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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThe Melbourne Renegades recruited spree-turned heads during the off-season but it was some familiar faces that orchestrated a comprehensive first-up win over the Hobart Hurricanes. Dwayne Bravo became the first man to 400 T20 wickets and showed how valuable a commodity he is with his second five-wicket haul in T20 cricket to restrict the Hurricanes to a sub-par 164.Then Cameron White wound back the clock with a vintage unbeaten 79 to guide his side home with nine balls to spare. He was ably supported by Marcus Harris (50 off 34) and Renegade-turned-Striker-turned-Renegade Brad Hodge (22* off 14).It was Bravo who set the game up after the Renegades elected to bowl at the toss. He bowled four one over spells, all of which dragged the Hurricanes back after they threatened to post an enormous total on an excellent batting surface.Cameron White cuts one during his match-winning 79 off 59 balls•Getty Images

The new opening pairing of D’Arcy Short and Alex Doolan raced to 48 after five overs before Bravo’s mix of slower balls firstly yielded three dots to Doolan and then took him out, caught at short third man while trying a big shot down the ground. Short’s troubles against spin compared to his class against pace was evident when Brad Hogg slid one into his front pad as he tried awkwardly to sweep off an ill-advised length.Ben McDermott and George Bailey then ripped into Hogg, taking 22 from the 11th over of the innings to move the total to a healthy 2 for 102.Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi delivered an excellent over of offspin in the 12th conceding just four runs. The Hurricanes went 17 balls without a boundary before McDermott was caught off a Bravo slower ball.The Hurricanes spluttered from there with Nabi bowling four overs for just 25 and picking up Bailey. Matthew Wade was the only one to hit Bravo over the rope before he became the seamer’s fifth victim off the final ball of the innings.Jofra Archer in his delivery stride•Getty Images

The Renegades chase started horribly with Aaron Finch falling in the first over. White and Harris then combined for a 113-run stand, weathering the Hurricanes battery of express pace bowlers with some sound scoring plans and a touch of good fortune. They used the pace and waited for loose deliveries rather than trying to fight fire with fire.Jofra Archer was only Hurricanes bowler not to concede more than nine an over. He took 2 for 17 from four overs including a rare gem of a double-wicket maiden in the 14th to give the Renegades chase the speed wobbles.But Hodge, fresh from facing military mediums on synthetic pitches in sub-district cricket in Melbourne, launched the second ball he faced, a 140-plus kph rocket from Aaron Summers, onto the hill to ease the pressure.White went about his work with a minimum of fuss, as he has done so often in his career. On another day he would have been a worthy Man of the Match, but that honour went to Bravo.

AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn should walk back into South Africa’s Test team as soon as form and fitness allow. That was the word from new head coach Ottis Gibson on completion of his first assignment in charge – a historic clean-sweep over Bangladesh across formats – and ahead of more challenging assignments against India and Australia at home.De Villiers, who has not played a Test since January last year due to a combination of injuries and a lengthy sabbatical from the longest format, is available for the Test team again but has accepted he will have to “work my way back” into the XI especially after playing just one first-class match this year and all the batsmen filled their boots against Bangladesh. Now, Gibson has hinted South Africa will make space for de Villiers no matter what, given his reputation.Asked by a journalist in Johannesburg, calling his own question “stupid”, whether there was space in the Test team for de Villiers, Gibson responded: “What was it you said first there?” – to much laughter, and then replied, “You’ve answered your question.”That means it is likely de Villiers will play in the inaugural four-day Test against Zimbabwe, which begins on Boxing Day, and in the home series against India and Australia. However, it remains to be seen whose place he will take in a line-up that has been shortened to six batsmen, an allrounder, three seamers and a spinner.Similarly, Gibson hoped Steyn, who is expected to make a comeback in the franchise T20 competition which starts on November 10, would also be back for those matches even though he has not played any competitive cricket since last November. Though Steyn will not have the opportunity to bowl lengthy spells before the Tests, Gibson will trust the seamer’s word on his readiness for the national side.”He has got a lot of T20 cricket to play and he has also got a lot of time where we can build up his workload and see that he is 100% fit,” Gibson said. “He is Dale Steyn. He is not some average guy from down the road. He is one of the best bowlers the country has ever produced. If you look him in the eyes and you say, ‘Dale are you sure you can make it?’ and he says he can make it, then he is getting the opportunity.”According to Gibson, South Africa can also look forward to a fully fit and committed Morne Morkel, when international action resumes. Currently nursing a side strain, Morkel had previously said he would decide his future once he knew if he would be part of South Africa’s 2019 World Cup plans and he admitted to being open to exploring options elsewhere. In his discussions with Morkel, Gibson established that the bowler will stay in South Africa and do everything he can to secure a spot in the World Cup squad.”Morne is pretty committed to the Proteas over the next couple of years,” Gibson said. “Obviously, the World Cup is a big thing. He is well aware that there can be no guarantees with regards to that. When it comes to 2019, it will be form, fitness, conditions that sort of that. We had a good, honest discussion and he has committed his future to us over the next couple of years.”Morkel is due to resume playing towards the latter half of the franchise T20, but national captain Faf du Plessis may miss the entire tournament as he recovers from two niggles. Du Plessis was ruled out of the T20s against Bangladesh when he injured his back during the third ODI. At the same time, he has had a shoulder operation for a long-standing concern which should not delay his comeback ahead of the international season in which Gibson is looking forward to working with him again.Gallo Images

“We have a really nice relationship; he is a nice guy,” Gibson said of du Plessis. “He is very passionate about playing for his country and leading his country. When he is back, he will be a lean, mean fighting machine.”While the experienced players make their way back, Gibson also expressed his excitement over the youngsters who were blooded during the Bangladesh series. He hopes to see more of them, especially at the limited-overs level, in which South Africa will continue to experiment, with an eye on preparations leading up to the World Cup.”Aiden Markram is a real talent and he has started really well. Hopefully, he will be able to carry on that form for the rest of the summer. And then young Wiaan Mulder came in; I saw him, I liked him, I spoke to the selectors about him. It was a good opportunity to get him around us in the Test series so he can get a feel for what international cricket is all about,” Gibson said.”I think there is a message in that for every young cricketer and every sort of high-performing cricketer in the country. Look at Robbie Frylinck – he got a debut in T20s. When I asked around the country about one-day players, everybody said he is one of the best white-ball cricketers in the country. It’s only fair that if we are going to widen the pool that we look at him. When you are picking a team for international cricket, you can only pick 11 people and sometimes a lot of people feel like they are not part of it. We are trying to widen the pool of opportunities to give as many as possible an opportunity.”

After more than 150 overs and two days in extreme heat and humidity, Pakistan do not regret going into the first Test against Sri Lanka with just the solitary specialist spinner. Choosing three fast bowlers and just Yasir Shah was a significant break from the policy under Misbah-ul-Haq who played, as much as possible, two specialist spinners in UAE Tests.Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali took five wickets between them – Amir was wicketless – as Pakistan struggled to bowl Sri Lanka out for 419. In itself that was a recovery as Sri Lanka were 387 for 5 at one stage, but the burden fell, inevitably, on Yasir. The legspinner bowled a career-high 57 overs, and given that the part-timer Haris Sohail bowled 13 overs, the question is obvious: should they have picked another spinner?Mickey Arthur was confident after the first day that they needn’t have done, though he did express disappointment at a little more grass being cut off than he thought should have been.On Friday, their bowling coach Azhar Mahmood echoed the sentiment. “The challenge in a Test is to take 20 wickets and win it. The best thing is that we bowled well. There was a lot of talk that the pitch has grass or we should have played with three spinners but we went on our strength. We played Test matches in the West Indies with three seamers.”Instead, as Arthur had also pointed out, what Pakistan didn’t do was bowl well enough with the new ball each time.”The main thing is that we didn’t bowl well with the new ball, the first six overs I mean,” Azhar said. “So we need to learn how to take wickets with the new ball because if you get wickets at the top it helps Yasir to attack. But we gave 419 runs in 5 sessions which is okay.”The only point at which Pakistan’s fast bowling looked a threat was during the late-innings collapse, when Abbas found enough reverse-swing to pick up three quick wickets. He wouldn’t have bowled in this kind of heat before, though he is probably used to the lack of life in the surface – the surfaces in the West Indies where he made his Test debut earlier this year were not that much quicker.”The coach had tasked me with getting wickets with the new ball,” Abbas said. “I wasn’t successful in doing that. Our plan on the day, if we don’t get any wickets, was to bowl a tight line and length, and contain runs. We were, to an extent, successful in doing that. And at the end, I got an opportunity to take wickets.”

Toby Roland-Jones’ Ashes hopes are in severe doubt after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the lower back.Roland-Jones, who played no part in the latter stages of Middlesex’s victory over Lancashire at Lord’s, had been a near-certainty to be named in England’s squad for the tour of Australia that is due to be announced at The Oval next Wednesday.Instead, he has been left sweating on his role in this winter’s campaign, after Middlesex confirmed that he would be taking no part in next week’s final match of the County Championship, a potentially crucial relegation showdown against Somerset at Taunton.”Middlesex Cricket are extremely disappointed to announce that the result of the medical scan which Toby undertook yesterday has revealed that he has a stress fracture in his L5 vertebra [lower back], which will mean that he will take no further part in the domestic season for Middlesex.”It is a potentially bitter blow for Roland-Jones, who has impressed in his England career to date. He has claimed 17 wickets in four Tests, including a best of 5 for 57 on debut against South Africa at The Oval in August, and his combination of accuracy and bounce from a tall action would have made him a prime candidate for selection on Australia’s wickets.In Roland-Jones’ likely absence, therefore, and with Durham’s Mark Wood also struggling with injury, the biggest beneficiary could be the man who came to Middlesex’s rescue against Lancashire on Thursday. Steven Finn returned a season’s best 8 for 79 to secure a 36-run victory and, according to his Australian captain, Adam Voges, “bowled as well as I’ve ever seen him bowl”.”If he bowls like that, he should [be in the Ashes squad],” said Voges. “One-hundred percent. He had rhythm, his pace was up and his areas were good.”Finn, who has taken 125 Test wickets in a stop-start 36-match career, endured contrasting fortunes on England’s last Ashes tours. In 2010-11 he claimed 14 wickets in the first three Tests en route to England’s 3-1 series win, but in 2013-14 he was rendered “unselectable” after the collapse of his bowling action.”We’ll see what happens,” Finn said. “I’m pretty content with where my game’s at. I felt really good. I felt that my pace was there for most of the game. It’s up to the selectors and whoever picks the team to see who goes Down Under. It’s a really exciting opportunity and really exciting prospect to potentially – hopefully – be in the mix.”The out-and-out pace of Somerset’s Jamie Overton would have made him another prime contender for a seam-bowling berth in the Ashes squad, but for his own back problems. His twin brother, Craig, who was included in England’s T20 squad against South Africa but didn’t play a match, may also have moved up the pecking order.The typical recovery time for a stress fracture of the back is between six and 12 weeks. The first Test against Australia begins at Brisbane on November 23, in almost exactly two months.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChris Gayle notched up a half-century in his 50th CPL match•Ashley Allen – CPL T20 / Getty

The Universe Boss marked his 50th CPL match with his 63rd T20 fifty as St Kitts & Nevis Patriots brushed past Jamaica Tallawahs by 37 runs to clinch a place in the playoffs for the first time in their three-year history.Chris Gayle made the most of a life on 15 to top-score with 71 not out off 55 balls as the Patriots racked up 208 for 3, the highest total of the CPL this season, and the second-highest including the previous four. Armed with scoreboard pressure, they were then able to restrict the Tallawahs to 171 for 7 in reply with left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi picking up 3 for 35 in four overs.A night to forget in the fieldTallawahs did themselves few favors over the course of the night, following up Kumar Sangakkara’s decision to bowl first by producing a slipshod fielding performance either side of a 35-minute rain delay at the eight-over mark. The Patriots had a comparatively modest start, only scoring 38 in the Powerplay, but a key moment occurred in the sixth over when Gayle was spilled at long leg by Odean Smith.Kesrick Williams tucked Gayle up trying to pull and sent the chance Smith’s way, but the 20-year-old was perhaps preoccupied trying to position his body to stay within the ropes. He wound up bobbling the ball initially before dropping it altogether as it bounced over for four. Smith followed up in the next over and was swiftly punished by Lewis three times to the cover and fine leg rope as he motored toward 69 off 39 balls. By the time the Gayle-Lewis stand ended, they had piled on 110 off 12.3 overs.The race for 200After Lewis fell, Carlos Brathwaite and then Mohammad Nabi teed off at the other end. Like Gayle, each had early let-offs. Brathwaite was put down by Andre McCarthy on 13 to end the 15th over before finishing with 26 off 13 balls. Nabi should have been taken on his first ball but Jonathan Foo bailed out of a chance.While Gayle was sedate for most of his innings – he took 46 balls to reach his half-century – he sprang to life in the 18th over, smashing Mohammad Sami for a four and two sixes off consecutive balls as part of a 25-run over. Two more sixes by Nabi off Rovman Powell and Williams off the last two overs took Patriots past 200.Shamsi’s squeezeTallawahs gave a hearty effort early in the chase but never seriously challenged the Patriots total. Jonathan Carter made the initial breakthrough as Trevor Griffith miscued a full toss on 42 in the ninth over.Tabraiz Shamsi burrowed his way through the Tallawahs in the middle overs, finishing with 3 for 35 as five of the final six wickets fell to spin. Glenn Phillips fell three balls after drinks, as he tried to hit Shamsi over midwicket for his second six in a row but only managed to pick out Shamar Brooks. Shamsi was involved in the wicket of Sangakkara next, snaring a catch at point off Nabi to set the Tallawahs back further at 87 for 3 in the 12th over.Lendl Simmons then found Brooks on the midwicket boundary again for Shamsi’s second wicket in the 13th over before Foo missed a sweep in Shamsi’s next over.

Aaron Thomason held his nerve to defend 13 from the final over as Birmingham beat Northamptonshire by just two runs at Wantage Road to go top of the North Group of the NatWest T20 Blast.20-year-old Thomason, playing just his 13th T20 match, was trusted with the final two overs of the game from the Wilson End when 27 were needed from 18 balls. He conceded only 7 and then Jeetan Patel presented the youngster with 13 to defend from the final six. Alex Wakely struck the second ball of the over for six down the ground but despite reducing the equation to 4 from 2 balls, Thomason held the game for the Bears.Aaron Thomason completes a last-ball run-out•Getty Images

Ian Bell, Warwickshire’s captain, said: “It was a great win to get over the line when we didn’t play our best, to come to Northampton is tough. Aaron didn’t shy away he wanted that last over so I’m really happy. He’s someone who works hard at his slower balls and yorkers and listens to the guys who have played around the world.”It was a chase that Northamptonshire were always well in touch with – and Wakely’s 52 from 34 balls appeared to be steering them home – but they could never kill the game and missed the chance to move to the top of the group themselves.Adam Rossington and Richard Levi took 78 from their previous Powerplay and here again got their side off to a flier with 51 from the first four overs. Rossington struck boundaries from the first three balls of the second over, two of them slapped wide of midwicket.Levi then flicked Colin de Grandhomme over square leg for the innings’ first six and drove four more past cover point. But having smashed Thomason for a huge six into a mobile bar over midwicket, the bowler exacted his revenge with a decent yorker.Patel then picked up Rossington, caught at deep midwicket for 43 from 30 balls, and Ben Duckett for 9 in successive balls to get Birmingham back into the innings. The wicket of Duckett was a beauty from round the wicket that turned and took the top of off stump.Richard Levi is at full stretch for Northants•Getty Images

The wicket of Duckett gave way to four cheap overs that left 64 needed from 42 balls only for Wakely to flick two fours off Boyd Rankin and cut another to ease the tension and when he skipped down the pitch to flick the first ball of Patel’s third over over midwicket for another boundaries, the hosts were back in charge of the chase.But de Grandhomme found a yorker to remove Rob Keogh for a run-a-ball 18 and Steven Crook holed out to mid-off second ball to leave 27 needed from 18 balls. Thomason and Patel then finished the game off.Birmingham’s 172 for 9 was a stop-start effort where they lost wickets regularly and four set batsman fell when set to cause greater damage.Having been sent in, they made 40 for 1 in a Powerplay that featured some seam movement on a fresh wicket and following afternoon rain. Ed Pollock played a remarkable flick over deep square for the night’s first six but, hurried by a Rory Kleinveldt back-of-a-length ball, was caught behind off a big top edge. Sam Hain slog swept Richard Gleeson for six over long leg and both he and Ian Bell, got inside edges for four to fine leg.Bell was notably scratchy, beaten outside off several times, and fell for 16 from 18 balls trying to reverse-sweep Keogh’s second ball and losing his off stump.Adam Hose, after 76 on his county debut on Sunday, shimmed down the wicket to slap Nathan Buck for four and then struck a might six that found the roof of the Lynn Wilson centre off Keogh. But when he clipped a low full-toss from Keogh to midwicket and Sam Hain was run out after a calamitous mix up with de Grandhomme, Birmingham had lose both set men and were 82 for 4 after 11 overs.De Grandhomme atoned for his part in the mix up by striking three fours and a six from the 14th over bowled by Sanderson that conceded 21 and an over later, Birmingham were well placed at 128 for 4 after 15 overs. But again, Northants picked up a useful wicket with de Grandhomme, after going dangerously to 37 from just 15 balls, picked out deep square. Patel struck a six in the final over to nudge his side to a score that proved enough.

ScorecardStevie Eskinazi made a career-best 178 to carry the fight for Middlesex•Getty Images

The considerable fillip Warwickshire drew from dismissing Sam Robson for a third-ball duck was counterbalanced by a century from Stevie Eskinazi in which the South Africa-born batsman produced some good, aggressive strokeplay but also had to show some gritty qualities and ride his luck.Eskinazi, whose 157 against Yorkshire at Scarborough this time last year was one of the key innings of Middlesex’s title-winning season, doubled his tally of career first-class centuries to four with his second of this season, consolidating his position as leading run-scorer.Although born in Johannesburg, Eskinazi has an English mother and a Zimbabwe-born father and after playing some junior cricket in Hampshire moved with his family to Perth, in Western Australia, where he played representative state cricket at under-17 and under-19.Goodness knows where that leaves him in terms of nationality, although that is a matter for another day. For the moment, he is unbeaten on 178, having overtaken his Scarborough scored to guarantee himself a new career-best with his 23rd four after more than five hours at the crease.By the close, against the team propping up the table and desperate to find a first win, he had hit 24 fours and pulled Boyd Rankin for three sixes, which were impressive statistics, although he had been well into three figures before he began to look properly comfortable.At times earlier he had looked anything but, as was illustrated, even on 116 and 124 against a ball that was 55 overs old, when he twice edged Rankin to the boundary through gaps in the cordon.Another difficult over earlier in the day had seen Rikki Clarke beat him twice but somehow miss the stumps. There was a close call on a run-out too and, not long afterwards, a sharp chance offered to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose when Jeetan Patel entered the attack after 31 overs and Eskinazi was on 56.All of that followed a massive appeal for a catch in the gully off the first ball he faced, which was turned down on the basis that the deflection was off pads only.How different the day might have been had the finger gone up at that moment, given that Keith Barker, spearing the ball in from around the wicket, had dismissed Robson leg-before with the immediately previous delivery. Robson has twice hit a double-hundred against Warwickshire.But if he was lucky at times, Eskinazi might reasonably claim he earned it on a pitch of unreliable bounce that had a nasty surprise in store for a number of batsman.Earlier in the day, Barker had been denied a half-century with the bat when he was deceived into playing too soon at a ball from Tim Murtagh, connecting with a leading edge. Murtagh, going down low in his follow-through, took a good return catch.Nick Compton suffered in a more painful way, hit first in the box and then on the inside of the left knee by balls that did not get up. The second blow forced him to retire on 12, although he was able to return after the fall of the next wicket, when Patel’s second ball accounted for Dawid Malan, who went back to cut but could only nudge the ball into the gloves of Ambrose, who this time held the chance, albeit none too tidily.Like Nick Gubbins, who was left out of this match through lack of runs, Compton has not had a productive season. It would have been a toss up between the two of them as to who stood aside to make way for Robson’s return from the Lions. Compton’s hundred against Essex last week came at just the right moment.He did not look vastly more on top of things in his second spell at the crease and had reached 33 when Clarke returned for a new spell and had him caught behind off a thin edge with his second delivery.That left Middlesex 195 for 3, following which a terrific catch from Matt Lamb at point in the next over ensured Paul Stirling’s stay was brief, the 20-year-old hanging on to a full-blooded cut off Rankin.After a mostly sunny day, Patel increasingly came into his own deep into the final session, when he had John Simpson caught off bat and pad at short leg and Ryan Higgins caught behind, feathering a catch after shaping to cut.Spin could become a bigger factor still on the last two days, so Middlesex will look to Eskinazi to squeeze out a few more runs yet to give them a lead.

Match facts

June 2, 2017Start time 19:30 local (23:30 GMT)Afghanistan will hope to extend their 11-match winning streak in T20Is•Associated Press

Big picture

For the West Indies, this series stacks up as Plan B, a convenient arrangement facilitated by their board considering they failed to make the cut for the ongoing Champions Trophy, a tournament to which only the top eight ODI teams were invited. A side that won the tournament when it was held in England 13 years ago, and reached the final of the following edition, West Indies found themselves locked out of the competition altogether, the first time one of the traditional top eight teams failed to qualify for an ICC world event.For Afghanistan, however, series don’t come much bigger than this. This is the first bilateral series they are playing against a Full Member that isn’t Pakistan, Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. They get the opportunity to tour a part of the world that will always be remembered for producing a cricketing generation that could stand up to the greatest sides in history. And, anyway, never mind nostalgia, for Afghanistan are playing a T20I series against the reigning world champions in the shortest format of the game.A sombre backdrop marks the beginning of the series for Afghanistan. The players will still be recovering emotionally from the horrific news of a bomb blast in Kabul that killed nearly 100 people and injured almost 500 more. This series might feel much less important back home than it did just a couple of days ago. However, cricket has been a welcome distraction for the Afghan fans ever since their side burst on to the scene, and in that role, this unique tale still has a role to play, and a void to fill.

Form guide

West Indies LWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Afghanistan WWWWW

In the spotlight

Carlos Brathwaite and Kieron Pollard might view this series as an opportunity to play themselves back into form. Considering how imposing the Afghanistan outfit can be in this format, both Brathwaite and Pollard will look to bring on their A-game. Furthermore, with the fifth edition of the Caribbean Premier League coming up, they hardly need extra motivation.Rashid Khan is arguably Afghanistan’s most valuable long-term asset. Still only 18, he has already played 50 limited-overs internationals, and his consistency earned him a contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, where he played all his side’s matches and picked up 17 wickets from 14 games. He was also instrumental in Afghanistan’s most famous win, a victory over West Indies in the World T20 in 2016, taking 2 for 26 in four overs. Off the only ball he faced, he smashed a six, and how many runs did Afghanistan win by? Six, of course. Given the enormity of his credentials in the shortest format, he could squeeze into most T20 sides in the world.

Team news

West Indies have included the 24-year old uncapped fast bowler from Guyana, Ronsford Beaton, in their 13-man squad. Beaton, who has scalped 31 wickets in 36 T20s, could be expected to feature in the playing XI at some stage in the series. Jason Holder, the ODI captain, has been rested.West Indies (possible) 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Chadwick Walton (wk), 3 Marlon Samuels, 4 Lendl Simmons, 5 Keiron Pollard, 6 Jason Mohammed, 7 Carlos Brathwaite (capt), 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Rovman Powell, 10 Samuel Badree, 11 Kesrick WilliamsAfghanistan’s squad is a mix of experience and youth, and one of their key objectives in this series will be to gauge the performance of the younger crop of players as pioneers like Mohammad Nabi and Asghar Stanikzai begin to transition into the latter stages of their careers.Afghanistan squad 1 Asghar Stanikzai (capt), 2 Amir Hamza, 3 Dawlat Zadran, 4 Fareed Ahmad, 5 Gulbadin Naib, 6 Javed Ahmadi, 7 Karim Janat, 8 Mohammad Nabi, 9 Najibullah Zadran, 10 Noor Ali Zadran, 11 Rashid Khan, 12 Samiullah Shenwari, 13 Shafiqullah (wk), 14 Shapoor Zadran, 15 Usman Ghani, 16 Afsar Zazai, 17 Naveen-ul-Haq, 18 Sharafuddin Ashraf

Pitch and conditions

Warner Park has been used sparingly for international cricket since it was inaugurated in 2006; it has hosted only 22 men’s international games. The pitch is expected to take turn, which should play to both sides’ strengths. There is a small chance of rain, but a full game is expected.

Stats and trivia

• Afghanistan were the only side to beat West Indies at the 2016 World T20 in India, where Darren Sammy’s team went on to win the tournament.
• Warner Park has hosted only one completed T20 international, with West Indies beating Bangladesh by five wickets in 2009. Another T20I, between the same sides five years later, was washed out after 4.4 overs.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
4:20

Agarkar: Pollard can’t be banked on as a bowler

One over can often change the course of a T20 game, and on Thursday it seemed as if Ashok Dinda had bowled that over. It was the most expensive 20th over in all IPL matches, and it cost Rising Pune Supergiant 30 runs. On another occasion, it could have cost them the match as well. On this occasion, however, Pune had already done just enough good work with the ball to keep Mumbai Indians, despite that 30-run over, down to a total of 184.On a good batting pitch that seemed to quicken up under lights, it tested Pune’s batting, but proved just short of a winning total. Ajinkya Rahane set the chase up with 60 at a strike rate of 176.47, and Steven Smith steered them home with an ice-cool, unbeaten 84 off 54 balls. The equation came down to 10 off three balls, but Smith wasn’t going to be beaten – he finished the match with successive sixes off Kieron Pollard.If there was one decisive factor that separated the two sides, it may have been the compositions of the two bowling attacks. Pune went into the match with two legspinners in Imran Tahir and Adam Zampa and a purveyor of stump-to-stump slow-medium cutters in Rajat Bhatia. These three ended up with combined figures of 6 for 68 in 10 overs. In the other ten overs, Pune’s three faster bowlers – Dinda, Deepak Chahar and Ben Stokes – combined to take one wicket and concede 114.Tahir and Bhatia, in particular, had profited from the slightly two-paced nature of the pitch, where they got some balls to skid on and others to stop on the batsman. When the quicker bowlers bowled, however, the ball came on to the bat far more uniformly. Mumbai had an attack full of quicks and short on bowlers who could take the pace off the ball. They had left out Harbhajan Singh, their most capped player, and picked only one frontline spinner in Krunal Pandya. Buttler opens for MumbaiMumbai sprang a surprise after being sent in, promoting Jos Buttler to open alongside Parthiv Patel. Pune probably didn’t expect this – before this, Buttler had only batted in the top three positions seven times in a 163-match T20 career, and in the IPL, he had only batted four times in the Powerplay.Buttler made an immediate impression with his unpredictable movements around the crease and deft hands, spooking the raw Chahar in particular. There were three fours and three sixes in the Powerplay, the most eye-catching of them coming off successive balls from Stokes – a six shovelled down the ground and a six in the opposite direction, scooped over the wicketkeeper.With Parthiv profiting from some loose bowling from Dinda at the other end, Mumbai raced to 61 for 1 in the Powerplay.Tahir turns itThat one wicket came in the fifth over. With Buttler going the way he was, Smith, as he would later reveal at the presentation ceremony, brought Tahir on “earlier than he would have liked to”. Having just swept his first ball for four, Parthiv tried again, missed, and was bowled around his legs by a googly.In his next over, Tahir dismissed Rohit Sharma and then Buttler – one bowled, one lbw, one with a googly, the other with a slider, both with balls that pitched on a perfect length – both batsmen were pinned to the crease – and skidded on. There was a bit of luck involved too; umpire S Ravi failed to spot a big inside-edge onto pad and sent Buttler on his way.That immediately brought the run rate down. Nitish Rana found the leg-side boundary every now and then with pulls and slog-sweeps, but there was little else by way of boundary-scoring as Mumbai scored only 66 in the ten overs after the Powerplay. There were three more wickets too – two to Bhatia and one to Zampa. overBefore this match, Ashok Dinda had bowled the 20th over on 19 occasions, for an overall final-over economy rate of 12.8, the worst among all bowlers with a minimum of 10 final overs. He had conceded 25 or more in the 20th over on two previous occasions. When Steven Smith handed Dinda the ball to deliver the 20th over of Mumbai’s innings here, therefore, he must have done so with a certain amount of trepidation. For one, he had already conceded 28 from his first three overs.Dinda had a field set for the wide yorker, and kept trying it and missing either the line or the length. It still needed a quality hitter to take four sixes off that bowling, and Mumbai had one in Hardik Pandya. He slapped a wide full-toss over the point boundary, held his shape for an extra fraction of a second to launch a back-of-the-hand slower ball over long-off, and whipped a straight, full ball over long-on. Then came another wide length ball – this one flew past the keeper off the edge – and a short ball that Pandya swatted over cow corner.By the end of the over, 154 for 7 had become 184 for 8. Mumbai had never before lost while scoring 184 or more.Rahane times itNow, though, they ran into Rahane. He’s not the quickest scorer across conditions, but give him a pitch where the ball comes on to the bat and he can pepper the boundaries. He seemed to be carrying on from the form he showed in India’s small run chase in the Dharamsala Test, driving, chipping inside-out, and pulling with abandon. The surest sign of his form came when he came down the track to Krunal Pandya, found himself not close enough to the pitch of the ball to loft with a full extension of his arms, and checked his shot. The ball still managed to clear a leaping Kieron Pollard at long-on.With a bit of help from Mumbai’s seamers, who offered him width too often for their own good, Rahane ended up scoring quicker than he has done in any of his previous IPL innings. By the time he was done, Supergiants were 93 for 2 in 10.1 overs.Smith does the restWhen Rahane was caught on the square-leg boundary, Pune needed 92 from 59 balls, and when Stokes, their No. 4, fell for 21 off 14, they needed 42 off 28. By then, Smith had already reached his fifty, managing to dispatch any length and any line from any bowler into his favourite leg-side spots. He had also been dropped once, on 36, Rana putting down a fairly straightforward chance at deep square leg when Smith pulled Mitchell McClenaghan in the air.Given all that, it should have been a canter, particularly with MS Dhoni walking in at No. 5, but it wasn’t. The ghost of Dinda’s over stretched this match into some pretty uncomfortable territory for Pune. Jasprit Bumrah and McClenaghan almost bowled the perfect 17th, 18th and 19th overs, cramping Dhoni with back-of-a-length bowling angling into him, but Smith and Dhoni managed to find late boundaries in each of those overs, capitalising on the smallest error.Pollard, defending 13 off the last over, began by conceding just three singles. With 10 required off three, Smith manufactured an astonishing hit; getting on the front foot to a short-of-good-length slower ball and launching it, baseball-style, over long-on. The next ball was full and at his feet, and he whipped it effortlessly over deep midwicket.

M Vijay’s 50th Test was going pretty much the way he must have dreamed it would go – if he had dared to dream that dream. After Australia had posted 451 batting first, he had laid a rock-solid foundation to India’s reply; putting on 91 with KL Rahul for the first wicket and 102 with Cheteshwar Pujara for the second, and was 18 short of a hundred with three balls to go for lunch on day three.Then, with India on the verge of a wicketless session, he stepped out of his crease to Steve O’Keefe and was stumped, missing the line of a ball that didn’t turn as much as expected. At stumps, with India 360 for 6, Vijay said he was fine with his choice of shot but admitted he might have chosen the wrong time to play it.”See, I wasn’t disappointed actually,” Vijay said. “The shot was on – mid-off, mid-on inside, so I thought it was my shot. But the situation was wrong, I guess, and the execution was not up to the mark, but definitely the shot was on.”Vijay had been watchful through the first hour of the day, before shifting gears with a few calculated risks in the second. He brought out an array of sweeps and slog-sweeps to score his last 22 runs in 22 balls.”They were bowling really tight, to be honest,” Vijay said. “Myself and Pujara had a talk in between. The goal is to see off the initial phase. We know for sure that if we put them under pressure we can get a lot of runs in the second and third session. That was the basic idea. It came out pretty well, but it could have been much better if I had not gotten out.”Pat Cummins was Australia’s main threat, his pace and bounce accounting for four wickets on a pitch that had little help for the quicks. Vijay said he had been hostile initially before settling into more of a line-and-length pattern, and getting fired up once again by taking Virat Kohli’s wicket in his first over with the second new ball.”He was bowling really well,” Vijay said. “He was sharp in the early spell and then he was trying to bowl one line to us. As soon as the wicket fell, I think he had extra gas in him. So yeah, it was a good, challenging Test for us to battle against him.”India ended the day trailing by 91 runs, with Pujara still at the crease on 130. “I think the game is evenly poised,” Vijay said. “If we can get closer to the target and maybe, if possible, extend the lead from there, I think it’s going to be a good game in hand.”Asked about the most memorable moment from his 50 Tests, he picked India’s win at Lord’s in 2014, to which he contributed a vital second-innings 95.”There are lots [of moments],” he said. “Everything is still fresh in my memory. But to be honest the Lord’s Test win is one thing that stands out.”