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A spectator has been slapped with a three-year ban from attending any matches in Australia, and will also face court in Hobart after allegedly writing a racially offensive message on a fence inside the Bellerive Oval on day one of the Test.The message was reportedly directed at South Africa batsman Hashim Amla, and police have confirmed a 24-year old man from Longford in Tasmania’s north has been charged on summons.”Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania can confirm a crowd behaviour issue that occurred on day one of the Commonwealth Bank Test match against South Africa in Hobart,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson said.”Tasmania Police identified the person of interest through CCTV and witnesses in the area. Cricket Australia has issued the person with a three-year ban from any Cricket Australia match, nationally.”Cricket Australia takes a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour at any of our matches, which includes racial vilification.”Our message to any fan attending a match is that if you display anti-social behavior, you will be removed and risk being banned from any cricket match across Australia, as well as police action being taken.”Cricket South Africa also issued a statement on the matter: “We have been informed that the man has been formally charged and has been handed a three-year ban from the stadium.”From our point of view, it is disappointing and disconcerting because this is not the first act of racial vilification we have received while touring Australia over the years. It is unacceptable. There is absolutely no place for racial stereotyping and such offensive acts in society, let alone in sport.”We thank Cricket Australia and the authorities for dealing with the matter in a swift, professional and stern way and for carrying out the full might of the law.”

Jharkhand overcame a stubborn 87-run partnership for the ninth wicket from Rajasthan batsmen Chetan Bist and Aniket Choudhary to complete a 42-run victory in Vadodara. Their second win in three matches hauled Jharkhand to the top of Group B, after they bowled Rajasthan out for 237.Rajasthan resumed their chase of 280 from an overnight score of 67 for 3 but soon slumped to 137 for 8, losing wickets to left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and offspinner Sunny Gupta. Bist and Choudhary then resisted for 27.3 overs, hauling the score past 200 before the stand was broken. Eight overs after Choudhary was dismissed for 32, Jharkhand broke Bist’s defiance, with the batsman falling for a 136-ball 77 which included six fours and a six. Nadeem, who had taken two wickets on the third day, completed his five-for, taking his match haul to 12 for 168.Assam salvaged a draw, reaching 73 for 2 in their second innings after Vidarbha enforced the follow-on on the final day in Thumba. Resuming on 98 for 3 on Sunday, Assam were bowled out for 227 as left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate ran through the middle and lower order, taking 5 for 72. Assam’s batsmen got off to starts but the top score, of 44 not out, came from Swarupam Purkayastha at No. 9. Having taken a 189-run lead, Vidarbha asked Assam to bat again and the pair of Rahul Hazarika and Amit Verma saw the side through after they lost two wickets.Saurashtra required eight wickets on the last day to register an innings win against Maharashtra, but a debut century from Murtaza Trunkwala and a stubborn lower order ended the match in a draw in Vizianagaram. Left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja took four wickets, but Saurashtra could only take six of the eight wickets they needed as Maharashtra ended on 345 for 8.Resuming their second innings on 114 for 2, after following-on, they were led by Trunkwala’s 117 before he fell in the 33rd over of the day. Further contributions from the middle order, led by No. 4 Ankit Bawne’s 60, helped them hang on and salvage one point compared to Saurashtra’s three. Maharashtra were 230 for 5 when Bawne was bowled by Jadeja, with over 50 overs left in the day, but Chirag Khurana (44), Vishant More (39) and Shrikant Mundhe (24) led them to the draw even as Jadeja ended with a match haul of 9 for 105.

South Africa outbatted Australia to beat them 5-0 in the ODI series but stand-in captain Faf du Plessis believes they will need to outbowl them if they are to win the Test series next month. After South Africa went through most of last summer sans Dale Steyn or Vernon Philander, they will travel to Australia with both bowlers plus three other frontline seamers, and du Plessis hopes that collectively, they can carry the team to victory.”For us to have a successful tour of Australia, Dale Steyn will be the guy to make or break that for us because he is a huge player in that Test team. I am confident he will have a really good series,” du Plessis said. “His shoulder looks okay – that’s going to be the challenge. We need to make sure that he stays fit and he can bowl long periods of time. Test cricket is not just 10 overs, he will need to bowl 18 to 20 overs a day for the next month.”Steyn returned, after a broken shoulder kept him out of the England Test and ODI series in January-February, for the World T20, in which he played only two of South Africa’s four matches. He was left out of the triangular series in the Caribbean, officially rested but by his own admission dropped, and given permission to play in the NatWest T20 Blast instead. He took 11 wickets in five matches for Glamorgan and was then included in South Africa’s Test series against New Zealand, where his eight wickets in Centurion secured a series win.Although he has not looked his best with the white ball – he played four of the five ODIs against Australia for five wickets at 50.80 with an economy rate of 6.99 and received treatment on the shoulder throughout the series – Australia still considered Steyn remained a threat. “You’ve always got to respect Dale. He is a world-class bowler, a great athlete and you never want to upset him,” David Warner said. “He is a guy that can really get on top. He has this spark and this spell in him you’ve got to get through that and negate what he throws at you.”At Test level, du Plessis expects that will be even more difficult for the Australians to do. “Dale in Test cricket is a different breed. In one-day cricket, these things are going to happen. KG [Kagiso Rabada] as well, would be the first to say he didn’t bowl at his best. In Test cricket it’s about consistency. When Dale gets that red ball in his hand, he is just a different bowler. He is still our No.1 bowler in Test cricket.”South Africa will look to rise up the rankings again with hopes of having Morne Morkel back for the Tests•AFP

Rabada also played in four matches and took five wickets at 52.80 with an economy rate of 7.33. Both Steyn and Rabada were hurt by the game in Durban, where they conceded 96 and 86 runs respectively. Overall, they were overshadowed by Kyle Abbott and Andile Phehlukwayo, who have come to the fore as part of South Africa’s future. “Our bowling attack needs to be fit if we are to win in Australia,” du Plessis said.The other members of South Africa’s pace pack have also had injury concerns. Philander’s rehabilitation from torn ankle ligaments kept him out of action for almost three months but he also made a comeback against New Zealand while Morne Morkel has been on the sidelines since July with a back problem. Morkel returned to action in club cricket in Pretoria earlier this month and is currently playing for Titans against Warriors in a first-class match as a fitness test ahead of the Australia tour. He bowled 26 overs in the first innings, and picked three wickets, so all indications are that he will travel to Australia.South Africa have won their last two Tests series in Australia, in 2008-09 and 2012-13, although in very different circumstances. Both times, they were coming off series wins in England. This time, they are in the midst of a rebuilding process and recognise that Australia pose a tougher challenge than before. They will hope to carry some of their ODI momentum into the Tests. “Against Australia, any mental edge you can get you will take,” du Plessis said. “It’s the one-percenters that matter.”

ScorecardHe may have scored two Test centuries and played a part in England series victories in India and South Africa but, around these parts at least, Nick Compton is in danger of being remembered as the man who dropped the 2016 Specsavers County Championship.Had Compton, in the slips, held on to the relatively straightforward chance offered by Andy Hodd on 22 off Steven Finn, Yorkshire would have been 87 for 5 and in danger of seeing their relatively long tail exposed. One of the runners in this three-horse race may well have fallen away.Instead, the chance went down and Hodd, in partnership with the wonderfully resolute Tim Bresnan, added 116 for Yorkshire’s fifth wicket to keep their side in the game. The extent of the dent put into Middlesex’s Championship aspirations remains to be seen but it may well be that Compton has inadvertently done his former club, Somerset, a huge favour. A future in ‘He should have gone to Specsavers’ adverts is unlikely to provide much consolation.Such a reputation would be harsh, of course. Compton played crucial roles in two recent victories against Durham and Nottinghamshire and may yet have a defining contribution to make here. But when title races become as tight as this – and this one is beautifully, breathlessly tight – the importance of such moments is magnified.The concern for both these teams is that their excellence – and this has been a terrific game of tough, high-quality cricket albeit one marked by some significant dropped catches – is in danger of cancelling each other out. While Somerset do battle with a foe currently boasting the resilience of a butterfly, these two teams are bashing each other into a double knockout.For victory alone is unlikely to be enough for Yorkshire. With Somerset seemingly on course for victory at Taunton, Yorkshire need to not only win but win with a minimum of four batting bonus points. They therefore have to score 350 (or more) within the first 110 overs of their first innings here. With 115 more runs required from 41 more overs and three bowlers with modest batting pretensions to come, much remains required of the two batsmen who will resume in the morning.That Yorkshire remain in the race at all is largely due to Bresnan. Having bowled with skill and persistence to help squeeze the life out of the Middlesex batting, he then produced his highest score of the campaign – and his fifth half-century – to take his side within sight of first-innings parity.It’s hard to imagine Bresnan pulling out of a game like this due to weariness or lack of focus. Indeed, you imagine he may well report for duty with an arm hanging by a thread or nursing a nasty attack of the bubonic plague. While there were some murmurs ahead of the game that he was a little high at No. 5 in the batting line-up, he justified his promotion with a mature innings featuring much patient defence and some fine shot selection.Six of his seven fours came on the off-side – a couple of meaty drives, a couple of beefy cuts and a well-judged reverse sweep the most memorable of them – with one laced through midwicket. Reflecting the improvement in his batting, he took his career average above 30 for the first time during the course of this innings and, if he makes the 100 his side probably requires, it will stay there.He came to the crease with the three batsmen above him in the order having failed to contribute a run. Toby Roland-Jones, comfortably the pick of the Middlesex seamers, had defeated Alex Lees with a full ball and drawn edges from hard-handed prods by Gary Ballance and Andrew Gale. By the time the previously fluent Adam Lyth played on in Steven Finn’s first over, perhaps slightly surprised by the pace of a fuller delivery, Yorkshire were 53 for 4 and in danger of seeing their challenge fall away.Had Compton been able to cling on to the chance offered by Hodd – instead he seemed to go at it with hard hands – Middlesex may have taken an unassailable advantage in this match. But, as the sun came out and the ball softened, so batting started to look a little easier and the teams go into day three with the game all but even.Hodd played Ollie Rayner especially well. Refusing to let him settle, he scored at almost a run-a-ball off him, hitting him off his line with reverse sweeps and punishing him if he dropped short. Even after he departed, beaten by a full one from Roland-Jones that he tried to force, Rayner was unable to gain much purchase from the dry-looking square and was twice thrashed for sixes – one drive, one pulled – by David Willey. Though Willey also departed before the close, Azeem Rafiq gave Bresnan good support to keep Yorkshire’s hopes just about alive. Still, 350 looks some way distant.”We just tried to take the game situation – and the table situation – out of it,” Bresnan said. “We tried to focus on little goals: ten runs at a time. They bowled really well at us for a little spell and made it really tough for us. But cricket is about little battles and we managed to overcome that challenge and kick on.”With the clientele we’ve got in dressing room we never say never. We’ve managed to win from some unbelievable positions this season and if we can get up to 350 we’ll be in a good position. We’ve got 40-odd overs left to get 350, which should be plenty of time. We’ll just take it in tens.”Yorkshire’s bowlers were little short of magnificent in the morning session. While Jack Brooks, as accurate and whole-hearted as ever, finished with career-best figures of 6 for 65, he would be the first to admit he was the beneficiary of a sustained performance by all five seamers that never allowed Middlesex to score at even 2.5 an over. It was relentless in the way Test bowlers tend to be relentless: building pressure; forcing batsmen to earn every run. Even with little help from the pitch or the overhead conditions, they were so disciplined that Middlesex were never able to get away from them. Yorkshire aren’t giving up on their status as champions without a hell of a fight.Eventually that pressure showed. Nick Gubbins, perhaps mindful of Middlesex’s sluggish run-rate and keen to gain at least a third batting bonus point, was drawn into a loose drive that ended his fine innings, before James Franklin edged a good one that demanded a stroke. Unsure whether to go for a third batting point or deny Yorkshire a third bowling point, Middlesex blocked for a while only to then give it away when Tim Murtagh slogged to mid-off with just 20 balls left before the cut-off. It may yet prove to be crucial. In all, Middlesex were able to add only 62 runs for the loss of five wickets in 26.3 overs in the morning session. Without Gubbins’ century – and the dropped catch that allowed him a life on 22 – they would have had no answer to Yorkshire’s fine attack.”We’re in a dogfight, but we’re hanging in there,” Brooks said. “We didn’t let them get away and we’re still in there fighting. Bressy has worked his way up from eight to five with his batting and he’s probably been our best bowler in this game as well after coming in as fifth seamer. It shows what a world-class bowler he is.”The equation for Middlesex is, at least, simple. If they win this match, the Championship is theirs. The winning bit is far from guaranteed, though.”It’s nicely poised,” Roland-Jones said in understated fashion afterwards. “We’re trying to treat it as if it’s any other game when it’s obviously an experience you want to be part of and it’s quite high pressure.”You try not to pay too much attention [to what has been happening at Taunton], but of course you see it there. Our attitude coming into the game was to win it. If you come into the last game and dangle the carrot that if you win it you win the Championship, you take that. It’s not a bad place to be.”It will probably be no consolation to any of the sides that fall short – and truly, all three deserve better than disappointment – but the quality and intensity of this encounter reflects wonderfully well on English cricket. Perhaps familiarity has invited a certain complacency (if not contempt) to England’s first-class competition but if we still value developing Test players we will tinker no further with this great competition. The 9000 or so spectators who have attended over the first two days know this already; it’s a shame not all those inhabiting the ECB offices just beside the Nursery Ground share their enthusiasm.

Kevin Pietersen has admitted that he would not be comfortable touring Bangladesh in the current circumstances.The ECB announced on Thursday that England’s Test and ODI tour of the country would go ahead as planned after assurances from the Bangladesh government. A terrorist attack in Dhaka in July left many dead but a delegation of ECB and PCA officials visited Bangladesh in recent days and concluded that the security measures in place assured the team of safety.But Pietersen says that he would be unwilling to go at present and feels that senior England players, especially those with families, will be equally reluctant.”It’s not somewhere I’d like to be for the next six weeks,” Pietersen told ESPNcricinfo. “The young ODI side might not have too many issues, but the older Test side might have a few issues.”Some of the older guys might have kids and other responsibilities, and might think ‘How can I get out of going to Bangladesh?’ They may think of this as an opportunity to get out of a Bangladesh tour. They’ll be looking at it. I know a lot of journalists don’t want to go to Bangladesh. So it’s going to be tough.”This is going to be one of the hardest decisions Alastair Cook has to make. Would I want to go? No. But I don’t think one guy can pull out. If one goes, you’ve all got to go. It would be difficult to pull out of the tour.”Pietersen was captain of the England team that returned to India in late 2008 after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Having originally abandoned the tour during the ODI series, Pietersen was at the forefront of those arguing that the team should return to play the two Test series.But now, as a father of two, he admits it would be a much harder decision. And he accepts that he now has greater sympathy for those players who were originally less keen to return to India – not least Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff – due to their responsibilities as parents.Ultimately, the whole squad, including Flintoff and Harmison, returned to India. But there was cynicism from some players over Pietersen’s motives for wanting to return and he feels the episode “damaged a lot of relationships”.”That’s why I’ve said I wasn’t the right person to captain England at the time,” Pietersen said. “I didn’t understand the circumstances of the guys who had kids at that time. I didn’t understand it at all.”I think it damaged a lot of relationships for me with the side and senior players. I wish I wasn’t captain of England at that time.”I did it before I had kids. It makes a huge difference. Your responsibilities change. Your priorities change. It would have been a harder decision.”Pietersen was speaking at Wellington College where his charitable foundation (The KP24 Foundation) is running a residential camp for 70 young people, many of them from ethnic minorities and quite a few refugees fleeing war, identified by county cricket boards and the Chance to Shine charity.”This is about helping kids,” he said. “It’s what I’ve dedicated myself to since I’ve calmed down on my cricketing front. I hope this is my legacy. It’s far more important than a stupid sport.”For more information visit kp24foundation.com

ScorecardMark Pettini found Derbyshire’s target appealing [file picture]•Getty Images

Leicestershire Foxes kept their T20 season alive by comprehensively dismantling East Midlands rivals Derbyshire Falcons under the floodlights at the Fischer County Ground. A century opening stand compiled by Foxes skipper Mark Pettini and Mark Cosgrove in just ten overs made Derbyshire’s score of 158 all out look what it was: hopelessly inadequate.With eight of the previous nine games involving the Falcons having been won by the chasing side, Pettini had no hesitation in choosing to bowl after winning the toss. The opening over of the Derbyshire innings was an eventful one, as Ben Raine bowled two front foot no-balls in his first three deliveries and conceded 13 runs before Wes Durston attempted to force off the back foot and got an inside edge to wicket-keeper Lewis Hill.If that was a straightforward catch for Hill, the top edge that he held off Hamish Rutherford in Raine’s next over was anything but. Rutherford’s mishit spiralled back over the wicket-keeper’s head, butbHill turned and sprinted 40 yards towards the boundary before flinging himself full length to take the ball two handed a foot above the ground.Raine then picked up a third wicket when he pinned Chesney Hawkes leg before with a well pitched up delivery which swung back in to the tall left-hander, leaving the Falcons on 42-3 in the sixth over, but Neil Broom and Wayne Madsen steadied the ship with a partnership of 54 for the fourth wicket.Broom came into the game having failed to make much impact with the bat for the Falcons this season, but the New Zealander combined judicious placement with some well timed hitting to score his first T20 half-century of the season. Madsen was less fluent but gave Broom good support before steering Kevin O’Brien to short third man, where Mark Cosgrove held the catch above his head.Broom was unfortunate when he attempted to swing Farhaan Behardien’s delivery into the leg side, only to edge the ball into his pad and on to his off-stump, and with wickets continuing to fall, it needed a hard-hitting 45 off 23 balls from Neesham to ensure the Foxes would be required to score at eight an over to win the match.Pettini and Cosgrove quickly made the target look straightforward. Pettini, who had the majority of the early strike, was first to his half-century, hitting nine fours in going to 50 off 32 balls. Cosgrove, once he started to get the strike, was simply brutal, huge maximums off Tom Milnes and Alex Hughes among the four sixes he hit in 1 26 ball 50 before giving Durston a simple caught and bowled.While Pettini continued to play sensibly, Leicestershire’s powerful South Africa international batsman Cameron Delport was able to pick up where Cosgrove left off, hitting two sixes, the last to win the match off Matt Critchley, as Leicestershire crossed the line with more than four overs to spare.

ScorecardMatt Parkinson in action for England U19 [file picture]•Getty Images

Three sessions of cricket that had begun amid the happy racket of young voices as Emirates Old Trafford threw open its gates for the county’s fourth Schools Open Day ended with the home members, some of their tones a trifle deeper, cheering a 19-year-old debutant leg-spinner. This was Matthew Parkinson, who marked his first spell as a county cricketer by dismissing Jonathan Trott and Varun Chopra during a 14-over spell either side of tea in which Lancashire’s bowlers took six wickets for 40 runs to seize control of the game.By the close, though, Warwickshire’s Tim Ambrose and Keith Barker had restored parity in what is already a fine and fluctuating match by adding an unbroken 108 for the seventh wicket to leave their county just 106 runs in arrears on first innings. Barker was particularly quick to seize on any loose stuff sent down by Lancashire’s three spinners and his unbeaten 57 has already included seven fours and a straight six, the latter struck off Arron Lilley’s bowling.It was only a pity that the schoolchildren were not still in the ground when Warwickshire’s top order disintegrated. Some of them might have been curious as to how young Parkinson was causing such havoc. One or two might have been lost to cricket for the rest of their lives. All of them surely would have taken pleasure in the way the tousle-haired young spinner sprinted off towards Stretford after Jonathan Trott’s firm on-drive had only edged a well-pitched leg spinner to Liam Livingstone at slip. Six overs later Parkinson was again making Imran Tahir’s celebrations look restrained when Varun Chopra, who had batted well for his 59 runs, gloved an attempted sweep to wicketkeeper Croft, who grabbed the ball and held on to it.”Matt Parkinson bowled really well,” said Dougie Brown, Warwickshire’s director of cricket. “He didn’t bowl any bad balls which is unusual for a young leg-spinner making his way in the game. Leg spin is a difficult art to master and he put a lot of pressure on us.”Then again, perhaps all the excitement of the afternoon would have been a little too much for the young spectators, many of whom had watched the morning’s cricket quite happily. For by the time Parkinson took his wickets, Kyle Jarvis had already got rid of both Andy Umeed and Ian Bell with successive deliveries, Umeed edging to Tom Smith at second slip, Bell nicking off to Livingstone at first. Jarvis has the wonderful ability to move the ball off the seam just enough to induce the fatal error and he has now taken 30 Championship wickets.The mayhem of the afternoon was deepened even further in the middle of Parkinson’s first over when a loud buzzing from Old Trafford’s PA system caused the players to take an early tea. There was really little doubt that the noise was disturbing, as much because of its intermittence as its volume, but the silencing of the electrics did nothing to halt Warwickshire’s slide.Soon after the resumption Parkinson struck his two blows from the Statham End and in the next over Smith followed Jarvis’s example by taking wickets with successive deliveries. Sam Hain edged a catch to a diving Croft and Rikki Clarke was lbw to his first ball. Only a man in desperate search of an argument could have disputed Jeff Evans’s decision.Warwickshire’s collapse and recovery had followed a morning and early afternoon in which Lancashire took their overnight 196 for 4 to 308 all out, Croft making his first century of the season before he gave a leg side catch to Ambrose off Clarke. Three overs earlier, Karl Brown, having helped Croft add 143 runs for the seventh wicket, was lbw for the sixth time in nine innings this season, albeit that he had by then made a valuable 61. What should be more concerning for the abundantly talented Brown is that he has reached fifty 24 times in his career but has only gone on to make a century on two occasions. He has the conversion rate of a belligerent Quaker.None of this mattered too much to the young spectators at Old Trafford and it was right that it did not. It would be easy to talk about the noise the children made or the way they raced around in obedience to the fleeting priorities of the moment. What was more important was that they had a good time at the cricket and that they may come back.Lilley struck a couple of boundaries and both were cheered to the echo, something which does not happen that often in Delph and Dobcross, where Lilley plays his club cricket. If even one in fifty of the children who watched Lancashire and Warwickshire battle for supremacy on his second morning, were attracted by the four-day game and want to see more of it, Lancashire’s initiative will have been worth it.The cynicism of experience is easy and cheap. The innocence of childhood is precious and priceless. Wordsworth put it best.

ScorecardMichael Klinger was again Gloucestershire’s saviour•Clint Hughes/PA Photos

Michael Klinger led from the front as Gloucestershire clinched a nail-biting four-wicket NatWest T20 Blast win over Somerset with one ball to spare under the Bristol floodlights.The skipper hit 60 in a low-scoring contest to guide his side to 160 for six in front of a large partisan crowd. Roelof van der Merwe took three for 16 from four overs to ensure a close contest.After rain had delayed the start until 7.05pm, Somerset posted 158 for five, Chris Gayle top-scoring with 40. Benny Howell picked up two for 29, while Tom Smith and Kieran Noema-Barnett combined well in mid-innings to restrict the scoring rate.It didn’t look enough, but a see-saw contest ensued before Gareth Roderick hit the penultimate ball from Yasir Arafat for a boundary.The match began with the unusual sight of Gayle playing out a maiden from Matt Taylor. But soon the West Indian was giving an 11,000 crowd, the biggest ever for a domestic match at the ground, a taste of what they had come to see.Having taken nine balls to get off the mark, Gayle blasted 6 fours and two big sixes off Liam Norwell and Andrew Tye before skying Noema-Barnett to extra cover where Michael Klinger took an excellent catch in the seventh over.”It was a fantastic atmosphere and I want to thank all our supporters who turned out to make it such a memorable evening,” Klinger said later. “If Chris Gayle had hung around for a few more overs it might have been a different story. When he skied that ball into the lights and I got underneath it I was praying I didn’t drop it.”Thanks largely to Gayle, Somerset reached 55 by the end of the six-over powerplay. But from then on their innings lost momentum as Noema-Barnett and left-arm spinner Smith, who took a brilliant caught and bowled to dismiss the dangerous Peter Trego, stemmed the flow of boundaries.At the halfway stage the visitors were 83 for two. But Jim Allenby (27) fell to a catch at short fine leg, Mahela Jayawardene looked sadly out of touch in making 24 and Johann Myburgh quickly followed him back to the pavilion in the same Howell over.It took a late assault from Lewis Gregory (23 not out) and Roelof van der Merwe (18 not out) to get Somerset to a competitive score, which still looked below par.Gloucestershire’s reply got off to a disastrous start as Hamish Marshall pushed only half forward to the first ball and was bowled through the gate by Yasir Arafat.Klinger and Ian Cockbain took the score to 40 in the sixth over before the latter, on 23, carelessly pulled a short ball from Jamie Overton straight to Gregory at deep square.Chris Dent (22) helped Klinger add 63 before being bowled advancing to hit van der Merwe in the 13th over by which time Gloucestershire required only 56.Klinger went to his half-century off 36 balls, with 4 fours and a six, offering a reassuring presence throughout. Benny Howell fell cheaply to the excellent van der Merwe, who followed up by having Noema-Barnett caught at long-off in the same over.Somerset must have rued leaving out leg-spinner Max Waller as their quicker bowlers proved easier to hit. But they kept chipping away and finally got rid of Klinger, bowled by Gregory aiming a big hit after a change of ball.Gloucestershire required 30 off the last three overs, with four wickets in hand. Arafat and Gregory did their bit and 14 were still needed as Arafat’s first delivery of the final over was hit for a straight six by Tye.That changed everything and Gloucestershire edged home.

CPL 2025 got off to a low-scoring start in Basseterre, where St Kitts and Nevis Patriots rode on a stellar bowling performance led by Waqar Salamkheil to run out six-wicket victors over Antigua and Barbuda Falcons.After Jason Holder opted to bowl, Kyle Mayers, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naseem Shah left Falcons at 39 for 3 inside the fifth over. Salamkheil, the Afghanistan left-arm wristspinner, came on in the eighth over and was on target off his fourth ball, pitching just outside off stump and turning it back in to hit Fabian Allen’s stumps. He went on to spin out Shakib Al Hasan, Imad Wasim and Odean Smith to end with 4 for 22 from his four overs.Fortunately for Falcons, USA batter Karima Gore was in good nick, but with no other batter making a significant contribution, he had to pretty much go it alone. Gore’s 34-ball 61 included eight fours and two sixes, and Falcons would have wanted him to bat longer than he did after having walked out in the first over itself. As it happened, Farooqi returned to get rid of Gore in the 12th over, a slower delivery sliced high for Andre Fletcher, the wicketkeeper, to take a sharp running catch.All Patriots, the CPL 2021 winners, needed to score was 122, and though they got there quite comfortably, and never really looked in danger of not being able to, there was a little stutter in between thanks to Rahkeem Cornwall.Evin Lewis took off in a flash, scoring 25 in 13, before falling to Obed McCoy in the fourth over. Patriots made it out of the powerplay with just the loss of Lewis and 55 runs on the board, but in the seventh over, Cornwall sent back both Kyle Mayers and Rilee Rossouw. And suddenly, at 56 for 3, Patriots were looking just that little bit out of sorts.But Fletcher was playing a sedate knock, and in Alick Athanaze, Patriots found just the man for the job. Fletcher fell after scoring a 26-ball 19, to Salamkheil’s compatriot AM Ghazanfar at the end of the tenth over, but Patriots had reached 76 already by then. Athanaze, with an unbeaten 28-ball 37, and Holder, with 18 in 14 balls, finished the job from there with five overs in the bank.

Stumps Washington Sundar’s prize wicket-taking set India up for a 135-run pursuit on the final day of the third Test at Lord’s, but in a twist to an enthralling fourth day in which 14 wickets fell, they only have six wickets in hand.Brydon Carse removed Karun Nair and Shubman Gill cheaply for impressive figures of 2 for 11 from four overs and Ben Stokes bowled nightwatcher Akash Deep with the last ball of the day as three wickets fell in the last half-hour of play.Related

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• The day India's bowlers rose in unison

Washington’s 4 for 22 included the key names of Joe Root, Jamie Smith and Stokes before he claimed the last England wicket to fall, Shoaib Bashir, as the hosts took a lead of 192. After scores were level on first innings, that meant India needed to chase down 193 for a 2-1 lead in the series.Jofra Archer broke through in the second over of India’s pursuit when Yashasvi Jaiswal attempted to pull a shorter, wider ball and sent a top edge into the air above wicketkeeper Smith.But it wasn’t until 30 minutes before stumps that England were able to make inroads again, Nair flummoxed by Carse’s nip-backer and offering no shot as the ball struck the inside of his back knee. Gill, on 6, failed to overturn his lbw dismissal after he was hit on the knee roll by one in line with middle stump.When Akash Deep entered still needing to don his arm guard and gloves, Root revved up the crowd to protest at any time wasting, which had been Gill’s bugbear in a heated exchange with Zak Crawley at the end of day three.1:20

Manjrekar: Lord’s Test 70-30 in England’s favour

The issue went from prickly to farcical to downright funny when Carse rapped Akash Deep’s pads. He survived England’s review on umpire’s call with impact on the top of leg stump and India sent the physio out to apply some strapping to the batter’s leg, chewing up more time.England managed to squeeze in another over, though, and Stokes struck with the fourth ball, flattening Akash Deep’s off stump.India’s bowlers started the day with great intent. Jasprit Bumrah caused Crawley all sorts of discomfort without being rewarded and Mohammed Siraj produced a miserly seven-over opening spell yielding two wickets.1:28

Washington: One of my best days with the ball

Ben Duckett was the first to go pulling to Bumrah at mid-on amid an impassioned send-off from Siraj that ensured the tensions of the previous evening remained high.Siraj then pinned Ollie Pope lbw, although it took an India review to confirm his dismissal for just 4 off 17 balls. Pope’s average in the second innings languishes at a mere 19.64 now.Nitish Kumar Reddy relieved Bumrah midway through the morning session and removed Crawley for the second time in the match, this time a loose drive outside off stump gathered by Jaiswal at gully.1:48

Manjrekar: Gill looked tentative

Harry Brook mounted a counterattack, ramping Akash Deep for back-to-back fours before launching him down the ground for six but it was short-lived. He fell for a 19-ball 23 when, attempting to sweep a full, straight one, Akash Deep flattened his middle stump in the perfect riposte.Enter Washington as India turned to spin after lunch and he rattled Root’s middle stump with one that slid under the attempted sweep and ended his fifth-wicket stand with Stokes at 67. Root’s 40 became England’s highest of the innings and his dismissal ended a run of four scores of fifty or above at Lord’s (including three centuries on the trot).Four overs later, Washington bowled Smith for just 8 with an excellent quicker ball that didn’t turn in the slightest but skidded past the outside edge and onto off stump.2:16

Trescothick: It’s going to be an amazing final day

At that point, England were 164 for 6 and they were subsequently becalmed as Stokes and Chris Woakes looked to avoid further damage.But Stokes added just six more runs after tea before Washington struck again, beating the slog sweep and clattering middle stump to send him on his way for 33.Bumrah was finally rewarded with the wickets of Carse and Woakes, the former to a stunning, pinpoint-accurate yorker on leg stump and the latter to one that expertly clipped the leg-side bail.Bashir’s was the 12th bowled dismissal by India for the match when Washington beat his defences to close out the innings, completing an England collapse in which they lost their last four wickets for 11 runs, and their last six for 38. Washington’s 4 for 22 is the best by an India spinner at Lord’s since 1974.