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ScorecardFile photo – James Pattinson took five wickets in his comeback from injury•Getty Images

James Pattinson’s three wickets in his comeback from injury helped Victoria extend their advantage at the top of the Sheffield Shield table with a comprehensive victory over South Australia inside three days at Adelaide Oval.Set 313 to win after Victoria were bowled out for 306, South Australia never threatened to get close after their top order was rumbled for the second time in the match.Having claimed two wickets in the first innings, Pattinson accounted for Sam Raphael and Tom Cooper with the new ball before returning to end the resistance of Alex Carey. Chris Tremain and Scott Boland were also among the wickets, and Jon Holland completed another excellent display against SA by wrapping up the tail to finish with seven for the match.Aaron Finch and Cameron White had earlier ensured South Australia would face a steep chase. Chadd Sayers’ four wickets gave him eight for the match and 46 wickets in seven Shield matches so far this season.Finch took the gloves for the Bushrangers in the second innings following the concussion suffered by Sam Harper.

Victoria have recalled legspinner Fawad Ahmed for the Sheffield Shield final against South Australia, to be played in Alice Springs from Sunday. Ahmed has replaced fast bowler Jackson Coleman in Victoria’s 12-man squad for the decider as they aim to win the Shield title for the third consecutive summer.Ahmed has played only one match in this year’s Shield campaign, taking five wickets against Western Australia at the same ground earlier this month. However, the conditions at Traeger Park could favour slow bowling, in which case Ahmed could form a twin spin attack with Jon Holland, who is third on the wicket tally this summer with 42 Shield wickets at 21.11.The Victoria side will be captained by Cameron White in the continued absence of regular skipper Matthew Wade, who is with the Test squad in India.”It’s an amazing achievement to be involved in a third straight Sheffield Shield final, and it’s also a golden opportunity to make history as the first Victorian side to go back-to-back-to-back,” Victoria chairman of selectors Andrew Lynch said.”Everyone from the players to the coaches have worked incredibly hard to get to this point again, and we also can’t wait to take the final to Alice Springs for the first time. The squad we’ve named will thrive in the conditions at Traeger Park, and hopefully can bring home another title to Victoria.”Victoria squad Travis Dean, Marcus Harris, Rob Quiney, Aaron Finch, Cameron White (capt), Daniel Christian, Seb Gotch (wk), James Pattinson, Chris Tremain, Scott Boland, Jon Holland, Fawad Ahmed.

In a bizarre turn of events, the BCCI website (www.bcci.tv) went blank on a memorable weekend for Indian cricket because someone failed to pay the renewal fee for the domain registration. And that someone happens to be Lalit Modi, who’s been a persona-non-grata for the BCCI for close to five years.The site went down while India’s Under-19 team was winning the junior World Cup on Saturday and the blackout lasted for nearly 24 hours, during which the seniors drubbed South Africa to take a 2-0 lead in the ODI series. And the BCCI officials could do nothing but wait because the domain is owned by Modi, who was banned by the board in 2013 and has been living in London since then as various government agencies pursue cases of financial irregularities against him.The story dates back to 2007 when, in an illustration of how the board operated then, Modi, who was then one of the board’s vice-presidents, registered numerous domains on behalf of the BCCI’s various properties including the IPL under his own name instead of BCCI’s.According to a BCCI official, Modi registered almost 100 domains and got the costs reimbursed by the board.Modi, speaking to ESPNcricinfo, denied that he had been reimbursed for the domains.* The money he got from the BCCI was solely for the third-party content that was hosted on the board’s website a decade ago, he said: “I got reimbursed only for the content that was managed by a third party, which I had paid for.”According to Modi, in 2006 there was an offer made by a third party, which wanted to sell the domain name bcci.com. However the BCCI, Modi said, did not want to buy that domain. “Then they wanted [to] use bcci.tv, which they are using. I pay for the servers. I am not taking their money.”I registered many, many websites under my names. I paid for them, I ran them.” He pointed out that he had been in the business of buying and owning domain names well before he came to the BCCI. In 1997, he had bought the domain name Indian Cricket League, which was eventually used by the unsanctioned T20 league owned and operated by the Zee Group.Modi said the BCCI has since approached him to buy the IPL website (www.iplt20.com) off him, but he refused to sell. “They can’t force me to sell my website.”Following the removal of Modi in 2013, the BCCI had approached the Bombay High Court to reclaim the domains while accusing Modi of breach of trust. The court said that pending a final decision, all the payments for the various domain accounts should be put on auto-renewal on a credit card owned by Modi.According to the BCCI official it was likely that Modi had changed the credit card and hence the payment was rejected. By late Sunday the website was functioning once again, although users continued to face issues outside of India.The BCCI official said that as soon as a red flag was raised late on Saturday, it chased Modi, who assured it that the payment would be done. The board official also said without the court taking a final decision, the BCCI was helpless if any such issue flared up in future. “The court has said that till a final order is given on the ownership [of the BCCI domain names] Lalit Modi will need to provide for the services of the websites,” the official said. “So the onus to renew is on them [Modi].”Modi said this shutdown was merely a case of a clerical error: “It was not my payment. It was going through a sub-agent who had issues with his card.”*

The Supreme Court of India has said there is, on first impression, a charge of perjury that can be laid against BCCI president Anurag Thakur and the board’s general manager of game development Ratnakar Shetty for lying under oath.The court also reserved its order on the Lodha Committee’s suggestion to remove ineligible BCCI office bearers and appoint former civil servant GK Pillai as an observer to oversee business operations of the board. After the BCCI rejected Pillai during Thursday’s hearing, the court asked the board to submit, by December 23, the names of three people who could replace the existing office bearers and govern the BCCI.The court suggested former India allrounder Mohinder Amarnath as one of the names. It is expected to hear the matter again after the winter vacation, which ends on January 2.The issue of perjury arose because Thakur, in an affidavit, had denied that he sought a letter from the ICC stating that the Lodha Committee’s recommendation to have a member of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office on the apex council of the BCCI amounted to government interference in the board. Thakur’s request had been revealed by ICC chief executive David Richardson in an interview to an Indian TV channel.Thakur had said he only asked ICC chairman Shashank Manohar what his stance on the matter had been when he was the BCCI president. “I pointed out to the Chairman of the ICC, Mr Shashank Manohar that, when he was President of BCCI, he had taken a view that the recommendations of the Justice Lodha committee appointing the nominee of the CAG on the Apex Council would amount to governmental interference, and might invoke an action of suspension from ICC,” Thakur had said in his affidavit. “I therefore requested him that, being the ICC Chairman, can a letter be issued clarifying the position which he had taken as BCCI President.”Shetty, in an affidavit on October 7, had denied that Thakur had sought ICC intervention at all. Observing there was a “variance’ between Thakur and Shetty’s submissions, the court said: “Mr Shetty in his response to the status report claims that the CEO of ICC had ‘falsely’ stated in his interview that the President of BCCI had requested ICC to issue a letter stating that the intervention of this Court amounted to governmental interference. The version of Mr Shetty is at variance to what is alleged to have been stated by the CEO of ICC.”On Thursday, the court said there appeared to be evidence against Thakur and Shetty of lying under oath and asked the BCCI to submit relevant documents to avoid perjury. “Prima facie it seems that Anurag Thakur has perjured and lied under oath because of the letter to Manohar. It is a case of prosecution,” Chief Justice of India TS Thakur said during the hearing. “You had no occasion to approach Manohar. Where was the occasion to raise the issue once we had pronounced on this. This amounts to perjury.”The court asked Kapil Sibal, the lawyer representing the BCCI president, to “apologise” if Thakur wanted to “escape” an adverse order against him.Anurag Thakur (left) has been put in a tight spot by the Supreme Court•Hindustan Times

Sibal explained to the court that his client’s question to Manohar was not against court intervention but whether appointment of the CAG official on the Apex Council would amount to government interference.According to Lodha Committee secretary Gopal Sankaranaryanan, there was a discrepancy in the affidavit submitted by Thakur and the letter submitted by Manohar. “In [Anurag] Thakur’s version of events it is a clarification he had sought. In Manohar’s version of events, he said as ICC chairman I was asked to give a letter, not a clarification, saying that this amounts to interference. For me this amounts to variance.”The Gopal Subramnium had in earlier hearings told the court that Thakur was playing an obstructionist role and impeding the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. “The whole issue is that of there is a person [Anurag Thakur] obstructing and in contempt of court. Then should he head the BCCI?” Chief Justice Thakur said on Thursday. “We have given opportunities and time. Don’t do something unpleasant.”Sibal reiterated the BCCI’s point that it could not force the state associations to accept the Lodha recommendations, and that a majority vote was needed to pass them. At several board meetings, the states had voiced opposition to most of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations: in particular, the one-state-one-vote policy, the age cap for office bearers, and the limits on tenure.The court replied by saying that one option was to supercede the office bearers, as suggested by the Lodha Committee. “You supercede them,” the court said. “Who should be appointed in your place, give us recommendation in next one week.”The Lodha Committee – comprising former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran – was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.In January 2016, the committee released its report, which recommended an exhaustive overhaul of the BCCI’s governance and administrative structures. On July 18, the Supreme Court approved the majority of the recommendations and directed the Lodha Committee to supervise the BCCI’s implementations of the same. However, despite the Lodha Committee laying out timelines and other directives, the board has not cooperated because its state associations objected to the recommendations.

ScorecardSean Dickson hit a career-best unbeaten double century and Joe Denly notched his third hundred of the summer as Kent enjoyed a first-day run fest in their Specsavers County Championship match with Northamptonshire in Beckenham.Kent cashed in on a Worsley Bridge Road shirt-front after winning the toss to post 434 for 1 after 96 overs with Dickson and Denly unbeaten on 210 and 143 respectively as Sam Northeast’s promotion-chasers racked up maximum batting bonus points at a canter.The total already represents Kent’s best at this venue, while Dickson’s 210 is his career-best as well as the highest individual score at the ground, beating Ben Duckett’s 207* here last season. Dickson also became the first Kent player in history to post double tons as his first two first-class centuries for the county.In adding an unbroken 305 the pair also moved past the previous second-wicket record of 260 against Northamptonshire set by Arthur Fagg and Frank Woolley at Canterbury in 1934. And, when Denly pulled a short one from Nathan Buck for four in the day’s penultimate over, he raised their 300 stand to beat Kent’s record for any wicket against Northants of 296 set by Ken Hutchings and Frank Woolley at Gravesend in 1908. For good measure, the stand is also a record for any wicket at the ground.As for Northamptonshire, they will look to their ill fortune earlier in the day when they might have dismissed Dickson twice before he had even reached three figures.Dickson, the 25-year-old South African right-hander, joined forces with fellow opener Daniel Bell-Drummond to post 129 either side of lunch – their second-best partnership of the season behind their 172 against Sussex at Tunbridge Wells last month.Bell-Drummond went one short of his 50 soon after lunch when edging a back-foot defensive push to the keeper off Ben Sanderson and it transpired to be the visitors’ sole success of the day.Dickson was on 35 when he survived a concerted shout for lbw against Buck then, with his score on 97, Dickson drove hard at an away swinger from Buck only to be given the benefit of the doubt to another loud appeal for a catch behind the stumps.Sean Dickson converted into his second double century•Getty Images

With the luck on his side, Dickson marched on to a 165-ball 100 with 10 fours and a six then Denly reached the milestone from 132 balls with six fours and three sixes.Northamptonshire tried permutating seven bowlers and delayed taking the second new ball in a desperate bid to curtail the run-rate but, when they finally did take it, their worst fears were realised as Denly cracked it to all parts in a sublime display of driving.Just before the close, Dickson clipped sweetly off his pads against Steven Crook to hit the ropes for a 20th time and raise his double hundred from 280 balls.Northamptonshire skipper Alex Wakely described Kent’s run-fest as his’toughest day in any form of cricket’, adding: “We’ve walked offwith smiles on our faces because we’re not quite sure what we might have done differently or what to say about it. A couple ofopportunities and appeals didn’t go our way early on but apart from that both Denly and Dickson played really well.”I haven’t had a tougher day in cricket than this and can’t remember a day when we’ve only ever picked up one wicket in the three sessions.We’ve been playing some really good cricket of late so I’m going to give Kent the credit they deserve.Dickson needs a further 66 runs on day two to better Matt Walker’s all-time individual record total for the county,He said: “I’m a little bit overwhelmed by it all at the moment if I’m quite honest and feel shattered. The last nine overs were a massive challenge for me out there and I just tried to remember what one old, wise man said to me the once , that ‘double hundreds don’t come your way every day’. I said to Joe that I needed a little energy spurt, a mind switch to get myself across the line to 200 and thankfully I found it from somewhere.”There’s a massive amount of emotion after this for me. I have made four ducks this season at at times it’s been a massive mentalstruggle, but I’ve been hitting balls superbly well of late with no result.”

Stumps
Scorecard
Moises Henriques whips one to the leg side•Getty Images

An unbeaten century from Moises Henriques helped New South Wales put Tasmania to the sword on day one at the Sydney Cricket Ground.Henriques punished a tired Tigers attack in the second half of the day, having entered in the 50th over after the top four had laid a strong platform. Nick Larkin and Ed Cowan put together a 115-run stand for the second wicket. Larkin made 85 and Cowan 68. The latter fell to 17-year-old off-spinner Jarrod Freeman who was on debut.Henriques then joined Kurtis Patterson and the pair made 156 runs in less than 35 overs before Patterson was bowled by Tom Rogers for 72. Rogers picked up his third scalp, Nic Maddinson, shortly after, to finish with three wickets. Henriques and Peter Nevill will look to continue the carnage on day two.

Virat Kohli will become the first player to receive the Polly Umrigar Award – given to the International Cricketer of the Year – for the third time, at the BCCI Annual Awards in Bangalore on March 8. Kohli first received the award in 2011-12 and in 2014-15.R Ashwin, the No. 1 ranked bowler and allrounder by the ICC in Tests, will become the first player to receive the Dilip Sardesai Award twice. Ashwin first won the award, instituted to honour the best performance in the bilateral series between India and West Indies, after he was named the Man of the Series in the three-Test series in 2011. Last year, Ashwin was again named the Man of the Series in the four-Test series in West Indies after he struck two centuries and finished with 17 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls.The Mumbai Cricket Association was chosen as the State Association of the 2015-16 season for winning the Ranji Trophy, the CK Nayudu Trophy and the Women’s Plate League Group. They were runners-up in the Cooch Behar Trophy, the Vijay Merchant Trophy and the Women’s One-Day Elite Group.The BCCI Annual Awards Committee, consisting of N Ram, Ramachandra Guha and Diana Edulji, had nominated former left-arm spinners Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar for the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award and also instituted the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women starting this season, which will be given to India’s first Test captain Shanta Rangaswamy.Awards list:
CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award – Rajinder Goel, Padmakar Shivalkar
BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award For Women – Shanta Rangaswamy
BCCI Special Award – VV Kumar and Ramakant Desai
Polly Umrigar Award – Virat Kohli
Dilip Sardesai Award – R Ashwin
Lala Amarnath Award for best allrounder in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 – Jalaj Saxena (Madhya Pradesh)
Lala Amarnath Award for best allrounder in domestic limited-overs competitions – Axar Patel (Gujarat)
Madhavrao Scindia Award for highest scorer in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 – Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai)
Madhavrao Scindia Award for highest wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 – Shahbaz Nadeem (Jharkhand)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for highest scorer in Under-23 CK Nayudu Trophy 2015-16 – Jay Bista (Mumbai)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for highest wicket-taker in Under-23 CK Nayudu Trophy 2015-16 – Satyajeet Bachhav (Maharashtra)
NKP Salve Award for highest scorer in Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy 2015-16 – Armaan Jaffer (Mumbai)
NKP Salve Award for highest wicket-taker in Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy 2015-16 – Ninad Rathva (Baroda)
Raj Singh Dungarpur Award for highest scorer in Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy 2015-16 – Abhishek Sharma (Punjab)
Raj Singh Dungarpur Award for highest wicket-taker in Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy 2015-16 – Abhishek Sharma (Punjab)
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award for best woman cricketer (senior) of 2015-16 – Mithali Raj
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award for best woman cricketer (junior) of 2015-16 – Deepti Sharma (Uttar Pradesh)
Best Umpire in domestic cricket in 2015-16 – Nitin Menon
Best Performance in BCCI domestic tournaments in 2015-16 – Mumbai Cricket Association

Alex Hales’ barnstorming white-ball form continued•Getty Images

A brutal display of ball-striking from Alex Hales powered the Notts Outlaws to a convincing victory over Durham Jets in the NatWest T20 Blast competition.The England international, who scored an unbeaten 187 to help his county win the Royal London One-Day Cup final a month ago, clubbed nine fours and nine sixes in a stunning innings of 95, made from just 30 deliveries.West Indies’ star Chris Gayle holds the record for the fastest individual T20 century of all-time, getting to the landmark from only 30 balls and Hales could have equalled it but his mighty assault off James Weighell sliced high into the Nottingham sky and then down into the waiting gloves of wicketkeeper Stuart Poynter.”I knew there was a chance to go for the quickest T20 century of all-time and you don’t get those opportunities very often,” Hales said. “I love batting at Trent Bridge, for me it is utter paradise, the wickets are great and there are some short boundaries, so I knew there was a chance of doing it.It’s a special feeling to play here and to get so many in the Powerplay overs with Riki. As a team we’ve got real momentum at the moment and hopefully we can keep it going.”Riki Wessels made an undefeated 41 to ensure that Hales’ work didn’t go unrewarded, although there was a clatter of wickets before the home side got over the line to chase down a target of 184 and complete a five-wicket win with 37 balls remaining.

A record-breaking chase

106 Runs scored by Nottinghamshire Outlaws in the Powerplay against Durham Jets – Most runs ever scored in the Powerplay in T20s where ball-by-ball data is available. They broke the record set by Kolkata Knight Riders who scored 105 against Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier this year in the Indian Premier League.
19 Balls taken by Alex Hales to reach his fifty. This is the second time this season he has scored a fifty in 19 balls or fewer. He reached his 50 in 18 balls against Yorkshire.
13.30 Run rate at which the Notts Outlaws chased down the target of 183 set by Durham – second-highest in all T20s where the target was above 150. Netherlands chased 189 in 13.5 overs at 13.95 runs per over which remains the best.
9.63 Average run rate at Trent Bridge since the start of 2016 – highest for any ground that has hosted more than 10 T20s. The ground has a strike rate of 153.09 in the same period which is also the highest.

Durham had earlier scored 183 for 7, after being asked to bat first, with Michael Richardson top-scoring with 53 and Paul Coughlin was left undefeated on 42 from 25 deliveries. Pace off the ball proved beneficial for the home attack, with Samit Patel taking 2 for 23 and both Steven Mullaney and Ish Sodhi also picked up two wickets.The Outlaws’ run chase began in highly dramatic circumstances, with Durham suddenly finding themselves two bowlers short.Thirteen runs, including a six from Hales, came from Weighell’s opening over of the innings but it was the next over that produced a flurry of incidents, with three different bowlers needed to complete the set of six.Usman Arshad was ordered out of the attack after sending down two waist-high full tosses. Coughlin took over and went for two fours and a six before he had to leave the field after being struck on the hand by a blow from Hales. Jack Burnham completed the over with a dot ball.Hales and Wessels brought up the team 50 in only 3.2 overs but only five more balls were bowled before a short shower sent the players off the field.The break seemed to re-invigorate the opener as Hales powered his next three balls to the ropes, to leave the total on 78 without loss after five overs.Ryan Pringle came in for extreme punishment as Hales then took 28 off the next over, passing his 50 from just 19 balls, with seven fours and three sixes. The board read 106-0 at the end of the sixth over, a world record for the Powerplay overs.No bowler was spared, although Cameron Steel put down a bullet of a caught and bowled chance when the international was on 82. Typically, the next two balls disappeared out of the ground.Once Hales had departed mayhem set in. Both Tom Moores and Mullaney departed to the first ball they faced and Christian only made 10, with Steel getting his first two wickets in the format – but at a personal cost of 60 runs.Patel made 26 but fell to Brydon Carse when only four runs were needed, leaving Wessels and Brendan Taylor to take the Outlaws over the finishing line.Earlier in the day, Durham were put under pressure from the very start of their innings when Graham Clark was bowled in the first over by Patel.Richardson and Steel began to re-build the innings with a stand of 54 but Mullaney separated them as soon as he came into the attack. The first delivery sent down by the medium-pacer was helped out by Steel, straight into the safe hands of Hales at deep midwicket.Burnham was bowled by Sodhi for 1 and Gareth Harte, in for the resting Paul Collngwood, lofted Mullaney out to Taylor at deep cover.The visitors had slid from 57 for 1 to 68 for 4 but then had around 15 minutes to regroup after a sudden shower sent the players scurrying back to the dressing rooms.Upon the resumption Richardson went on to reach his 50 from 37 balls but hit all around a Patel delivery and was bowled.Sodhi removed Stuart Poynter but an eighth wicket stand of 52 between Coughlin and Ryan Pringle, who made 25, helped the Jets towards a competitive total.Overthrows helped the Jets take 21 from the final over, with Ball’s last delivery being scooped over his own head for six by Coughlin.Durham’s defeat was their eighth in 10 matches, whilst the Outlaws now top the North Group table, despite having lost their first two matches in the competition.

Dale Steyn aims to return to action after a year on the sidelines next month, most likely in South Africa’s franchise T20 competition which is expected to be played in the window created by the postponed T20 Global League. Steyn was set to play in the Global League and had been bought by the Cape Town Knight Riders, and his recovery remains on track.Following months of rest and rehabilitation after breaking a bone in his shoulder last November, Steyn started bowling again around three weeks ago, when the South African squad was preparing for the first home Test against Bangladesh. He spent a few days with them in camp in Potchefstroom and has since been working with trainers in Cape Town, bowling three time a week. Next week he will increase that to four times with a view to being back to his best in November.”It happens quite quickly. I go off three paces on the Monday, then Wednesday I go off five paces, but I bowl 26 balls. Then Friday, I bowl off five paces but I bowl 30 balls. At the moment, where I am at right now, I bowl Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and at about 70% or 80% of my full run-up, at about 60-70%,” Steyn told ESPNcricinfo at a sponsor event on Thursday. “Next week, I will move it to bowling on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off and bowling again Thursday and Friday. And we just up the percentage every week so eventually when we play the T20s, I will going full run-up, full-pace.”After many months of not bowling at all, Steyn is finally finding the form and rhythm he needs to be match fit and, crucially, is not in any pain while doing it. “My arm is perfect, if anything its stronger than it was before because its reinforced with a pin,” he joked. “It’s 100% now. I’ve just got to start reminding myself how to bowl at high speeds because I haven’t done it for a year.”When Steyn was injured in Australia, he had only just recovered from a prior shoulder injury and a groin injury, all of which has limited his game time since the end of 2015. As a result, his recent list of injury concerns have caused questions over whether he could continue his career, the man himself wants to play “until either they don’t like me anymore, or I am not good enough”. He is confident he is fit enough to come back because it was not a case of poor conditioning but an unusually complicated problem that kept him off the field for so long.”There’s only ever been two of us that have ever broken this bone in cricket. To diagnose a time frame for how long it was going to take to come back was quite difficult. It’s not like a hamstring, where they’ve had ten billion people that have torn hamstrings and they say in six to eight weeks you will be up and running again. They can’t say three months and you will be up and running again, six months. I was kind of a guinea pig going through this whole process and the other guy never went back to playing cricket, he was a schoolboy,” Steyn said.”When I originally broke the bone, I also tore my bicep tendon, my pec and a muscle at the back called the infraspinatus. That’s three muscles that ruptured when I broke that bone. So the bone took a while to heal and strengthen but then those muscles took a long time to recover. That’s why it took so long and then when I started to bowl, typical me, I was trying to go from 0 to 100 quickly and I injured a pec. We are finally at a point where everything is strong, now it’s a case don’t do anything stupid. As cricketers we get injured all the time. I go for a run up the mountain and I could get a hamstring injury.”So does that mean Steyn is staying indoors for the next few weeks?Not quite. He confessed that he will still be surfing because “that’s fine” and enjoying an outdoor lifestyle, but knows the onus is on him to prove that he can cope with the workloads of international cricket. “It’s pretty tough bowling 150 kilometres normally. Now I’ve got to do it with a broken bone in my arm. It’s a tough ask but I think I am doing okay.”Steyn is also particularly “excited” to work under new coach Ottis Gibson, whom he met during the time he spent in Potchefstroom and whom he has had brief conversations with since.”It’s the first time in my career I have had a head coach who was a bowler. With all due respect to the previous coaches, they were all batters, they see the game differently to the way that bowlers see the game. When I sat in one or two meetings, I saw Ottis’ eyes light up when KG [Kagiso Rabada] was talking, I saw his eyes light up when Morne [Morkel] was talking; they didn’t light up so much when Hashim [Amla] was talking.It gets me excited because he is on the same wavelength as us. For the first time its also great to see that the head coach is out in the middle when the bowlers are bowling and not in the nets with the batters. The love is being shared a little and I think the bowlers will start to get taken a little bit more seriously when it comes to decision making. I do feel they have a lot of offer. It has been batter dominant for a long time, so I am quite excited about the head coach being an ex-bowler.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
For the second time this series, rain intervened before the match was finished with New Zealand in front. This time, it subsided early enough for further play to be possible, and for Martin Guptill to storm back to form. An explosive innings from the opener – who scored 86 off 71 balls – ensured New Zealand carried a 2-0 lead into into the third ODI at Dunedin with an eight-wicket win.After a two-hour delay, New Zealand’s target was revised from 247 to 151 in 25 overs, with a further 87 required in 11 overs after the resumption. Guptill made it look supremely straightforward, smashing Hasan Ali for consecutive sixes in his first over back. The sixes were hit at will for Guptill – five of them in total – while Ross Taylor provided suitable support. Pakistan fell apart spectacularly in the field, and New Zealand completed the chase with seven balls to spare.AFP

Before the interruption, New Zealand spent much of the game enjoying the upper hand, and barring the salvo of a 49-ball 70 run partnership between Hasan Ali and Shadab Khan, Pakistan couldn’t quite lay claim on any passage of play.Sarfraz Ahmed might have made a different decision at the toss, but that didn’t change how the innings panned out. Pakistan, batting first, turned in another limp batting performance. All five regular bowlers chipped in with wickets, and it was left to Pakistan’s lower order to respond with a magnificent rearguard action as half-centuries from Hasan and Shadab took Pakistan – once tottering at 141 for 7 – to a more presentable 246.

De Grandhomme back in ODI squad

Colin de Grandhomme has been added to New Zealand’s squad ahead of the third ODI against Pakistan. De Grandhomme had missed the series against West Indies, and the first two ODIs against Pakistan following the death of his father. George Worker has been excluded from the squad.
“It’s been a difficult time for Colin and I know the group are excited to catch up with him,” selector Gavin Larsen said. “Everyone has been thinking of him while he’s been away, He’ll play for Auckland on Wednesday and, all going well, will join the team in Dunedin on Thursday.”

The surface in Nelson looked dry, and even Kane Williamson admitted he would have much preferred to bat first, but his opening bowlers didn’t leave him wistful for too long. Tim Southee and Trent Boult were at the openers straightaway, Azhar Ali and Imam-ul-Haq – in for the injured Fakhar Zaman – struggling against generous early swing. At the same time, Boult was dangerous with the short ball, with Azhar survived a caught behind after a review showed it was in fact his helmet that had grazed the ball on the way through to the keeper.Boult wasn’t to be denied in his next over, though. It was the short ball that brought the breakthrough, as Imam was unable to get on top of the bounce, and the pull shot went straight to Colin Munro at square leg.Azhar followed him in the next over. Tim Southee got the wicket in almost identical fashion to the first ODI, Azhar falling over to off stump and missing a straight one that thudded into his pads.Babar Azam played a loose shot unbecoming of the reputation and class to leave Pakistan wobbling at 39 for 3, and it was up to old hands Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez to regroup. A 45-run partnership provided some hope of a Pakistan revival, as the pair began to rotate the strike regularly and use their feet to the spinners. But just as the momentum was shifting, Malik danced down the wicket and hit one straight to long-on.Sarfraz and Hafeez were Pakistan’s last recognised batsmen, but both fell to indifferent shots. Sarfraz’s was shocking, coming down the wicket to a short ball from Todd Astle and getting himself stumped. A few overs later, Hafeez, after compiling 60 classy runs, charged Mitchell Santner in similarly unseemly fashion, only succeeding in chipping to short cover.The innings looked to be petering out well under 200, and it took a whirlwind partnership between Shadab and No. 9 Hasan to restore some competitiveness to the contest. Hasan took charge in their stand, striking four boundaries and four sixes, beginning his assault with successive sixes off Mitchell Santner. Ferguson struck him with a vicious bouncer around the neck, but he wasn’t dissuaded, taking the attack to the quicks as well as New Zealand lost their discipline. Astle went for 21 runs in an over, while Boult bowled two full tosses around waist height – only one of which was called – as the runs began to flow freely.Southee was smashed for 12 in three balls to bring up a 30-ball fifty, but the bowler dismissed Hasan off the next ball. Shadab continued to attack, as Pakistan took 13 off Southee’s final over. Boult wasn’t spared either as a gorgeous cover drive off the left-armer brought up Shadab’s half-century.New Zealand started their chase shakily, Mohammad Amir – looking near his fearsome best – forcing a false shot from Munro to send him back for a duck. Williamson and Guptill restored some order, before a superb diving catch at point from Shadab left New Zealand at 47 for 2.Pakistan may have felt they were right back in the game, before the rain break. By the time the rain subsided, Guptill appeared to be a different batsman, one against whom a lackadaisical Pakistan stood no chance.