triple-century against Punjab.Panchal held Gujarat’s innings together until his dismissal as they put on 267 for 7 in 86 overs on the opening day. Panchal built small partnerships throughout his innings, but with none of his partners making a big score, he had scored 113 out of Gujarat’s 216. After Panchal’s dismissal, Gujarat captain Axar Patel stayed not out on 28 and had Chintan Gaja for company.An unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 153 between No. 9 Saurabh Kumar (85*) and No. 7 Kuldeep Yadav (77*) lifted Uttar Pradesh from 207 for 7 to 360 for 7 against Baroda in Nasik. Several UP batsmen got off to starts, but none could convert them into big scores after they were put in by Baroda. Kuldeep and Saurabh pinged 19 fours between them and frustrated Baroda’s bowlers for close to 36 overs as UP ended the day with a run rate of four. The duo are 51 short of equalling UP’s record stand for the eighth wicket – 204 between Anand Shukla and Sagir Ahmed against Rajasthan in 1961-62. Baroda’s pacers shared the wickets with Babashafi Pathan taking 3 for 84, and Sagar Mangalorkar and Rishi Arothe taking two wickets each.Half-centuries from Uday Kaul and Mandeep Singh highlighted a slow day at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot as Punjab crawled to 216 for 4 against Mumbai. The duo got together with Punjab on 63 for 2, after Shardul Thakur dismissed the openers, and added 138 for the third wicket. Suryakumar Yadav, however, upset Punjab’s plans by sending back both batsmen in the 82nd over of the day. Mandeep was caught for 78 that included 10 fours and two sixes, before Kaul was trapped lbw for 86 three balls later.A 60-over day at the Palam Grounds in Delhi ended with Bengal on 185 for 4 after electing to bat against Madhya Pradesh. Bengal lost four wickets to MP’s seamers with just 88 on the board, before Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shreevats Goswami struck fifties in an unbroken 97-run fifth-wicket stand. Easwaran was not out on 68 and Goswami on 52 at stumps. Chandrakant Sakure took two wickets, while the new-ball duo of Ishwar Pandey and Puneet Datey took a wicket apiece.

First day abandoned
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsSome rain is forecast for the second day in Christchurch too, but not as much as on the first•Getty Images

Jeet Raval will have to wait little longer for his first taste of Test cricket after intermittent rain meant no play was possible on the opening day of New Zealand’s 2016-17 home summer in Christchurch. Covers were on for most parts of the day at the Hagley Oval, which meant even the toss wasn’t possible.With chances of a start looking bleak, umpires S Ravi and Ian Gould called off play at 4pm, shortly after the scheduled tea interval. Play will start 30 minutes early on each of the next four days – at 10.30 am – to make up for lost time, weather permitting, although intermittent showers are forecast for the second day too.There was hope of a start time shortly before lunch when the sun broke through to allow Pakistan’s players a football session, but the rain returned soon to force them indoors. A scheduled inspection at 2.45pm had to be called off as the drizzle persisted.Pakistan’s preparation coming into the two-Test series has been less than ideal. Their three-day practice match in Nelson was completely washed out. They arrived in New Zealand last week straight out of a long series comprising three T20Is, three ODIs and three Tests against West Indies in the UAE.Pakistan have not lost a Test series in New Zealand since 1985. They won by a 1-0 margin, also under Misbah-ul-Haq who is set to captain in his 50th Test, on their previous tour to New Zealand in 2011.

Reg Dickason, England’s security advisor, has played down concerns lurking within the England camp that their players of Pakistani origin, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid may encounter hostility touring India after media reports that Pakistan umpire Aleem Dar would not stand in the series because of the further potential for nationalist protests.Dar was never scheduled to stand in the India vs England Test series, according to ICC, so cannot properly be said to have been withdrawn, but that might be regarded as a pragmatic decision a year after he was pulled out of a one-day series between India and South Africa last year because of threats.England have been full of praise for Bangladesh’s high-level security operation during their recent Test series and, although Dickason indicated that protection levels will be less apparent in India, he suggested that he was content with anti-terrorism arrangements in general and, additionally, that England’s players of Pakistan heritage had not expressed particular misgivings that they might be singled out for protests. Moeen was subjected to abuse from England-based India fans during India’s previous tour of England in 2014.”We have no real concerns but we’re certainly aware of the issues Aleem Dar has,” Dickason said. “I know it was reported that he wasn’t going, that he’d been pulled out, but according to the ICC he’s just been rostered at another event. But Shiv Sena had some issues with Aleem there and went to the BCCI offices. So we’re certainly aware of that but we don’t expect any real issues.”I’ve spoken to him and Adil and they seem ok to me. They haven’t expressed any doubts to me.”The ICC withdrew Dar from the last two ODIs between India and South Africa, stating at the time that the “incident in Mumbai where a group of extremists stormed into the BCCI office” was the reason for its decision. Former Pakistan cricketers Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, also missed the Mumbai ODI as a security precaution in response to anti-Pakistan protests by the Shiv Sena, a regional political party, about a scheduled meeting between BCCI and PCB officials.England might have left Bangladesh, but such is the way of the world that security – and the more likely threat of extremist Islamic terrorism – remains on the mind of the entire touring party.Dickason also expressed general satisfaction that the security plans drawn up in India were appropriate to withstand any threat from wherever it might arise. England abandoned their last two ODIs in India in 2008 in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, but returned to fulfil the Test series under heavy security.”It’ll be similar to Bangladesh but a different layout,” he said. “It was very overt here and it won’t be as overt in India. The road clearances that we got here that are usually reserved for heads of state we probably won’t get in India. But we’ll get adequate transit protection.”The BCCI get a host-city security plan which is a generic issue from a master security plan which is put across the whole event. There will be some subtle differences but it won’t be too many.”It appears, however, that England’s players will be expected to withstand a further period inside a security cordon and that the India tour will be a sequence of journeys from hotel to cricket ground and back again.”It’s certainly much better if the group stays as a group,” he said. “Then we can concentrate the security resources on the group rather than people star bursting.”

Zimbabwe Cricket has admitted its annual audit, which was required to be submitted to the ICC within six months of the financial year-end, is yet to be finalised more than three months after it was due.”The audit is going on. It will be premature for us to comment on it at this stage,” Tavenga Mukuhlani, ZC’s chairman, told ESPNcricinfo. “We have a road map in place to finalise the audit and when we are done we will be able to respond to your questions.”In February the ICC amended its rules to require Full Members to submit an unqualified audit within six months of their financial year-end. ZC’s financial year runs from January to December and so an audit should have been submitted by the end of June.It is understood that ZC has remained in regular communication with the ICC about the delays to allay any concerns thus far, and the ICC is expecting an audit soon. In the event that ZC is unable to deliver the audit to the ICC, or end up producing a qualified audit, the ICC can raise questions.Concerns around ZC’s accounts started to emerge when board members were sent a document that was supposedly an audit of the 2015 accounts ahead of the Annual General Meeting on September 14. As was initially reported in the , the document raised eyebrows among members of the board for the way figures were thrown around without sufficient explanation for how the money had been spent.The document, which ESPNcricinfo has a copy of, lists tour expenses of US$5.2 million despite the fact that a majority of Zimbabwe’s series during the year were bankrolled by other parties. Zimbabwe’s main visitors in 2015 were New Zealand and Pakistan, but Total Sports Marketing, a Bangladesh sports marketing agency, held the marketing and broadcast rights for the tours and was responsible for the expenses. Ireland and Afghanistan also toured, but Afghanistan paid their own way.Members of the ZC board, which underwent something of an overhaul in August 2015, questioned how the tour expenses figure was so high. “Most tours in 2015 were fully funded,” an insider told ESPNcricinfo. “From our investigations, it will take great extravagance for the total cost of all tours in 2015 to reach a million dollars.”These and other issues were raised at the AGM, which was unable to continue after the accounts were rejected, creating the need for a Special General Meeting. The day before the AGM, the auditing firm responsible for compiling ZC’s financial statements dissociated itself from the document presented to board members, saying that it was yet to complete the audit. The firm, HLB Zimbabwe, had begun the audit process but became hamstrung when it requested additional information from ZC that was not forthcoming.In a letter to ZC dated September 13, HLB representative Clement Ruzengwe wrote: “We have been waiting for outstanding information in order to complete the audit, which has not been forthcoming from Zimbabwe Cricket. We are thus surprised that the audit report for that year (2015) has been circulated to the Board.”If indeed an audit report has been circulated to the Board, this has been done without our knowledge or authorisation. We disassociate ourselves from that report, and we request an explanation from your good offices as to how that report, purported to have come from us, has ended up in your board papers.”Following the AGM a ZC board memo, which ESPNcricinfo has seen, was circulated with an engagement plan between ZC and the auditor. Yet it is understood that no engagement has taken place, and that the Special General Meeting set for last Friday was cancelled. Asked why the SGM had been cancelled, a ZC spokesman did not respond.ZC has endured financial difficulty for more than a decade, and Mukuhlani recently admitted in an interview that the organisation was $19m in debt. As a result, Zimbabwe’s players have often waited months for match fees, and most recently went on strike on the day of the AGM. Some players had not been paid match fees dating back to July last year, while there was also frustration at delays in handing out contracts.The players returned to training five days later after being given an assurance by Wilfred Mukondiwa, ZC’s managing director, that the backlog of payments would be cleared. Central contracts have subsequently been awarded, although the list has not been officially released.