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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.

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc may be back playing cricket in October after injuring his left leg in a freak accident. He was with the rest of the squad in Sydney earlier this month, taking part in a catching drill when he collided with training equipment. The laceration was so bad that he “could see a couple of bones” and needed approximately 30 stitches.”The knee is fine, which is the biggest positive,” Starc told the Cricket Australia website. “I didn’t really think I did anything bad. It wasn’t until the doc started talking about what could have happened and what might be an issue [that I started to worry] and I had to have an x-ray.”When they were cleaning up the wound the nurse actually said ‘There’s your patella tendon, there’s no nicks in it’. The fact that he could see my patella tendon was a bit of an issue.”Irrespective of the injury, Starc had been rested from the ODI tour of South Africa. He was phenomenal in the searing heat and on helpless pitches for fast bowlers in Sri Lanka – 24 wickets at 15.16 apiece and a strike-rate of 25.8 – and the team management had wanted to keep him fresh before the home season began in November with Test matches against South Africa and Pakistan.But two weeks ago, during a routine practice session at Hurstville Oval, things took a bad turn.”We were doing a fielding test as part of our Australian camp before the boys left for the South African tour,” Starc said. “We were doing high catching out of a ball machine. It was quite a windy day so I’ve gone after this ball to try and catch it and it was getting away from me and [I] slid to catch it.”The next part of the drill – which was meant to happen later down the track – was throwing down stumps, [which were] set up behind us. I unfortunately slid into the metal plate at the base of the stumps.Irrespective of the injury, Mitchell Starc had been rested from the ODI tour of South Africa•Associated Press

“I caught the catch so I’m happy about that, but in the process took some large chunks out of my leg. I looked down and there was a big hole in the pants, [I] saw a flap of skin and threw my hand on it to try and stop anything that was going on. I couldn’t see much. Then the pain started to get a lot stronger and kept hitting me and I thought something might be a bit worse. The doctors came over and I couldn’t watch from there.”I didn’t quite know the extent until I was in the back of the ambulance when the doctor was explaining how bad it was. You [could] see a couple of bones. I didn’t want to look at it at all. They numbed it pretty quickly so I couldn’t feel too much.”Starc was treated at St George’s Hospital for four days but has since returned home and was scheduled to begin working at the gym on Wednesday. While he was happy to “finally get back into some work,” there was the odd inconvenience. “It’s a weird feeling being in a knee brace not being able to bend my leg knowing that my knee is okay,” he said. “It’s just to keep the flaps of skin on there to heal properly.Come October 25, however, Starc hoped to shift his inconveniences onto the opposition batsmen for that is when his state side New South Wales play their first match of the Sheffield Shield season – under lights – against Queensland.”I want to play that one, and being a pink ball game at the Gabba it’s going to be new for the NSW team and for me as well. That’s still my goal, to be right for that Shield game and obviously we’ve got to factor in some workloads when I’m back bowling first and foremost.”If that’s out of the picture the next one is being right for the preparation for the first Test [against South Africa on November 3] and making sure I don’t miss any games for Australia.”

Going into West Indies’ second innings at Sabina Park, Roston Chase, the batsman, was still an unknown to most cricket fans around the world; in his three previous Test innings, he had only managed a top score of 23. But while his unbeaten, match-saving 137 was a bolt out of the blue to most observers, it wasn’t to his captain Jason Holder, who spent the final session-and-a-half of the Test match batting alongside him.”Roston is one of many things,” Holder said, at the end of the Test match. “He is a character. People don’t know Roston off the field but he is a fighter. I played all my cricket throughout my entire life with Roston – junior cricket, [Under-] 13, 15, 17, 19, West Indies A and now West Indies senior team. I have honestly enjoyed playing with Roston because, the character he is, and you know the way he plays cricket.”He is a very good fellow, he may come across lackadaisical and lazy and smooth but he is a wonderful individual. It’s nothing new to me, to see this kind of performance from Roston, because I know what he can offer, and credit to the selectors for having the faith in him and giving him the opportunity. Credit also must go to Roston for showing why he should be playing Test cricket.”Chase batted through all of day five, putting on 93 with Jermaine Blackwood for the fifth wicket, 144 with Shane Dowrich for the sixth, and an unbroken 103 with Holder for the seventh. West Indies only lost two wickets, and got on top of India for the first time in the series.”We got a really good partnership from Blackwood and Chase at the beginning of the day,” Holder said. “That set up the game for us, laid the foundations for the entire day. Then Shane Dowrich came out and played an outstanding knock, tough luck to be given out at that stage [adjudged lbw despite inside-edging the ball], but I thought his partnership with Roston was very, very crucial, and I just came out and continued to focus and made sure I was there at the end.”I think a lot of credit must be given to Roston. To come in his second Test match and play the way he did, in these circumstances, full credit to him. I just hope he continues on in this vein. He knows that this is just the start, and hopefully he can have a long-lasting career for the West Indies.”While West Indies could take a lot of positives from the Test, including the effort of the bowlers to keep India’s scoring rate down even as they piled up 500, Holder said it was important for them to build on this performance and not revert to old ways.”At the beginning of this game, as I said in the press conference, it’s all about improvement for us. It’s a young side, I don’t want to expect leaps and bounds from this group so soon, but it’s just important that we continue to improve.”We think, with a performance like this, it’s important we don’t fall back into old habits, that we just don’t take two steps backwards. It’s important we just keep looking for ways to improve. I asked the bowlers to be a lot more patient in this Test match. I think the bowlers did an outstanding job.”Although we didn’t get the wickets that we were looking for, I think the pressure was there, we sustained the pressure throughout the entire innings, and that was really good for the bowlers, and the second innings just shows what we can do when we put partnerships together, and just build something. I think in the beginning of our innings it’s quite tough, we tend, more often than not, to give our wickets away, but it just shows that when we apply ourselves and fight, we can get big partnerships together.”Even though West Indies started the day 48 for 4, still 256 runs short of making India bat again, Blackwood came out and played his shots, hitting on the up and over the top, and scored a 54-ball 63, his second half-century of the match. Blackwood had experienced a run of poor form leading up to the match, and Holder, who kept faith in him despite calls for him to be dropped, said he had told him to play his natural game.”I think it all boils down to the situation of the game, and also the particular player,” Holder said. “You know the nature of Blackwood, if you watch Blackwood playing in Test-match cricket, you know he’s a free-scoring player, he’s a player who likes to hit balls over the top, off the fast bowlers, likes to punch the ball, likes to keep the scoreboard moving on.”At the beginning of this game I stressed to him that he needs to be himself, I just encouraged him to be himself and play his game, play the game he knows to play, and I was really really proud of him, the way he came out and played in the first innings.”You know, after we lost a few early wickets, he just came in and he just played his game, freed up things a little bit more, showed the batsmen, yes, [instead of just hanging around, if we] put the fight to the Indians. So I just think it boils down to the particular batsman, the way he wants to play, and also the situation of the game.”Last year in Antigua, Holder had scored a final-day hundred to save a Test match against England. He said he had been thinking about that match while batting here.”You know, when I was batting I was thinking about the same Test match against England,” Holder said. “It was a similar scenario. And for me, I just adopted the same mentality I adopted back then. I was not going to give my wicket away. I felt early on in the innings I was a bit fidgety, not very settled. I knew at that stage I had to buckle down.”[Mohammed] Shami bowled an outstanding spell up front with the second new ball. And I thought if I got past that phase it was a lot easier to bat. Having said that, I offered a loose stroke outside off stump and got away. You need fortune in the game. After that I really buckled down and allowed the bowlers to come to me.”In the first innings, R Ashwin had picked up a five-wicket haul, his second of the series, as West Indies folded for 196 after choosing to bat first. In the second, he only managed one wicket in 30 overs.”Obviously the Ashwin factor is a big factor,” Holder said. “He’s a quality offspinner, his record speaks for itself, but I just thought we negotiated him well today. When we got the chance to attack him, we did, tried to put him under pressure and just tried to manoeuvre the field the way we wanted the field to be. Credit must go to our guys that we put up our hands today and really batted quite well.”Saving the Test, Holder said, would boost his team’s confidence going into the third Test. “I wouldn’t say [the series is] balanced out,” he said. “India are still one-love up. But this obviously gives us an added boost. Two-love down going into the third Test match, heads tend to drop, but this actually gives us a boost, that we could save this game and giving us some hope going into St Lucia.”And India is a quality team, no doubt, you know, and their spinners are quality on these kind of pitches. I just think it’s important, as I keep stressing, for our guys as a young group to keep improving. It’s important for a guy like Roston, coming off a top knock like this, to continue on in this series and continue being consistent. We’ve struggled with consistency, both with the bat and ball, and I just think going forward we need to be more consistent, and that will bring improvement.”While the batsmen occupying the slots between No. 5 and No. 8 all got half-centuries – only the fifth time this had happened in all Test cricket – West Indies’ top order collapsed for the second time in the match. Holder said he still had plenty of faith in Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels at No. 3 and No. 4.”You know you need partnerships up front,” Holder said. “It’s very, very important to get partnerships up front. In our last Test tour, Darren Bravo led the way. He hasn’t fired so far in the series but full confidence in him. Darren’s record speaks for himself. And he is a quality player. He just needs to get us that start. Once he gets that start I think he will lay that foundation for us.”Marlon showed some glimpses in Antigua of what he can do. And I thought Marlon’s knock on the first day was an outstanding knock. He only got 30-odd but he took some time out of the game. He absorbed a lot of pressure for the rest of the guys to come. And I thought that was a real positive senior guy’s knock. It’s just a matter of clicking, for the guys to come out, being solid and fighting it out early. It’s not going to be easy early on. Test cricket is not supposed to be easy but once we show that fight, again you will see what happens.”