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Gurinder Sandhu began the 2012-13 season with a state rookie contract for the first time and modest goals in mind. By the end of the summer he had represented Australia A and the Prime Minister’s XI, played all three formats domestically, and won the Steve Waugh Medal as the best New South Wales player of the domestic campaign. That would be enough to satisfy anyone in their debut season.But there is one final honour heading Sandhu’s way: he has been voted the Australian Cricketers’ Association Player of the Month for March. It has been an incredibly rapid rise for Sandhu, a 19-year-old fast bowler who first emerged in the BBL in December while playing for the Sydney Thunder. Last year he was part of Australia’s Under-19 World Cup team; over the coming year a call-up to the senior side is not out of the realms of possibility.”At the start of the season I would have been happy just playing a couple of Ryobi Cup games,” Sandhu told ESPNcricinfo. “I played four of them and then a couple of Shield games at the end of the season and that topped it off even better. The Australia A games came out of nowhere, a bit like the Prime Minister’s XI game. I just ran with it all and tried to do my thing.”And Sandhu’s thing is to take wickets. In six one-day games – including two for Australia A against the England Lions – he has collected 18 wickets at 14.22 and in his two Sheffield Shield appearances he has managed 14 victims at 11.85. At 194 centimetres, Sandhu uses his height to gain bounce and he has shown that he can swing the ball both ways.”I like to keep the batsman guessing,” he said. But Sandhu knows there is plenty of room for improvement. He and another young New South Wales fast bowler, Chris Tremain, recently travelled to Perth for some sessions with Dennis Lillee and Sandhu said Lillee had helped him with some technical issues, including a tweak to the way he positions his front arm.Of course, Sandhu is of a generation that has only heard of Lillee’s exploits rather than witnessing them first hand. The men he wants to emulate are much more modern. Although he hopes to bowl in a similar style to Glenn McGrath, hitting a consistent spot and nibbling the ball around a fraction, Sandhu also sees Andrew Flintoff as another role model.”He’s a pretty big guy as well and I’m trying to work on my batting to become a bowling allrounder,” Sandhu said. “Maybe one day.”An innings of 45 against South Australia in his second Shield match showed that there is some batting potential there, although he is yet to score a half-century in first-grade cricket for Fairfield-Liverpool in Sydney. He is not the only Sandhu to have played at the top level for that club: his younger brother Harmon Sandhu made his first-grade debut this summer.”He filled in for me when I played the couple of Shield games,” Sandhu said of Harmon, who is also a fast bowler. “He played two games before the end of the season. He’s not as quick yet, he’s only 16 at the moment. Hopefully maybe this year we might play a couple of games together.”The Sandhu brothers were born in Australia after their parents Iqbal and Mukhtyar, originally from Punjab in India, moved to Sydney in the 1980s. Iqbal’s job as a taxi driver allowed him to ferry the boys around to all their junior cricket matches, a commitment that has paid off handsomely given his son’s success this season.And while Sandhu dreams of one day earning a baggy green, his ambitions for the coming year – which should feature a stint at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane and a trip to the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai – are more grounded.”Hopefully I can cement my spot in the New South Wales team in the Ryobi Cup and the Sheffield Shield and then any higher honours are a bonus, like any more Australia A games,” Sandhu said. “One day if I could play for Australia it would be pretty nice.”Sandhu received 23.5% of the votes for the ACA’s Player of the Month award for March, ahead of Michael Hussey on 21.6% and Ryan Harris with 11.8%.

Former Australia captain Greg Chappell has rated MS Dhoni’s double-century in Chennai as his best in Tests. Dhoni’s knock of 224 tilted the scales in India’s favour, according to Chappell, and helped them to a 1-0 lead in the four-match series against Australia.”He has played several memorable knocks in one-day cricket, but this was the best I have seen him play in Test matches,” Chappell told .”I have seen him smack a yorker-length delivery from James Anderson for a six. It requires special talent. His success on a crumbling Chennai track stems from his ability to strike the ball hard on pitches where the ball tends to keep low. Had he scored just 124, the match would still have been in the balance. The manner in which he attacked a tiring Australian attack, shielding the tailenders, truly makes him a match-winner.”This was India’s seventh win in the last 21 Tests, five of which have come against West Indies and New Zealand. India lost eight consecutive overseas Tests, and conceded a series at home to England for the first time in 28 years. Chappell accepted that the Indian team looked average on their tour of Australia last summer but maintained that Dhoni’s captaincy shouldn’t be under doubt.”It is true that the Indian team under Dhoni looked below par during their tour Down Under, but he has answered his critics in the best possible way. In my book he remains the best man to lead India in all forms of the game.”At a time when players all over the world are struggling to cope with their workload, it is amazing how Dhoni manages to play every game with the same intensity. That he has done it successfully now for five years speaks volumes about Dhoni’s fitness, mental strength as well as his commitment. India are lucky to have him.”Although Australia crumbled under Dhoni’s onslaught to eventually lose by eight wickets, a few of their players had impressed. One of them was the debutant Moises Henriques, who scored half-centuries in both innings, finishing with an unbeaten 81 in the second dig to help prevent an innings defeat. In Henriques, Chappell saw the makings of a long-term allrounder.”It was good to see Henriques coming good at last. He has been on the fringe for a while. I hope he can be the allrounder that Australia have been looking for, particularly after a question mark over Shane Watson’s ability to contribute with the ball.”Regardless of the result of the first Test, Chappell felt the series wouldn’t be one-sided.”It will be a close series, but thanks to Dhoni, India do have a significant advantage.”

Michael Vaughan, the former England captain who led them in regaining the Ashes eight years ago, believes that the current side have “a great chance” to win back-to-back series against Australia in 2013. England will fine-tune their preparations for the Ashes with home and away series against New Zealand and Vaughan suggested the strength in depth at Alastair Cook’s disposal makes them strong favourites against an Australia side in transition.Vaughan’s England beat Australia 2-1 in 2005 for a first Ashes triumph in 18 years. That epic contest came against the likes of Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne but current captain, Michael Clarke, is now the only Australia survivor from the series. Their plans were further disrupted by the retirement of Michael Hussey last month and while there are also questions over the make-up of England’s best side, Vaughan feels that Cook has a significant advantage in being able to pick from a pool of “20-22 players that are good enough to play international cricket”.The Tests against Australia will provide the bulk of the England narrative in 2013, alongside an ambition in 50-overs cricket to win the Champions Trophy, and Vaughan said Cook’s side were capable of extending their run of Ashes success into a fourth consecutive series.”This year is all about winning these two big Ashes series,” he said. “You’ve got to look at this year as an England player, and Alastair Cook as captain, and think ‘I’ve got two great chances of winning two Ashes’. You won’t get a better chance – you do not get a better chance of beating an Australian side than this. They’re decent, they’re strong, they’ve got positivity because Clarke’s a very, very good captain and leader. But you look down from one to 11, probably one to 20 with the England side, and think ‘I’d fancy that’.”Look at Australia’s top six – Hussey, Ponting gone. That top three is going to be got at, especially in these conditions. Clarke, can he keep playing the way that he’s played for the last 12 months? You’d think not. England have got a great chance. In England I’d expect England to win comfortably, in Australia, it’ll be tight but England should still win.”While only a single ranking point separates second-placed England and third-placed Australia in Tests, there has been anxiety Down Under about the team’s overall strategy. Player rotation has become a key issue in Australia but England’s gradual movement towards a squad game has caused less of a ripple. James Anderson and Stuart Broad were rested from the Edgbaston Test against West Indies last summer, while rotation in the limited-overs set-up has become commonplace, as both countries try to marshal their resources ahead of two eagerly anticipated series.”I think rotation is a must in the modern game,” Vaughan said. “I think you’ve got to very clever with the way that you manage the players to make sure they stay fresh for the big moments, the big series. I think where England are very lucky is that they have such a big pool of players to choose from now – there’s probably 20-22 players that are good enough to play international cricket for England.”If we’d tried to do that six, seven years ago it would have been difficult because you’d have been replacing players and rotating them and bringing players in who weren’t necessarily ready to play and then the performance levels would drop. I think that’s what’s happening with Australia, I don’t think they’ve got a big enough pool of players to be able to rotate but they have to rotate because you want to keep the best players fit for the big series.”Before Australia, England’s focus is on New Zealand, with the T20 series starting on Saturday. Although Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann have been rested, with Pietersen sitting out the ODIs as well, England will be at full strength again for the three Tests. Nick Compton is likely to resume as Cook’s opening partner, with Joe Root the man in possession at No. 6, and Vaughan said that pinning down their favoured batting order for the Ashes will be a priority on a tour that should provide useful challenges.”New Zealand at home won’t be as bad as people think they will be,” he said. “I think it will be a series that England will win but New Zealand will put up a fight, they’ve got one or two decent bowlers. You lose a toss in New Zealand, you can get behind the eight ball quickly, the pitches can do all sorts in those first two or three hours. It’s a tour England will certainly fancy winning 3-0, you’d expect, but you can’t take any opposition at home lightly.”Yorkshire Tea is now the official brew of England cricket. The Little Urn and the Brew Crew will be entertaining fans during the Yorkshire Tea Break at Investec Test matches this summer – yorkshiretea.co.uk

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
BCCI

Not since the winter of 1983, when Clive Lloyd’s West Indies avenged their loss in the World Cup final, had India been whitewashed in an ODI series at home. Following their third poor batting performance against Pakistan, India were hurtling towards a 0-3 score line in the cold of Delhi, until their bowlers rallied in conditions that offered seam and spin, applying relentless pressure until Misbah-ul-Haq’s team cracked in the dead rubber.As Yuvraj Singh, pursued by team-mates, went off on a celebratory run and slide after catching Mohammad Hafeez in the penultimate over to secure a hard-fought victory, the exuberant celebrations on the field and in the stands at the Kotla were a release of emotion from a country that has had precious little to celebrate in cricket in recent times.An Indian victory, however, had appeared unlikely after their batsmen had crumbled against Pakistan’s versatile attack. A raw seam attack, spearheaded by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the debutant Shami Ahmed, had only 167 to defend and they went about it manfully. Ahmed began his spell with two maiden overs and continued to bowl with economy. Bhuvneshwar nipped out two early wickets with inswingers and bowled his ten overs on the trot, leaving Pakistan 55 for 2 after 19 overs.

Smart stats

• The ten-run win is India’s third lowest against Pakistan (in terms of runs) overall and their lowest in home ODIs against Pakistan. The lowest (four runs) was in Quetta in 1978.

• The run aggregate in the game (324 runs) is the third lowest in an ODI in India in matches where both sides have been bowled out. It is also the second lowest aggregate in an India-Pakistan game, after the 212 runs in Sharjah in 1985.

• For only the fourth time in India-Pakistan matches overall, and the first time since 1996 in Toronto, there was not a single half-century in the game. It is also the second such instance in Delhi.

• Saeed Ajmal’s 5 for 24 is the fifth best performance by a Pakistan bowler against India. However, it is the second best by a Pakistan bowler in a defeat against India, after Imran Khan’s 6 for 14 in 1985.

During that period, India’s fielding was at its best, with Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja throwing their bodies around on a chilly evening to cut off fluent flicks and drives. The only easy runs Pakistan got were two leg-side wides from the offspinner R Ashwin that beat MS Dhoni and sped to the boundary.Pakistan rebuilt through Misbah, who batted doggedly for 39 off 82 balls, first with Nasir Jamshed and then with Umar Akmal. Both those stands were ended by Ashwin, and at 113 for 4 in difficult batting conditions, India were gaining ground. They received a lucky break, when Shoaib Malik was adjudged lbw to Ishant Sharma though he was hit outside the line, and Akmal charged Ravindra Jadeja too early and was stumped.Only Hafeez, batting at No. 7 because of an injury while bowling, stood between India and victory and he was dropped by Rahane in the 42nd over, a straightforward chance at leg slip. He dragged his team towards the target and had to refuse singles with the No. 11 Mohammad Irfan, after Pakistan had lost three wickets in eight balls. With 23 runs needed in the last two overs, Hafeez hit two boundaries before holing out to off Ishant.Any immediate anguish Pakistan felt, however, quickly dissipated as their players, heavily jacketed in the misty evening, celebrated a 2-1 series victory.That India had at least 167 to defend was largely down to Dhoni, who was Man of the Match for his captaincy and his 36 off 55 balls, and Jadeja. Having left out Virender Sehwag to give Rahane a run, India lost three early wickets to the pace and swing of Mohammad Irfan and Junaid Khan. And they continued to struggle against Saeed Ajmal, who dismissed Suresh Raina and Ashwin off successive deliveries on his way to a five-wicket haul. India were 111 for 6 in the 29th over. Dhoni immediately carted Hafeez for his third six over deep midwicket and in a later over he inflicted the blow – a flat smash – that forced the Pakistan opener down the order.Dhoni fell in the 35th over and Jadeja, because he was running out of partners, began to attack and score what he could. He hit a towering straight six off Umar Gul, and another off Ajmal over cow corner, but his riposte ended on 27. India were dismissed in the 44th over, but the wasted resources did not cost them the game.

ScorecardMandeep Singh scored a century after being offered several lives•Fotocorp

The Mumbai slip cordon failed to support the good work of their bowlers, dropping plenty of catches to let Punjab gain the upper hand on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Group A tie at the Wankhede Stadium.Riding on an unbeaten century by stylish batsman Mandeep Singh, who was given three reprieves, and his 128-run stand for the third wicket with Ravi Inder Singh, Punjab ended the first day at a strong 288 for four. Had the Mumbai fielders grabbed five chances, three of them offered by Mandeep in the last session, the 39-time champions could have had the better of their opponents, who are the only team to have qualified for the knockouts so far.With the Wankhede pitch wearing a different look to the one used for the Test match a fortnight ago, captain Ajit Agarkar’s decision to bowl first wasn’t a surprise. While Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni kept it tight, the in-form Punjab openers Jiwanjot Singh and Karan Goel saw off the first hour without much trouble.However, sensing that the Pavilion End was offering more assistance for the quicks, Agarkar changed ends after bowling four overs from the Tata End and the move worked. He managed to extract additional bounce and Goel, who had hit a sweetly-timed boundary off Balwinder Singh Sandhu in the previous over, edged it to Ajinkya Rahane at second slip.While Jiwanjot, who has been piling on runs in his maiden first-class season, was cautious, Ravi Inder Singh didn’t take time to get going, thanks to a flurry of edges that flew off his bat to the vacant third-man boundary. With medium pacer Sandhu, playing his first match of the season, and offspinner Ramesh Powar looking lacklustre, Agarkar introduced allrounder Abhishek Nayar in the first session itself. And Nayar, who had bowled a dream spell of 19-12-13-6 against Bengal four days ago, created a chance immediately. Nayar forced a nick off Jiwanjot but wicketkeeper Aditya Tare’s diving attempt went in vain.After being given a life and with lunch approaching, Jiwanjot went into a shell. Left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan, introduced in the 32nd over, got an edge off the batsman off the first ball he bowled. But Rohit Sharma failed to latch on to the edge while diving to his right. After surviving chances on 39 and 41, Jiwanjot went in to the break having added 51 runs with Ravi Inder, with Punjab at 108 for one.But the two chances didn’t prove costly for Mumbai as Jiwanjot prodded at one from Kulkarni soon after lunch and provided a catch to Hiken Shah. The rest of the session was dominated by Ravi Inder and Manpreet, who displayed all the strokes in their array at will. While Ravi Inder preferred to score boundaries in a gentle fashion, Mandeep, who led Punjab in the last three games in Harbhajan Singh’s absence, adopted a more aggressive approach.Mandeep waged an intentional attack on Chavan, who was bowling a tight line and length. In the 47th over, he slog-swept the lanky spinner for a boundary twice, and then danced down the pitch to hoick him over the long-on boundary. Perhaps the young batsman was relishing being relieved of his captaincy duties as he continued to pile on runs at will.In the last session though, Mandeep seemed to have repeated lapses of concentration, but the Mumbai fielders repeatedly came to his rescue, dropping him on 67, 73 and 93 in the slips. With so much help from the opposition, Mandeep did not falter in converting his maiden fifty of the season into his fifth first-class century. The milestone came with an elegant flick off Kulkarni that raced to the midwicket fence.Mumbai, however, managed to have the last laugh on the day when Uday Kaul became the third left-hand batsman to have been caught behind with just two balls remaining in the day’s play. Though Kulkarni gave the hosts the much-needed breakthrough, they would be aware that the job is far from being done. And if the fielders – all of them specialist batsmen – don’t back their bowlers, the line-up, without Wasim Jaffer who had to leave for Lucknow due to a close relative’s death, will have to work doubly hard with the bat.

Darren Sammy has said his team’s failure to build on a 132-run fourth-wicket stand between Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo with another substantial partnership was what cost West Indies the fifth game and the ODI series. Bangladesh succeeded where West Indies failed, Sammy said, and that was the difference between the teams.”We had a good partnership but we crumbled again,” Sammy said. “We didn’t capitalise on the Bravo-Pollard partnership. We then got early wickets but the difference in the game was the Mominul [Haque]-Nasir [Hossain] partnership. It came after the captain [Mushfiqur Rahim] and Mahmudullah had a big partnership.”We also didn’t take our catches today. I dropped a crucial catch before that partnership developed. I’m a guy who believes everything happens for a reason, and I think they deserved to win the series.”West Indies made a poor start and played out 34 dot balls from the fourth to the ninth over, during which time they were reduced to 17 for 3. The counterattacking innings from Pollard, who hit eight sixes in his 74-ball 85, and the sizeable fourth-wicket partnership with Bravo set it up for a late surge, with the likes of Sammy and Andre Russell still to bat. But West Indies didn’t manage that and had to settle for a mediocre total.Bangladesh’s partnerships came after they also lost three early wickets, all to Kemar Roach. They first recovered through a 91-run stand between Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur and then another 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Nasir and Mominul. The 28-run stand between Nasir and Sohag Gazi for the seventh wicket was also crucial, as it took Bangladesh close to their target of 218 runs.”We haven’t played our best cricket in this series but we still were in with a chance to win the series. I would never blame anyone. We have to pull together as a team. It is not every day that the same people will perform,” Sammy said. “We got it from Kemar [Roach], who took five wickets, and [Kieron] Pollard and [Darren] Bravo with the bat today. We need more performances from everyone in the team.Sammy hoped to end the year on a positive note. “This has been a good year for us. We won four Tests in a row and the T20 World Cup. We would have loved to win this series but we didn’t.When we look back at this year, I wouldn’t say it is a step backward. We played as well as we could. Monday would be our last international this year and we will look to finish on a high.”

The BCCI is likely to tread lightly on the Rahul Sharma drugs case, given the ambiguity in its rules and confusion over the specifics of what he is alleged to have consumed, and in what quantity. Rahul is currently with the India squad in Sri Lanka and, though he didn’t play the first ODI on Saturday, he was seen practising with the team before the game.ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the Indian board has contacted the police to ask for the specific test reports on the two cricketers – the other being South Africa’s Wayne Parnell – but was unsure of how quickly it would receive them. Rahul, an official said, would be eligible to play for India and not be recalled from the five-match ODI series in Sri Lanka until the board had more detailed information.Rahul and Parnell, both part of the Pune Warriors IPL franchise, are alleged to have tested positive or banned substances following a raid by the Mumbai police at a rave party on May 20. They were tested for cannabis and methylenedioxy/methylamphetamine (MDMA) or Ecstasy, but the police have not specified which of the drugs they tested positive for.Legal experts say they can be charged under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985. The penalty for the consumption of cannabis or MDMA is six months in jail or a Rs10,000 fine or both. However, this would be under the Indian legal system – a formal charging, indictment and conviction – and hence subject to delays and the possibility, if convicted, of an appeal.The two drugs are on the list of prohibited substances in the BCCI’s anti-doping code; cannabis is under a category called Cannabinoids and MDMA, under stimulants. However, they fall under the category of ‘in-competition prohibited substances’ and on the day of the raid Rahul and Parnell were both out of competition, their team having already ended its IPL campaign. Parnell was due to leave India the following day and Rahul due to return home to Chandigarh soon after.The BCCI official said the board was waiting for details of the quantity and precise nature of the drugs the players tested positive for, to see if the positive tests could have come from “passive smoking” in an environment where cannabis was being smoked. “That is why the quantity of the consumption is important in this case,” the official explained.A Pune Warriors team-mate said he was “very surprised” to hear of the positive test reports as both Rahul and Parnell were not seen drinking or smoking during the seven weeks of the IPL. “Ecstasy is consumed in a pill form and it is easy to spike drinks with them,” he said.Rahul’s Punjab coach Vikram Rathour told : “It is hard for me to believe knowing Rahul, who doesn’t even drink beer … it is surprising.”The Pune Warriors management said both players had been “released” from the team and would contemplate any action following the positive tests based on the direction of the BCCI.Mumbai deputy police commissioner Pratap Dighaokar told on Friday that the two cricketers had belonged to a group of 44 people who tested positive out of the 92 detained following the raid.There have been mixed reactions to the news that Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell tested positive for recreational drugs while at a rave party in Mumbai on May 20. As with almost anything dealing with Indian cricket, the reactions occupy extreme positions on either side. As of now, the only facts that are known are that the two players have – according to the police – returned positive results when tested for cannabis and MDMA or ecstasy, both recreational drugs; the alleged offence came at a time when they were not in competition (their IPL involvement was over) and the charges are yet to be formally pressed and will then run the full gamut of Indian law. Including, if convicted, the right of appeal. Those are the facts of the case at this point but there are several missing elements, which could reduce or remove culpability even in the face of a positive sample. For example, the quantity of the substance found is not yet known; a small quantity can be explained by passive smoking (in the case of cannabis). Nor is it clear whether they have tested positive for MDMA, which can be mixed in drinks.In this context, the reactions of the BCCI and of Pune Warriors – the IPL franchise that employs both players – have been temperate and rational. In essence, their stand is this: let the law take its course, let us get the facts and then act. How they will act is also flexible: though both drugs fall under the BCCI’s list of prohibited substances, they relate only to in-competition offences. For reference, it can look at England’s Football Association, which hands out a minimum of a warning and a maximum of six months’ suspension for a first offence of this nature. At the moment, the Mumbai incident is a potential violation of the law of the land and so the case must rest with the police. Both players have maintained their innocence from the day the story broke, and in any case are innocent till proven otherwise. The BCCI’s next step will be important, and will be watched by the rest of the cricket world: never the most dexterous of organisations, it must balance its stealth with full application of the law if the charges are proved. Till then, the waiting game is the best option.
Jayaditya Gupta

Ross Taylor, the New Zealand captain, has said his team’s batsmen must break their habit of failing to turn fifties into centuries after another disappointing series with the bat. New Zealand lost the series 2-0 after West Indies earned a five-wicket victory in Jamaica and the result means the teams swap positions on the ICC Test rankings table, with West Indies moving to seventh and New Zealand falling to eighth.A major part of the problem for New Zealand was an absence of big scores from their batsmen. The opener Martin Guptill was the leading scorer from either side across the two Tests with 277 runs but no New Zealander managed a century, while Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell and Marlon Samuels all reached triple figures for West Indies.”It’s been around for a while,” Taylor said of the lack of centuries. “If you go through the last 15-odd years, guys have been scoring a lot of fifties but they haven’t been going on to score those hundreds and hundreds are what get you in Test matches and put you on the front foot and hopefully win them. But when you’re only getting fifties, sometimes it might be enough but more often than not it won’t be.”Taylor’s observation was sound, for in the past 15 years New Zealand batsmen have made 84 Test centuries, easily the fewest among the eight countries that played Test cricket throughout that period. The next lowest was West Indies, whose batsmen made 121 tons during the same time.In the past decade the figures are just as stark for New Zealand, whose batsmen have made fewer hundreds than Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid combined. Taylor said New Zealand’s inability to put together big partnerships and fight through important moments in the two Tests proved costly against West Indies, and they would need to improve ahead of their tour of India.”Obviously us batters are not performing as consistently as we would like and the bowlers were bowling well in periods but not the whole time,” he said. “Losing crucial wickets at crucial times in both Test matches have hurt us … We need to address our issues very quickly and we’ve got India coming up in just over a week and a half’s time, so we need to regroup quickly and play a lot better than we have here.”However, Taylor said there were some positives to come from the series, despite the result.”Martin Guptill was the highest run scorer in the Test series, between both teams,” Taylor said. “He didn’t get a hundred but his lowest score was 41. He struggled a bit during the T20s and one-dayers but showed what a quality player he can be and runs at the top of the order has been something we haven’t done as consistently as we would like. He was consistent.”The bowlers, [Trent] Boult with the new ball was very promising and something to work on. [Neil] Wagner, I think has given us something to think about, the energy that he brings to the team.”New Zealand have little time to regroup ahead of the India series, which begins with a Test in Hyderabad on August 23.

ScorecardRikki Clarke produced a stunning display on the final day to power Warwickshire towards full batting points•Getty Images

The thing with bonus points is that you never know when they might come in handy. Nottinghamshire proved it emphatically a couple of years ago when six on the last day of a rain-wrecked match against Lancashire gave them a Championship title that looked to have slipped through their grasp.So Warwickshire might look back on the maximum eight bonus points gained from an otherwise dead day at Edgbaston as enormously significant should the race for this year’s title come down to similar margins. With the extra three for a draw, they emerge from this latest soggy round of matches as Division One leaders, one point ahead of Nottinghamshire, with a game in hand. Remember, too, that they meet Nottinghamshire twice in the final three rounds.Not that you could call this a dead day, in any event, given the exhilarating way in which Warwickshire not only chased, but chased successfully, a five-point maximum with the bat, and then bowled out Sussex for 191 in 46.1 overs. Rikki Clarke made an unbeaten 110 from 105 balls and then took 3 for 19 to leave no doubt over who was Man of the Match, Jeetan Patel’s 5 for 77 notwithstanding. The scorecard may say ‘match drawn’ but, in the words of their captain, Jim Troughton, to Warwickshire it felt like a win.”I was tremendously impressed with the way the players performed after so much white ball cricket,” Troughton said. “It feels like a win. We looked to get 400, we looked to get nine wickets as well, and we bowled them out for good measure.”The performance with the bat smacked in particular of a side rippling with self-belief. At the start they were 175 for 3 from 65 overs, the point at which they were marooned last Thursday when the rain began, and yet wound up with 400 for 8 from 109.2.Mainly it was down to Clarke, who is so capable of high-speed destruction you wonder why he is not back on the England radar, at least for the one-day side. It is six years now since he last played yet is performing as well as he ever has. Realistically, you supposed Warwickshire might have a sniff of four batting points, if they pushed hard, but Clarke was of a mind to look beyond that, even, and made the improbable possible.Warwickshire were in the 89th over by the time they notched their second point and a lunchtime score of 293 for 6 from 96 overs still suggested four points was the most they could expect, a thought reinforced when Chris Woakes, another big hitter, fell for 12 soon afterwards, playing across the line to Luke Wright.Until then, Troughton’s return to form with the bat had looked as good as anything they would take from the day. The captain, who has been woefully short of runs, exceeded his aggregate from nine previous Championship innings this season when he reached 51. Though he was clearly cross with himself when he was caught at first slip, slashing at a ball from James Anyon to be out for 81, his disappointment at missing the opportunity to complete only his second Championship hundred in three seasons should not negate the boost to his confidence that these overdue runs will surely provide.But after Woakes went – and with significant help from Keith Barker, who hit 34 off 31 balls – Clarke transformed the picture, advancing from 71 to 105 in just 16 deliveries, culminating in one extraordinary over against the offspin of Chris Nash that yielded 20 on its own, including a six over the bowler’s head that took him into three figures. It left Warwickshire with only four to get from two overs to reach 400 inside 110 overs and when Patel scooped a ball from Magoffin over the slip area for four the job was done.At this point, Warwickshire would have been content enough to take eight points from the match and trail Nottinghamshire by just two but Sussex had an interest in trying for at least one point with the bat and this played into the home side’s hands.Sussex made a flying start as Woakes and Barker struggled for early accuracy and were 26 without loss after only three overs when Woakes made a fortunate breakthrough when Ed Joyce tickled one down the leg side. Then Nash was caught at slip as Patel made his first incision.Luke Wells and Murray Goodwin steered Sussex back to an even keel but there was no keeping Clarke out of the game. Introduced at 87 for 2 he struck with his second ball, aided by a fine catch by William Porterfield, to remove Goodwin and claim a first bowling point. It seemed to have a galvanising effect on Warwickshire’s mood in the field, which became bouncier still when Matt Prior then drove at Patel rather lavishly and was caught at mid-on.Ian Bell, fielding at midwicket, missed a chance when Wells was 24 but took another one with the Sussex player only two runs better off to give Clarke his second wicket, which was quickly followed by a third as Darren Maddy took a brilliant, one-handed catch diving to his left at second slip to remove Michael Yardy.With the second bowling point in the bag, Warwickshire had the bit between their teeth and Sussex, obligingly, never gave up their pursuit of a batting point. After Patel had claimed his third victim as Naved Arif nudged one to slip, Luke Wright pulled Chris Wright straight to deep point and Warwickshire celebrated as if they had won when James Anyon was leg before. A fifth success for Patel was simply a bonus.Troughton said that setting up a positive result had been discussed. “It would have been nice to have got that bit further ahead with a win and we did talk about contriving something,” he said. “But what they were looking was not really close to what we were looking at.”In any case, on the balance of things we were lucky to get on the park at all, otherwise we would have been walking away with just three points.”We know what is to come later in the season but our way has just been to think about winning the next ball, the next over, the next session. We haven’t thought about where we are in the league.”

Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh allrounder, will be rested during the unofficial T20 triangular series in Zimbabwe scheduled to start on June 18. Shakib asked to be rested and his request was approved, keeping in view his recent workload. He will be replaced by batsman Jahurul Islam in the squad.”The BCB Cricket Operations Department decided to withdraw Shakib from the tour squad following a request from the player,” a board release stated. “The break was approved considering the continuous cricket Shakib has played over the last two years.”Shakib, who had played each of Bangladesh’s 15 Tests, 70 ODIs and eight Twenty20 internationals since the start of 2009, said he was looking forward to time off. “It feels really good. I want to enjoy the break,” Sakib said. “I don’t want to talk or think about cricket during this break.”This year, Shakib also played for Khulna Royal Bengals in the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League, in which he was Man of the Series, and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. He is currently the No.1 ranked allrounder in Tests and ODIs.Jahurul has played just the one Twenty20 for Bangladesh, against Australia in the 2010 World Twenty20.