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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.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
4:52

Hogg: Middle-order show will give Sunrisers confidence

The IPL opens new seasons with a match between the previous edition’s finalists, and this year the teams seemed to have been handed the same lines. The characters speaking those lines changed, the stage changed, but Sunrisers Hyderabad once again posted a 200-plus total and defended it successfully after an early scare. This 207 was Sunrisers’ second-highest IPL score, one behind the final last year, and despite all their power and matches in Bangalore, Royal Challengers have successfully chased 200 only once in the IPL.Sunrisers’ captain David Warner seemed to be repeating his lines from the final but it was Yuvraj Singh’s sublime 62 off 27 that set up the 200 score after Moises Henriques provided him the springboard with 52 off 37. In response, Chris Gayle looked threatening as Royal Challengers raced away to 43 for 0 in four overs. Missing Mustafizur Rahman, Sunrisers found a new hero in Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan, who took the wheels of the chase off with quick legbreaks and wrong’uns, claiming two wickets on his IPL debut.Royal Challengers turn left
Missing Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, having lost Mitchell Starc again and having let go of Chris Jordan, the selection of the runners-up was going to be interesting. They tried to emulate the champions, going for three left-arm quicks, but they got them on against a batting line-up that relies on three big left-hand batsmen. All three of Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj boast better strike rates against left-arm quicks than their overall career numbers. Despite Tymal Mills’ impressive debut, there was only one winner here. In all, the Royal Challengers left-arm quicks bowled 38 balls to the left-hand batsmen for 78 runs, including some sumptuous hitting from Yuvraj against the two IPL debutants, Mills and Aniket Choudhury.Yuvraj and Henriques tee off
One of the under-rated players in Sunrisers’ triumph last year, Henriques batted effortlessly at No. 3 after Warner fell against the run of play. Even though Dhawan struck at a potentially damaging strike rate of 129 over 31 balls, Henriques didn’t let the momentum stall. And when he met Yuvraj in the middle, Royal Challengers had to face some carnage. Yuvraj had one of his nights where everything he hit went. The highlight of his innings was when Mills, one of the best at the slower legcutter, found him waiting for that very delivery. Yuvraj proceeded to send it sailing over midwicket for a six. Ben Cutting provided the final touches with two sixes in the last over, bowled again by Shane Watson.Cutting, Rashid, Hooda drag Royal Challengers back
After yet another ominous start from Gayle, Cutting began the comeback for Sunrisers. He first gave Gayle what no one else had: a bouncer. Then came the offcutter, the delivery that had dismissed Gayle in the final. A wide yorker made an appearance. Despite just a five-run fifth over, Royal Challengers had had the first win. They had made Rashid bowl in the first six: in bowling 546 balls in T20Is, Rashid had bowled only one over inside the front six. Rashid, though, rose to the challenge, and bowled Mandeep Singh in trademark fashion: bowled with a straighter delivery, making it 14 of his 40 right-hand victims bowled. Now the World T20 final repeated itself. Warner went to the part-time offspinner in Deepak Hooda – remember Joe Root? – and Gayle holed out to long-off after hitting one six.Cutting, Rashid, part II
Kedar Jadhav and Travis Head, though, kept Royal Challengers alive with a 56-run partnership in 5.1 overs. With 93 required in 8.3 overs, the asking rate was still in check, especially with Watson still in the shed. This is when Jadhav attempted an ambitious second only to find an effortless and flat direct hit from fine leg. Cutting had once again dragged Royal Challengers back. Rashid now repeated his second-favourite dismissal, the wrong’un to the left-hand batsman, as Head top-edged a slog sweep. Against the quality of Sunrisers’ attack, Watson alone was always going to be one man too few, and they fell short by 35 in the end.

From having his position as head coach under scrutiny seven months ago, Russell Domingo has now been given the safety of a contract extension until the end of South Africa’s England tour next August. Domingo, whose contract was due to expire at the end of April 2017, will be in charge for the next 13 Test matches and the Champions Trophy in June 2017. Team manager Mohammed Moosajee has been given the same extension.”As part of the domestic cricket review, we are currently evaluating the entire coaching framework in South Africa and the Board believed the best approach at present was to extend the tenure of Mr Domingo until the end of the England tour in 2017,” Haroon Lorgat, the CSA CEO said.”Naturally the performances of the Proteas was a key factor in the Board’s unanimous decision. The recent 1-0 Sunfoil Test Series win against New Zealand and the impressive 5-0 win in the Momentum ODI Series against world champions Australia, resulting in us being the first nation to achieve a clean sweep against them, were noted. In addition, the excellent Proteas discipline and the positive culture throughout the coaching team, the player leadership group and the rest of the players were viewed as exemplary.”The domestic review is separate from the abandoned but soon-to-be resurrected national team review, which was due to take place after South Africa’s World T20 exit. Former national rugby captain Francois Pienaar was the highest-profile person on the four-man panel that was due to begin work in May. When they failed to agree terms with CSA, the committee disbanded and the review was abandoned. However, another process is now underway, which will review the performances of all national teams, which is unconnected from the domestic review that was concluded earlier in the year.Among the domestic review’s recommendations was the formation of an eight-team T20 premier league to revamp the format in the country but, if that suggestion is implemented, it will only happen in the 2017-18 season. It was not known that Domingo’s position was also part of the domestic review panel’s scope; however, there was a pressing need for certainty over Domingo’s future because of the timing of the Champions Trophy.If Domingo’s contract was not going to be renewed at the end of April, South Africa’s new coach would not have enjoyed any game time with the team ahead of the ICC event in England. South Africa do not have any fixtures scheduled between the end of March, when they tour New Zealand, and the England tour in May. As a result, a decision on Domingo had to be made at the earliest opportunity and after South Africa failed to make the final of the Caribbean triangular tournament in June, it was being speculated his time was up.However, Domingo enjoyed the support of Test and ODI captain AB de Villiers and was given the chance to redeem himself in the home series against New Zealand and Australia. A team culture camp preceded those series in which South Africa plotted what they call a new path.Stand-in captain Faf du Plessis also revealed that the coaching staff had been a major part of the discussions over changing the direction and credited them with South Africa’s turnaround. Although they have only climbed to No. 5 on the Test rankings from slumping to No.7 at the end of last summer, they are up to No. 2 in ODIs and have managed that without de Villiers, who is out injured. Importantly, Domingo has embraced the transformation targets and South Africa have unearthed some depth, which has seen them get back on track and earned Domingo a contract extension.

Joel Garner, the former fast-bowling great who is now West Indies’ team manager, feels players from the region have promise but don’t work hard enough.”We’ve always had promising players, we’ve always had attractive players, the problems we have is that, most of the players are identified, I don’t think they work hard enough, and they fall away,” Garner said, in a media interaction on Tuesday. “I think that if the players are prepared to work as hard as they need to work, they can get to the top of world cricket as well.”When asked which areas the players might need to work harder on, he pointed to the lack of long innings and sizeable partnerships, which has been a problem for West Indies right through their ongoing Test series against India, apart from the final day of the drawn second Test in Jamaica.”I think that the longer they spend in the middle, the easier the batting becomes,” he said. “And I think that is one area that I’d like to see improve, where you’d like to see the fellows batting long, not only batting long but batting effectively.”If you look at it, partnerships are important in any cricket game. The reason we were able to save the game in Jamaica was we had batting partnerships virtually whole day. If you don’t get the partnerships, you won’t get the performances. It’s very important to take something away from the game in Jamaica, to look at how we prepare and how we can build on it.”Garner said the lure of T20 may be hampering West Indies’ younger players coming through the junior ranks.”I think that, when you look at our cricket, we are challenging maybe up to Under-19s,” he said. “If you look at every world competition, when you look at them, West Indies is there. Where we have the challenge is when we go away. I think everybody looks at the T20 cricket and they want to play the T20 format of the game as opposed to playing the longer version of the game, and, you know, it is a matter of choice. Why work for five days if you can work for three hours? I think that that’s the mentality and it’s something that we’ve got to try and change in terms of how our players look at the cricket and the type of cricket our players want to play.”While Garner clarified that he wasn’t dissuading players from playing T20, he wanted revenues earned from T20 to be invested in the grassroots, and for the players to be able to play more first-class cricket. He compared the current situation, where domestic players play ten matches a year, to the situation of the best West Indies players of his era, who were all overseas professionals in county cricket.”I don’t know about discouraging [players from taking part in T20],” he said. “As I said, T20 cricket is used to raise finances for everybody, and I think that if you look at it, that is where we should have been trying to say we can, you know, earn some income that we can reinvest in our junior cricketers and in our local cricket.”We are fortunate that we can play ten games now as opposed to five. Are ten games enough in a year? When I played, I played 20-somebody or 40-somebody games in a year playing county cricket, and that is where the strength of the cricket is – the more you play, the more you get accustomed to it, the harder the cricket is, and the more professional you become.”Asked about the proposal to split Test cricket into two tiers, Garner said such a move would keep Test cricket to “a chosen few”.”I wish them luck if they want cricket to remain with the big three or the big four,” he said. “You have the two-tier system, I mean, you’ve got to start someplace, and the only way you can get into the two-tier system is by playing against the teams that are above you in the table. If you can’t play the teams above you on the table, how will you get in?”So, to me, it begs the question, what purpose does it serve? Are you trying to preserve Test cricket or are you trying to keep it to a chosen few? I can’t answer it for you because you want to preserve Test cricket, the only way you can preserve Test cricket is to let people at the lower level play against teams above them to be able to compete and to be able to progress.”

Freed of ankle pain that halved the range of movement in his right foot, Mitchell Starc has forecast a concerted Australian attack on Sri Lanka’s captain Angelo Mathews in the three-Test series that begins in Pallekele on Tuesday.Following a dispiriting tour of England and amid a surfeit of injuries to Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers, Mathews is set to face a searching examination from the No. 1-ranked Australians, who have often worked diligently to undermine the authority of opposition captains by limiting their capacity to perform on the field.Starc contrasted Mathews with his opposite number Steven Smith, who has so far performed very strongly as both batsman and captain for Australia. “Look, he’s under pressure,” Starc said of Mathews in Pallekele. “He’d be under pressure after the English tour and as a captain he’ll have to go through that pressure and perform as well. And that’s something that Steve, for us, does really well.”He’s been fantastic as a captain and led from the front as well, so no doubt we’ll put a lot of pressure on Angelo to perform. He’s got to lead as captain, so he’ll be a big wicket for us along with [Dinesh] Chandimal. For their bowlers [Rangana] Herath is the most experienced one and one that we’ll try and counter.”Starc came unscathed through the ODI tri-series in West Indies in June, and found some useful new-ball rhythm during Australia’s tour match at the P Sara Oval in Colombo. He has now gotten used to the unusual experience of bowling without discomfort in his right foot, and will seek to swerve the ball through a Sri Lankan side that has lost Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan since he last bowled to them, in Australia three years ago.”It’s fantastic to not see the three big names line up against us,” Starc said. “There were a few tough moments with those experienced batsmen in the line-up. They’re obviously a bit light on [experience] in the Sri Lankan team. They are coming off a series defeat in England, but back in their home conditions, they know it best and they’ll be up for a fight.”We’ll have to be at our best, but at the same time if we can make some early inroads and expose that inexperience, we’ve definitely got a fantastic bowling line-up to go through them.”From the more pleasant vantage point of seven months after surgery, Starc outlined exactly how much his right foot had degenerated before he surrendered to the surgeon’s knife. A two-centimeter fragment of bone broke off his ankle during last year’s first Ashes Test in Cardiff, before painkilling injections were required to deaden all feeling in the foot.He carried on despite this obvious handicap until the third Test of the home series against New Zealand in November 2015, where he broke another bone in the same foot and hobbled his way to the winning runs under lights at Adelaide Oval when clearly restricted. That second injury provided the catalyst for surgery, including the removal of the aforementioned fragment, the shaving of three bone spurs from the ankle and the excision of plenty of scar tissue besides.From days when he could only flex his ankle around two centimeters, Starc now has a range of movement closer to 14 centimeters. “It feels great. Having that bone taken out has done wonders for it,” Starc said. “That movement has been fantastic, ever since I started bowling again from surgery. There has definitely been no pain there through the West Indies and through the start of this tour. It’s a fantastic result and I’m looking forward to hopefully playing a much longer period of cricket now.”No longer needing to worry about physical restrictions, Starc has concentrated on tactical and technical work with the interim bowling coach Allan Donald, with whom he also shares an IPL team.”We’ve been working with Craig [McDermott] for a number of years now. To bring in AD (Donald) with a different set of eyes and a different set of theories is nice. It’s always nice to freshen things up and see what he’s got to offer on that topic as well,” Starc said. “We all reverse the ball pretty well, it’s just about doing it more often and getting it in those right areas here in Sri Lanka where it’s going to be needed a lot more.”I will always bowl my own way and if it means bowling a few yorkers here and there which I probably normally do anyway. It’s about getting that consistency a lot of us have had through the last 12 to 18 months. Josh Hazlewood has been fantastic at that, hitting a spot and really wearing batsmen down and taking a lot of wickets. I’m trying to get back to that consistency I had before I broke down.”I was feeling really, really good through that Perth Test (against New Zealand) and even through the few overs I had in Adelaide was where I really wanted to be in Test cricket. I’m always going to attack and try to take those early wickets, and I’m happy to go for a couple of runs if I can take early wickets.”Given the likelihood of two spinners being chosen, Starc can look forward to short, sharp spells at the other end, where Smith will seek to keep his pace up at its most destructive pitch. If he can do that, the pain he once felt in his ankle will instead be felt by the batsmen.

Fast bowler Kemar Roach has been included in the West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI squad to face the Indians in a three-day warm-up match starting July 14 in Basseterre. Roach, who has played 37 Tests, was dropped from the Test squad for the India series, after a poor tour to Australia last December.In six other changes to the 13-member squad, John Campbell, Rahkeem Cornwall, Jahmar Hamilton, Montcin Hodge, Chemar Holder and Gudakesh Motie were included for Rajendra Chandrika, Roston Chase and Shane Dowrich, all of whom were selected in the Test squad to face India, along with Damion Jacobs, Marquino Mindley and Jomel Warrican, who was also dropped from the Test squad.Fast bowler Holder, 18, was part of the Under-19 squad that won the World Cup earlier this year in Bangladesh. He took five wickets in three games at an average of 16.40 in that tournament, but is yet to play a first-class game.Captain Leon Johnson and Jermaine Blackwood, who scored 2 and 0 respectively in the two-day warm-up match against the Indians, remained in the Board President’s XI to get some more practice before the Tests.West Indies Board President’s XI squad: Leon Johnson (capt), Jermaine Blackwood, John Campbell, Rahkeem Cornwall, Jason Dawes, Jahmar Hamilton, Montcin Hodge, Chemar Holder, Shai Hope, Keon Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Kemar Roach, Vishaul Singh

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEngland would have had two main ambitions on a bedraggled fourth day at Lord’s. The first would have been to make incursions into Sri Lanka’s second innings to prepare a route to victory and a 3-0 clean sweep in the series; the second, a maiden Test hundred for Alex Hales. Neither eventuated as Sri Lanka continued to resist gamely in the final Test.Left with 12 overs to see out at the end of the day, Sri Lanka’s openers clipped 32 from the 362 needed for victory. Alastair Cook’s declaration at 233 for 7 was well judged, a touch more generous perhaps than if the series had been level. The pitch is a little uneven, but nothing excessive and, judging by the sober way Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva went about their work, Sri Lanka look in the mood to scrap every inch of the way.Hales is getting closer to a treasured first Test hundred, but he will have to wait a while yet. He was on 94, only six runs short, when he fell lbw only 10 minutes before tea, trying to turn Angelo Mathews quietly on the leg side. He reviewed umpire Rod Tucker’s decision, but it was with a wan expression from a man fearing the worst. Ball-tracking technology held that the ball would have struck the top of leg stump.

Smart stats

• 3 – 80-plus scores for Alex Hales in five innings in this series; his highest in eight innings in South Africa was 60

• 7 – England batsmen who have been dismissed in the 90s more often than Hales in all international cricket

• 7054 – Balls between sixes for Alastair Cook in Tests; his last one before the second innings at Lord’s was versus India in Kolkata in 2012

• 2009 – The last time, before the second innings of this match, that James Anderson didn’t bowl the first over of an innings: he bowled first change versus West Indies at Lord’s in 2009

• 2 – Instances, in the last 30 years, of teams scoring more than 310 in the fourth innings of a Lord’s Test – by Australia (406 in 2009) and India (397 in 2002)

With two 80s to his name in the series, Hales could at least console himself that he had done much to implant himself at the top of the order, his composed, if occasionally fortunate, innings providing more evidence that he can successfully adjust to the demands of the five-day game. Without repeated self-destruction against Sri Lanka’s spinners earlier in the series, he could have been basking in something even better.Rain had prevented a start until 2.40pm, but England held an overnight lead of 237 and, despite several more pesky showers, the day yielded 45 overs, enough to keep the Test meaningful.Hales’ composure held England’s second innings together, even if he was not without fortune. On 58, he suffered a replica of Joe Root’s dismissal the previous day – his off stump hit by a shooter from Nuwan Pradeep – only for umpire Tucker to call no-ball. TV replays suggested that Pradeep’s heel was behind the line on first impact, the umpire perhaps being fooled by the bowler’s foot slipping forward on landing.Understandable complaints that international umpires were ignoring repeated no-balls so that they could concentrate on events at the business end of the pitch seem to have caused a recent reassessment of that approach, but Tucker’s no-ball call for such a borderline delivery – a wrong call as it turned out – will not allay concerns that the system has become outdated in a TV age..With no chance under current regulations to use TV evidence to reverse the decision, Sri Lanka were understandably aggrieved. Those regulations were already due to be examined at the ICC annual meeting in Edinburgh later this month.Undiplomatically, Sri Lanka responded by hanging the national flag from the Lord’s balcony, which could either be regarded as a plucky statement to their players that they would fight on regardless of their mounting ill luck or, conversely, as an infantile gesture carrying the implication of umpiring bias. The request soon came through for them to take it down: Lord’s does not allow flags of any description, certainly not from dressing room balconies.Thilanga Sumathipala, SLC’s president, called the decision “unacceptable” and said: “It will be reported to the ICC. The flag is a symbol. It is a mark to say we are not happy with the decision. To show solidarity and fight back.”Sri Lanka also thought they might have had Hales on 45 when Shaminda Eranga brought one back to strike him on the top of the pad but umpire S Ravi’s not-out decision was upheld by virtue of “umpire’s call” on review.The breaks in Hales’ favour were fast adding up. In reaching 41 by Saturday’s close, he might have fallen on 19, if Karunaratne had clung on to a low chance to his left at second slip and again on 39, shortly before the close, when he glanced Pradeep down the leg side only for Dinesh Chandimal to grass the chance. There were no reports of draped flags then.Nevertheless, Hales had some dominant moments, too, none better than when he conquered Rangana Herath’s over-the-wicket attack into the rough by hoisting the left-arm spinner straight for six, then sweeping his next delivery for four.England did lose the nightwatchman Steven Finn, lbw to Eranga, clearing the way for Cook. His place at No. 7 was purely happenstance, and not due to regulations limiting a player’s place in the batting order after injury, explained by the fact that his mishap while fielding at silly point was regarded as an external injury.Cook showed no ill effects although he, too, flirted with the vagaries of the review system. On 6, Herath spun one back to hit his thigh, playing back, but replays showed the ball had struck him outside the line. Then, in Herath’s very next over, he was struck in line of off stump by another sharp spinner, but this Sri Lanka erroneously chose not to appeal the original not-out decision. Hawk-Eye would have sent the England captain on his way for 11.Cook’s unbeaten 49, batting at No. 7, including a deep midwicket six into the Mound Stand off Eranga – he had hit 10 previously in Tests – and surely his first attempted ramp shot. The latter felt a bit like tipsy dad on the dancefloor. Probably judging that was enough tomfoolery for one day, he then declared, no doubt returning to a dressing room where he commands so much respect that players can happily giggle at his adventure.