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AB de Villiers, South Africa’s one-day captain, believes there has never been as much belief in the squad as they currently have in the midst of an 11-match ODI winning streak.A win in Hamilton on Sunday will equal South Africa’s best run in ODI cricket – matching the 12 wins in a row they achieved in 2005 – and eyes are already firmly fixed on the Champions Trophy in June. Global tournaments come with a huge weight of history for South Africa, most of it bad, but de Villiers’ faith in his squad is absolute.”The belief in the squad is as high as I’ve ever experienced it,” he said. “There’s a great respect among the players and a sense of direction. It’s as simple as that. We know it can change in a matter of minutes, so there’s a deep respect for the game and the fact you can go into a dip at any time, but I really believe what we have in this team will carry us through good and bad times.”It’s definitely a build-up towards the Champions Trophy, it’s a big goal of ours to go there and win that tournament, we know there’s a long way to go but this is a great stepping stone,” he added. “The conditions are pretty similar – the ball moves around a bit when it’s new and you have to extend your partnerships when you get in, so it’s quite similar to the UK.”

Pretorius available for SA

Dwaine Pretorius, the allrounder, will be available for the second ODI in Christchurch after delaying his departure for the tour to attend the birth of his child.
Pretorius, 27, made his ODI debut against Ireland last year and recently claimed five wickets in two matches against Sri Lanka.
Dane Paterson was included for the start of the tour as cover in Pretorius’ absence and played the T20 in Auckland when Kagiso Rabada was rested.

South Africa had warned themselves to be on their guard against a slow start to their tour and de Villiers was delighted with the intensity they showed in the T20 at Eden Park. He admitted a one-off match was tough to get motivated for, but that made the convincing nature of the 78-run victory even more pleasing ahead of the main portions of the tour.”It’s difficult to get yourself up for a one-game series. We chatted about that and saw it as a red flag – even though it’s not that significant, you are still representing your country,” he said. “You are away from home and you want to start a tour off on the right note. We are hoping that momentum will take us into the ODI series. I thought we played an outstanding game of cricket. It was vital for us to start well, it doesn’t guarantee us any success in the ODIs but it was a good start.”A couple of hours after completing their victory, at close to midnight, with only the cleaners, security and night owls of the media left at the ground, the full South African squad strode out to the middle of the Eden Park pitch and produced a loud rendition of their team song. De Villiers admitted it felt “a bit weird” after a one-off match but said it was important to maintain traditions.”We were hoping no one would be there,” he said with a hint of a smile. “We normally go out quite late, but it’s just a tradition after every series win. You have to appreciate the good times.”He insisted, though, that there was no extra feeling because of what had happened the last time South Africa played at Eden Park in the World Cup semi-final.”It will never disappear that we lost the semi-final, but all you can focus on is the now. That game has been played about a 1000 times on TV over the last few days, so I’ve been reliving those emotions quite a bit, but it’s all good memories really. We’ve got through all the pain and heartache. When I’ve watched the game over the last few days I just saw good things.”And with that, the next global tournament draws ever nearer.

Australia captain Steven Smith reached a career-high 939 points to extend his lead at the top of the ICC Rankings for Test Batsmen after the first Test between India and Australia. His new tally of 939 rating points puts him at sixth in the all-time list, behind Don Bradman (961), Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting (both 942) and Peter May (941). Smith surpassed Garry Sobers, Viv Richards and Kumar Sangakkara, who all had career-high ranking points of 938.Smith, who struck crucial knocks of 27 and 109 in the Pune Test, has a 66-point lead over second-placed Virat Kohli and leads third-placed Joe Root by 91.A strong outing for Josh Hazlewood – who went up to 860 points – moved him to joint-second in the rankings for Test bowlers with Ravindra Jadeja. R Ashwin remained at the top with 878 rating points.Matt Renshaw’s gutsy knocks of 68 and 31 saw him move by 18 places to 34, his career-best ranking, while Steve O’Keefe’s career-best performance of 12 for 70 in the Pune Test saw him climb to a career-high ranking of 29.Mitchell Starc, who struck a crucial first-innings half-century and took two wickets in Pune, moved three spots up to fourth in the rankings for Test allrounders, where Ashwin leads the pack as well.

Leicestershire have emerged from a troubled financial period to announce a net profit for the second year in a row. They returned a net profit of £8,813 for the year ended September 30, 2016, following another small profit of £4,315 the previous year. This follows cumulative losses of more than £500,000 in the previous three years.Total income reached a record £4.2m in 2016, with commercial revenue streams increasing overall by 35% to £1.465m – almost double the commercial return three years ago.Leicestershire hosted a profitable Elton John concert and an exclusive evening with Lord Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England. In addition, a five-year Ground Naming Rights partnership was announced with Fischer Future Heat and permanent floodlights were installed as part of a £2.3m investment.Wasim Khan, the chief executive, said: “The significant improvement in the financial performance of the club has been a real collective effort by everyone. This progressive trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.”Leicestershire’s results once again suggest that the smaller non-Test match grounds are often in better financial health than counties who must finance ambitious ground improvements at international venues.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBrad Hogg’s double-wicket over extinguished the Sydney Thunder’s chances of a comeback•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

After losing all their home games last season, Melbourne Renegades began the 2016-17 Big Bash League with a clinical victory at Docklands stadium, defending 179 with ease to leave Sydney Thunder’s title defence in deep trouble after two heavy losses in three nights.Finch formidable, and Hogg’s tongue wags againThe Renegades’ foundation was laid by captain Aaron Finch, who clubbed 63 off 37 balls at the top of the order. His knock was defined by clean hitting, on a ground where he averages 56 in T20s, and it proved to be the leading contribution on the night, highlighting the size of the hole he will leave in the side when national duty calls in January.No shot was better than Finch’s lofted strike off Clint McKay, described by Ricky Ponting as “absolutely magnificent” on commentary. Later, he muscled Fawad Ahmed for consecutive sixes over extra cover. He holed out off the next ball, but his job was done.For pure enjoyment, there was no better moment than Brad Hogg’s double-wicket over that extinguished any realistic chance of a Thunder comeback. The ever-smiling left-arm wristspinner was playing in his first game for the Renegades after crossing over from Perth Scorchers. Across four tidy overs, he showed that at even at 45, he remains an estimable competitor.Power on, power offFinch’s night got better when a shrewd move to open the bowling with part-time offspinner Tom Cooper paid off immediately as Kurtis Patterson sliced the first ball of the Thunder’s chase to backward point.Then, Chris Tremain reinforced why he entered this competition as a man tipped for big things by cramping up Eoin Morgan, who spooned a catch to square leg. By the end of the Powerplay, Thunder had put up just 33, which was 15 less than the Renegades’ score at the same point. With the required rate already in double-figures, the experienced trio of Hogg, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo sent down six overs and conceded just one boundary. Game over.Master trumps apprenticeThe notoriously slow and low Docklands surface encouraged Thunder to go in with three spinners, two of whom got their side back after a profligate start. Fawad Ahmed and Chris Green bowled their first spells in tandem and allowed only 25 runs in four overs. But they were let down by the third cog – Arjun Nair. On debut, his only over contained a slew of half trackers and was taken for 14. In a conversation with ESPNcricinfo earlier this year, Nair mentioned that he learned to bowl, in part, from watching Sunil Narine on YouTube. He will have learnt a bit more tonight after being dismissed by him having faced only three balls. At 18 years though, Nair has time on his side to do justice to his talent.Cummins gives Thunder reason to believeThunder won’t have long to lick their wounds, with two more fixtures over the next week. While they can’t bring back the top four that had such a hand in last year’s title win – Shane Watson, however, will be back soon from injury – they can take heart from Pat Cummins’ performance across disciplines so far. He bowled with serious pace, hitting 150kph in his first spell, to finish as the most frugal of the Thunder bowlers. In the field, he was all aggression. His two dives while minding the deep midwicket boundary may have left hearts in mouths given his injury history, but they underlined his athleticism.Later, with the bat, Cummins showed his big-hitting antics from the tournament opener were no fluke. His 37 off 23 balls, which included four sixes in four overs, gave the 23,015 people in attendance something to remember.As for the Renegades, they will be back at the Docklands on December 29 when they face Scorchers, before their crosstown blockbuster against the Stars at the MCG on New Year’s Day. If they can get through those fixtures unscathed, it may really be time to believe the hype.

Glenn Maxwell insists he is comfortable with Victoria after admitting to a “stuff-up” in trying to move to New South Wales outside the window allowed for such moves.As revealed by ESPNcricinfo, Maxwell was held to the terms of his Cricket Australia contract by Victoria, who forbade him from moving states after he came up the idea during the recent tour of Sri Lanka. NSW were open to the offer, but backed away as soon as it became clear the rules were not going to be stretched for Maxwell.

Forrest replaces Renshaw

Batsman Peter Forrest has been drafted in to Queensland’s Matador Cup squad for Matt Renshaw, who injured his right knee during the side’s one-run D/L win against Tasmania on Monday.
Forrest has not played for Queensland since last year’s Matador Cup, but recently produced scores of 64, 58* and 102* for University of Queensland in the Premier Cricket competition. Renshaw can return to Queensland’s squad when he is fit under the tournament’s playing conditions.

“I was looking for a change of scenery and a fresh start. New South Wales were kind enough to offer that to me. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t quite right,” Maxwell told . “That was probably a stuff-up on our behalf – me, my management and Cricket Australia. They were happy for me to move, it was a good option, unfortunately it was just bad timing.”I think with cricket the way it is these days, people move all the time. The guys have been absolutely fine. No one’s really questioned it. They understood my reasoning and we just move on and do it like adults, and carry on the way we were preparing. The guys have been really good. No one’s really mentioned it, to be truthful.”I’ve slipped straight back in. Not that I really went anywhere. Everyone understood why I wanted to leave. Just give myself a challenge away from the comforts of home and try a fresh start somewhere else.”Maxwell also flagged his desire to bat higher in the order, believing this would help him add the consistency to his game that the national selectors were seeking when they dropped him from the ODI squad earlier this year. The incoming Bushrangers coach Andrew McDonald will undoubtedly be mindful of this.”One-day cricket, when you’re batting up the top of the order, it’s a lot easier to be consistent,” Maxwell said. “Having batted a lot at five and six the last few years, coming in at different situations, it’s hard to really judge consistency in those areas. So if I can bat a bit higher and really show that I can bat a long period of time, I can have a greater effect on games.”Victoria’s first match of the Matador Cup is against South Australia at the WACA Ground on Wednesday.

Bangladesh 248 and 253 for 8 (Sabbir 59*, Taijul 11*) need another 33 runs to beat England 293 and 240 (Stokes 85, Bairstow 47, Shakib 5-85)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBangladesh’s hopes of securing their greatest Test victory were in the hands of their debutant batsman, Sabbir Rahman, and his final two tail-end partners, after an enthralling fourth day at Chittagong finished with three of the four results possible, and history on the cards for Test cricket’s youngest nation.The situation at stumps, after a sensational final session played out in front of a fervent, expectant and ever-growing crowd, was simple. Bangladesh, chasing 286 for victory, were 33 runs short with two wickets remaining and Sabbir standing tall on 59 not out from 93 balls – a supremely gutsy performance from a man who utilised his experience in ODI and T20 cricket to break down the chase into calm and manageable chunks.Alongside him at the close was the redoubtable figure of Taijul Islam, whom Sabbir trusted with the strike as he accepted every single on offer from a deep-set field, and who subverted all conventional tactics in the final over of the day’s play by swiping Gareth Batty for two ambitious lofted strokes down the ground, to reach the close unbeaten on 11 in a ninth-wicket stand of 15.England, by that stage, had earned the right to be considered favourites once again, having cracked the crucial partnership of the innings – Sabbir’s 87-run stand for the sixth wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim – before dispatching two more of Bangladesh’s debutants, Mehedi Hasan and Kamrul Islam Rabbi, with minimum fuss.But, with a notable lack of faith in his trio of spinners (notwithstanding a hard-earned three-wicket haul for Batty) Alastair Cook telegraphed his team’s anxiety throughout a gripping final session. The new ball, due in two overs’ time and such a key weapon throughout this contest, may well be ignored if Ben Stokes and his fellow seamers can locate the sort of reverse swing that derailed Bangladesh’s first innings when play resumes on the final morning.It was a far cry from England’s ambition at the very top of the innings. After being bowled out for 240 in the first 20 minutes of the day, England had made their intentions plain from the outset by handing the new ball to two spinners, Batty and Moeen, for the first time since the Lord’s Test against South Africa in 2008.Both men bowled some unplayable deliveries, but Bangladesh’s attitude was established in a skilful and aggressive 43 from Imrul Kayes, who found a means to counterattack in style, sweeping with intent to disrupt their lengths and pick off his boundaries behind square, while playing with confidence off the back foot in between whiles.Tapping into their recent success in one-day run-chases, Bangladesh were happy to live dangerously in the opening overs – Tamim in particular twice came close to holing out – but their positive mindset sowed some early seeds of doubt in Cook’s mind, as he shed a few close catchers to patrol his boundaries. Nevertheless, England’s patient approach slowly reaped its rewards, and after removing Tamim and Kayes before lunch – the latter caught on the sweep as he attacked Adil Rashid out of the rough – Batty returned with a spring in his step and an extra zip through his action, to grab two lbws in eight balls and put England firmly in command at 108 for 4.Bangladesh’s middle-order, however, contains two of their toughest nuts in Mushfiqur and Shakib Al Hasan, and for the best part of an hour, the pair pushed back against the tide. Mushfiqur produced yet another unflustered display of patience, skill and experience – he has, after all, been playing Test cricket for longer even than Cook, England’s newly crowned most-capped cricketer – while Shakib seemed eager to atone for his wasteful dismissal in the first innings.Bangladesh’s debutant No. 7 Sabbir Rahman celebrates his half-century•AFP

A pair of fizzing boundaries off Rashid lifted the spirits of the crowd – a slammed drive through mid-off and a vast bottom-handed swipe over long-on for six – but, on 24, he received the best ball of the innings to date, a perfect ripping offbreak from Moeen that he couldn’t help but nick to the keeper.Enter Sabbir, with the chase in the balance at 140 for 5. His performance featured two distinct tempos – firstly, when he arrived at the crease in the 41st over, Sabbir’s one-day instincts were to go for his shots, and with two big sixes and a four in his first 25 runs before tea, he gave a nervous crowd plenty reasons to cheer as their numbers and belief mounted with every stroke.After tea, however, he was sufficiently confident to retreat back into his shell without losing any of his intent. England resumed the final session with 107 runs to defend and, with the ball exactly 50 overs old, Cook’s instinct was to revert to the familiarity of his seamers – Stokes from one end, Chris Woakes from the other – with Rashid’s legspin thrown into the equation after half an hour of attrition in a bid to buy a breakthrough.Stuart Broad, who had bowled a total of four overs in the first two sessions, joined the fray with a tight angled line into the off stump. But with the reverse-swing of the first innings proving hard to replicate, Mushfiqur and Sabbir had no reason to rush their approach. With caution on the front foot and an eye for the occasional flick off the pads, the pair ground down the requirement on a ball-by-ball basis, embracing the need to take the match into the fifth day if required, in spite of the mounting excitement in the stands.On 34, Sabbir had the moment of good fortune that most players need in such tense scenarios, when Jonny Bairstow – whose glovework had been impressive for much of the match – failed to gather a thin leg-side tickle as Broad strayed onto the pads. It was a tough opportunity, but the sort that needed to be taken, and England’s frustrations mounted after the drinks break when Broad’s second over of the restart was taken for two boundaries, Bangladesh’s first for 19 overs. A short ball was gleefully pounded in front of square by Mushfiqur, before Broad fizzed a yorker out of the footholes and away for four byes.Cook had no option but to revert back to his spinners, and the situation looked ominous when Batty’s second delivery was paddle-swept through fine leg for four by Sabbir. But, before the over was out, Batty had made the critical breakthrough, bursting a leaping offbreak through the top of the pitch and into Mushfiqur’s glove, for Ballance to snaffle at leg slip.The breakthrough had come with 59 runs still required, but if Sabbir had any doubts about the task now in his hands alone, he banished them in style, drilling Batty out of the rough through long-off to bring up his maiden half-century from 76 balls.But Sabbir couldn’t bat at both ends at once, and two of his fellow debutants came and went with minimal resistance. Mehedi was pinned on the crease by a nipbacker from Broad for 1, before Rabbi endured a three-ball stay that was as brief as it was eventful – he might have been run out and bowled in the space of two deliveries, before Broad delivered him a pair on debut courtesy of another important grab from Ballance at short leg.With the light fading and 48 runs the requirement, Sabbir declined the temptation to farm the strike and regularly helped himself to a single off the first ball to expose his partner, Taijul. The tactic kept England frustrated to the close, with Broad completing a valiant nine-over spell that went for 12 runs in total, although Taijul was lucky to survive on 3 when a thick edge from Batty fizzed through the cordon at a catchable height. Cook’s refusal to bowl spin from both ends spoke volumes as the umpires called off the chase in the twilight.Win, lose or tie, this has been a contest to savour, on a surface that deserves huge praise for offering a distinctly subcontinental challenge without descending into a puff-of-dust farce. And whatever the outcome, Bangladesh have played their part and more in the most compelling Test match in this country since Australia’s terrific scare at Fatullah in 2006. On Monday, within an hour of the resumption, Sabbir could have made himself a national hero.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has said the team playing an outdated style of ODI cricket has endangered their chances of direct qualification to the 2019 World Cup. The top seven countries and the host are automatically chosen to feature in the showpiece event every four years, but Pakistan are ranked No. 9 and the cut-off date is a year away. Arthur has advised the players and the PCB that to move up the ladder they need to play “high risk, high octane” cricket and added he won’t shy away from dropping big names who do not deliver.”With the brand of cricket they are playing, definitely,” Arthur said when asked if Pakistan were lagging behind in 50-over cricket. “We can’t play that brand of cricket anymore. We have got to be brave. You have got to take the game on.”There are only 14 ODIs scheduled before the September 30, 2017 deadline. If Pakistan do not improve their ranking, they would have to compete in a qualifying tournament in April 2018. Ten teams would go in. Only two teams would go through.”I have to be realistic,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo in a wide-ranging interview in Manchester. “We haven’t got the time, but we have started the journey now. We will have to start again. I have got a really good feel for personnel and the areas we need to improve on. I have looked at people we can work with, people we can bring in and I am comfortable we will be okay. We have got the way to go and it is a journey.”If we keep picking the same [players] we are going to get the same [results]. And we will be sitting at No. 9 in the world. We have nothing to lose. We just have to invest in some players. I know for a fact that from the first ODI to the fifth [in England] we changed the whole brand and style of cricket.” Although Pakistan lost that series 1-4, they rounded off the tour with a couple of morale-boosting wins, including a nine-wicket rout in the only T20 in Manchester.Arthur admitted his players have a history of being insecure about their places, which in turn impacted their performance on the field. He wanted that to change immediately and drastically. “I want us to play an attacking brand of cricket, a brand that is good to watch, a brand that inspires the players to play and gives you so much more gratification from your supporters. It must be a brand that challenges, it must be a brand that stimulates, but it must be a brand that is encapsulated by fun.”Arthur was introduced to the cricket culture in the country during his stint as coach of the Karachi Kings at the Pakistan Super League in 2015. Three months after the season ended, he was named head coach of the national side. Among the first things he did in that capacity was to tell the players he would not tolerate any reluctance in meeting the proper fitness standards.”We have got a responsibility to the people of Pakistan and I have got the massive responsibility to the PCB to get it right,” Arthur said. “And I certainly won’t be compromising on any of that. And the players know that: I have spoken to them directly. You arrive like that again [unfit], you won’t play.”He pointed to the examples set by Misbah-ul-Haq, 42, and Younis Khan, 38, the oldest members of the Test squad and the “fittest players in Pakistan cricket,” to make the squad understand what it took to excel in the international arena.”There is no coincidence that that’s why they are the best performers over the last year,” Arthur said. “They drive themselves. They take responsibility for their fitness. Shoaib Malik, in the one-day squad, in his mid-30s, fantastic, fitness-wise. He is lean, he is mean. I want the young guys to do that. That is true professionalism. I don’t think that has been driven in the youngsters properly.”In England, Arthur cut a particularly frustrated figure at the press conference while answering a question about Mohammad Irfan, who was flown in as a replacement player and injured himself after bowling only five overs in the Headingley ODI.”Mohammad Irfan comes out here and he is clearly not fit enough to play one-day cricket. If there were individual-player plans and definite markers on where he should have been, we would have known. We didn’t know.”Arthur also made sure to have a one-on-one chat with the 34-year-old fast bowler to make sure there were no misunderstandings. “I had him in my room after the Cardiff ODI. I told him, ‘I can’t select you for the next game [because] I am not sure you can get through ten overs. I can’t select you for the T20 because I am not sure you can get through even four overs. You started cramping in your fourth over the other night, so how can we take the risk and play you?’ But now Mohammad Irfan has gone back to Pakistan with a training programme that is custom-made for him, which gives him the best possible opportunity to come back and play for Pakistan.”There is nothing personal, but enough is enough. We have to set some real standards to make people understand that we are pretty serious about players arriving unfit. Every player who arrived on this ODI and T20 tour has been below standard, which is not a good place to be.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Evin Lewis, replacing an injured Chris Gayle, made his maiden T20I ton in just his second game•BCCI

A hurriedly arranged exercise to take a glimpse into the future of cricket economy provided a giddying look into the future of Twenty20 cricket on the field. This was a future of fearless, relentless, calculated, almost unhurried hitting taken to the next level as West Indies first amassed their personal best of 245 only for India to come within two runs of mounting the highest successful T20I chase almost without breaking a sweat.Evin Lewis and KL Rahul, replacing regular openers Chris Gayle and Shikhar Dhawan, smashed hundreds, but in this future bowlers did deal the consequential blows. India bowled superb wide yorkers to concede just 40 in the last four and 64 in the last seven, but the wily Dwayne Bravo outfoxed MS Dhoni and the centurion Rahul by defending seven runs in the last over. India needed two off the last ball, but Bravo made Dhoni wait and wait before bowling a slower ball that was caught by Marlon Samuels at short third man.On a day that some batting records were broken and all sorts of others, and low-flying aircrafts, were under threat – Richard Levi’s fastest hundred off 45 balls thrice, most runs in an over, most runs in boundaries in a team innings, highest T20I score, highest successful T20I chase – the bowling was the story of the day. In particular the last over of the day.When Bravo began it, 483 runs had been scored in 39 overs. Thirty-two sixes and 35 fours had been hit on a flat deck surrounded by short boundaries. Johnson Charles had looted 79 off 33, playing only five scoring shots on the off side. Playing only his second T20I, replacing Gayle, Lewis had hit five sixes in a Stuart Binny over. Rohit Sharma looked like he could cream his way to another hundred when he scored 62 off 28. Andre Russell, the best T20 cricketer going around today, had just been mercilessly taken for 36 runs in his last two overs.Bravo had no business even hoping to save this one, especially when bowling to a man batting on a smooth hundred and the other renowned to be one of the best finishers in ODI cricket, Dhoni. In ran Bravo, a nine-run 18th over behind his back, hoping to not concede a boundary first ball, to “try to get into the over”. He had reason to just hope: 20 of the 39 previous overs had been taken for at least a boundary in the first two balls.Bravo did way better, though, bowling a bewitching slower ball, dipping on Dhoni – 40 off 21 at that time – drawing a big edge, but at short third man Marlon Samuels dropped what Ian Bishop called was the “sittest of sitters”. This was the second catch West Indies had dropped; Russell had reprieved Rahul when he was only 36. Rahul had gone on to play a chanceless innings, continuing to run hard despite having been hit on the toe twice.Back to the frustrated Bravo then. This one was full and outside off, Rahul smashed it into the off side, and now was the time to hope this went to a fielder. Straight to the sweeper-cover fielder it went. Six required off four now. Still a matter of hoping. Bravo’s next ball was on a length, but smartly he followed Dhoni, cramping him up, conceding just the leg-bye.If Bravo and Russell were the big boys West Indies went to with only 53 required off the last four overs, Bravo now went to the big boys of death bowling. No more mucking around. Bowl them yorkers. The first one was a low full toss, the original call was two as this went to long-on, but finally, at long last, Rahul had had enough up haring up and down with a badgered toe. Also if there had been a run-out – and there could only have been one at Rahul’s end – India would have had a new batsman facing up with four required off two balls.Instead we had the cool head of Dhoni. Against his trusted lieutenant for years at Chennai Super Kings. Bravo bowled the near perfect yorker, Dhoni dug it out powerfully, the ball bounced over Bravo’s head, who got a hand to it, slowing it down. Was this absorbing of the blow that cost West Indies the second run here? Would this have been a single had Bravo not intercepted or would it have beaten long-off to end the game right there? We won’t know.Now time stood still. Dhoni has often destroyed many an inexperienced bowler by bringing the contest to a one-on-one from the 11-on-1 that it is for major durations of the match. The hunter had become the hunted now. Bravo had begun the over with nothing to lose, and now he had left Dhoni in the spotlight. And he left Dhoni on a slow burn. About five minutes went by before he bowled the next ball, but it seemed like an eternity. First a man from the off side was moved to midwicket inside the circle to block that Dhoni bunt into the leg side for a couple. Then once the field was set, once Dhoni was ready to face, Bravo walked back all the way to long-on for another conference with Kieron Pollard and new captain Carlos Brathwaite.Dhoni had met an equal at mindgames. He had only recently outfoxed Bangladesh when they needed two off the last ball. He was now being given enough time and more whether to go for a boundary or the safe route of getting bat on ball for a single to tie and then see if they could get the bonus second? Bravo, and those who know Dhoni, knew the answer. “Knowing MS,” Bravo said in a flash interview, “I knew he was going to take the safer route.”Bravo said he wasn’t always sure of bowling the slower ball, but once he saw Dhoni move towards him a little, he pulled out that slower dipping offcutter again. Destiny’s child Samuels, twice Man of the Match in World T20 final wins, got another chance as Dhoni edged while trying to push this into the off side for the safer route. Samuels caught it this time. Bravo had taken a stunning catch earlier to get rid of Ajinkya Rahane and had taken the crucial wicket of Virat Kohli without pulling out his Champion Dance, but turns out he had saved it for something special: this.

ScorecardColin Ingram’s power kept Glamorgan’s chase on course•Getty Images

Colin Ingram blasted 64 off 30 balls as Glamorgan continued their impressive start to the NatWest T20 Blast with a six-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Bristol.The experienced South African hammered five sixes and four fours as his side comfortably chased down a target of 169 with seven balls to spare.After rain delayed the start until 7pm, Gloucestershire posted 168 for 8, Ian Cockbain and Kieran Noema-Barnett both scoring 37.Dale Steyn was the pick of the Glamorgan bowlers with 2 for 21 from his four overs, while Graham Wagg claimed 2 for 28.It didn’t look enough on a good pitch with a fast outfield. Ingram was well supported by Anuerin Donald as Glamorgan made it three wins from four group games.Gloucestershire’s innings got off to a poor start as they lost their two best T20 batsmen Michael Klinger and Hamish Marshall in less than three overs.Klinger had made only five when loosely driving a catch to extra cover off Timm van der Gugten and it was 11 for 2 when Marshall, on 3, played an equally poor shot to be be caught at mid-off, Steyn the successful bowler.It was 30 for 3 when Chris Dent lofted Wagg to long-on where van der Gugten took a good catch in the final Powerplay over.Cockbain launched a counter-attack, hitting two sixes off Meschede before the bowler took revenge by having him caught behind. By that time Benny Howell had gone too and at 79 for 5, the hosts were in a hole.Noema-Barnett played a powerful cameo, hitting sixes off Dean Cosker and van der Gugten in making his runs off 22 balls and Jack Taylor steered Gloucestershire towards a respectable total, helped by an enormous scooped six by Gareth Roderick off Steyn.Andrew Tye’s two sixes in the final over gave the home side hope, but proved in vain.Jacques Rudolph and David Lloyd gave the visitors a solid start with a stand of 29 before Tye struck with the last ball of his first over, the fifth of the innings, Lloyd getting a thick edge off a quicker ball to Liam Norwell at third man.Ingram picked up two sixes over deep backward square in the same Norwell over as Glamorgan moved to 45 for one at the end of the powerplay.The next over from Howell saw Rudolph bowled for 16. But Ingram pulled a Noema-Barnett full-toss for his third six and at the halfway stage in their innings Glamorgan were well placed at 86 for 2.Tye, who had bowled his first two overs for ten runs, was ordered out of the Gloucestershire attack after being no-balled twice for high full-tosses in the 15th over.It was a blow the hosts could not afford. Ingram had reached a 24-ball half-century and by the time he fell to Chris Dent, who had replaced Tye, after hitting the left-arm spinner’s first two balls for six, only 29 were needed from 32 balls.Chris Cooke fell for 16, but Donald was still there at the end, having hit four fours and a six in his 39-ball innings.

ScorecardAndre Russell was in uninhibited mood as he returned to Worcester•Getty Images

The back of Andre Russell’s Nottinghamshire shirt announced him as Dre Rus, the Jamaican rapper, but it was in his cricketing, not his musical guise that he made an impact that could transform Nottinghamshire’s season.What hip hop there was against Worcestershire came in the form of a limp because of a mild leg strain, but his destructive hitting remained unaffected as his 41 from 25 balls, in a sixth-wicket stand of 64 with Dan Christian, transformed a tricky Nottinghamshire chase into a four-wicket win with seven balls to spare.At both Sydney Thunder and with the West Indies in World T20 in recent months, Russell has emerged victorious. Nottinghamshire will hope his brief, four-game stay also rubs off, although they will soon have to prosper without him: he has only one more match before heading to the Caribbean Premier League. For the first two, he has just watched it rain, and has spent his time swimming and staying in the warm.Nottinghamshire were desperate for a change of fortune in a season that had brought only one win and two abandonments from their first five games. To overcome an impressive Worcestershire side, and prevent them from returning to the top of North Group in the process, was an indication of better times ahead, second-bottom turned into fourth in the space of a few mighty blows.A grabby pitch after another wet week meant boundary hitting was a challenging task, but Russell has experience of this ground in 2013 and he produced two of the biggest sixes seen at New Road in recent years, one flying close to the hotel at long-on (nearly a collector’s item of a brutal blow clearing a brutalist building) and another when he sprang from an even lower crouch than normal and jack-in-the-boxed Joe Leach over the new pavilion behind square and across the car park towards the adjacent cricket ground.”Strength man, strength,” was how he explained it. When he struck the sixes, they played his songs and, on one occasion, he did a little dance, his sport and his music coming together in satisfying fashion. There was a third six with the battle won, off Moeen Ali, which threatened a burger van. He has come a long way since he first came to Worcestershire’s attention while playing for Barnard Green CC down the road in the Malvern Hills.”I haven’t played any cricket for the past four weeks,” Russell said. “My body is used to ‘keep going, keep going’. Coming here and playing tonight, it was a bit tough but I’m happy to be back on the park.”Christian possesses prodigious strength, too, and he was a redoubtable ally in making an unbeaten 53 from 39 balls. At 95 for 5 from 11.2 overs, requiring 165, Nottinghamshire had just lost two wickets in two balls to the leg-spin of Brett D’Oliveira, both of them bowled, Samit Patel charging and missing a googly by a distance, Greg Smith virtually transfixed.Nottinghamshire’s opening pair, Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels, also carried obvious danger. They have been in potent form in 50-overs cricket – Lumb making back-to-back hundreds in the Royal London Cup as Nottinghamshire passed 400 on each occasion, including a record run glut against Northamptonshire.Joe Clarke’s right-handed catch above his head at extra cover silenced Lumb as he tried to drill Leach overt the off side, was just that. Wessels was down to Moeen, who had him caught at long on for 36.By then, Alex Hales had departed, too. England players rarely appear in county T20 and when they do they are often ill prepared for the task. Hales was an example of that, having had one white-ball net all season in a summer where his emphasis has been to devise a successful batting approach for Test cricket, a task satisfactorily addressed. He mullered Ed Barnard for one boundary, but fell for 4 in 6 balls when he mistimed Barnard to mid on.Trevor Bayliss has received general approval since his appointment as England coach, credited with being a key influence in their more confident approach, but his lack of time watching county cricket has not gone unnoticed. His presence at New Road was therefore welcome, as he looked on in dark glasses, as if in disguise, protected against this infernal June by a heavy coat and England cap.Young fans enjoy T20 at Worcester•Getty Images

Worcestershire prefer chasing, but they settled to well enough to first strike, taking 54 from the powerplay, without loss. Moeen’s presence was a help, as one pull through mid-on against a 90mph Russell short ball testified, and Tom Kohler-Cadmore did not suffer from the comparison.Since he began the T20 season with a fast hundred against Durham, Kohler-Cadmore has carried threat at the top of the order and it was evident again in his 30 from 20 balls before Steven Mullaney’s first ball – the first after the powerplay – struck his off stump as he tried to run a straight ball to third man.On such a surface, Mullaney slow-medium cutters had an immediate effect. When it comes to being effective and unsung in T20 cricket, he ticks both boxes and Moeen perished trying to hit him down the ground. Nobody would have been more relieved about that than Patel, whose first over had just gone for 14 with Moeen giving the impression he could imagine nothing more agreeable.From that point, 75.2 in 8.3 overs, it was a struggle for Worcestershire. Nottinghamshire cranked up the bowling variations in the second half of the innings – Russell deceiving Ross Whiteley’s slog with a slower one – and Worcestershire ground to a halt. It took Clarke’s maiden T20 fifty to rouse them as 43 came off the last four overs.It was a hard-working innings from a talented young batsman learning with every over, his drives stylish, his attempts at invention – notably the scoop shot – not always coming off. On many days, his 69 from 48 balls might have secured victory, only for Russell’s song and dance to win the day.