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When Morne Morkel found success in the final Test match against New Zealand in March, he did more than become the only South African to take the first six wickets in an innings. He outbowled Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn.It was something Morkel had not done in the six matches before that, since Philander had been given the new ball ahead of him. He found a confidence he had not had before, an aggression that was usually hidden and an intensity that he did not seem able to sustain in the past.Even when Morkel was part of what was being labelled as the world’s best opening pair, it was Steyn who did put fear into the hearts of batsmen intentionally, using swing, pace and a bullying glare. Morkel had the ability to hurt them and sometimes he did, but he never tried to do that with anything other than the ball. There were no clever, or even not so clever, quips, no piercing stares that cut through a batsman’s confidence and no over-heating to approach combustion, the way a typical fast bowler fumes.Recently, that has changed. Since his six-wicket haul in Wellington, Morkel’s mean streak has become a little longer and according to the bowling coach, Allan Donald, it’s going to keep growing. “He has gone a little bit further in terms of his personal development,” Donald said. “He has found something else, he has found a bit more of that mongrel that we talk about. I think he has overstepped the line in terms of finding someone who wants to engage in battle a little bit more”Morkel started the tour of England as badly as a bowler can. Peter Trego hit him for six fours in the first over he bowled in Taunton. Instead of spit fire, Morkel congratulated the batsman when he walked up to him at the end of the over and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. He went on to concede 90 runs from his 14 overs and sprayed the ball both sides of the wicket, usually a sign that a rough patch lies ahead.This time, though, he was able to turn that around quickly. Morkel was the one who made major incisions in Canterbury, where he enjoyed a much better and more controlled return. He was the standout bowler from the first day of The Oval Test, where he was given the new ball because of what Steyn called a “psychological edge,” over Andrew Strauss who he promptly dismissed fourth ball and was the most economical bowler at New Road where he also picked up two wickers.The steady progression of his form as the tour has gone on has been one of the clearest hints of consistency Morkel has ever given. Combined with a new found hostility, it seems Morkel is ready to take the next step.”He is a confidence bowler, there is no question about that,” Donald said. “The more he bowls, the better he bowls. He’s got great confidence right now and he is in a good place. We are fine-tuning things all the time and I am not going to be pushy about that. He is learning all the time and he is starting to show us what lies on the other side of Morne Morkel.”To bring out that other side, Donald made sure that neither Morkel, nor any of the rest of the Test attack, were rested for the tour match, a move that was in complete contrast to England. None of their bowlers who played the first Test appeared in the county matches before Headingley while South Africa’s pack were all put through at least three spells at New Road.”It’s easy to say Dale or Morne should have a rest but I think momentum is a big thing, not only as a team but for the bowling group,” Donald said. “It’s important that we tick over, and get a few overs under the belt, not as much as in a Test match but just for a bit of confidence. When you are on a tour you always look for that confidence and form and we want to maintain that.”Maintenance seems a simple task for South Africa’s bowlers, especially considering that they managed to take 20 wickets on a surface which England’s attack could only snaffle two but Donald said there are areas of concern he highlighted to them. “We want to get out of the blocks better,” he said. “It’s not that we bowled poorly on the first day at The Oval but we want to have a real solid start with the ball.”Donald believes South Africa “bowled themselves into a winning position,” on the second morning last week when they dismissed England for 385. While taking nothing away from the batsmen who put in a performance “you may never see again,” he said the bowling onslaught, driven by the need to up the intensity, was crucial to giving South Africa the lead.Now that they have that advantage, Donald said the approach would be not to sit on it, but to press it home. “There’s no ways we are going to sit back and wait for things to happen. We know what’s coming our way and we know England will throw everything at us,” he said. “We take nothing for granted. We’ve won a Test match but we haven’t won the series.”

The 2012-13 domestic season will begin with the Irani Cup in Jaipur, between September 21-25. The revamped Ranji Trophy will start on November 2, with the knockouts scheduled for January 2013. The top three teams from Group A and B, and the top two from Group C, will qualify for the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy.The Irani Cup will be followed by the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, a limited-overs tournament involving Bengal – the winners of the Vijay Hazare Trophy last season – and two other teams, and the inter-zonal Duleep Trophy, in October.

Ranji Trophy groups

Group A: Rajasthan, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Madhya Pradesh, Saurashtra, Railways, Bengal, Punjab, Gujarat
Group B: Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Vidarbha, Delhi, Baroda, Odisha
Group C: Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Services, Tripura, Goa, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam

Twenty-seven Ranji teams have been divided into three groups of nine each. Defending champions Rajasthan are part of Group A, together with three other teams – Mumbai, Hyderabad and Madhya Pradesh – who qualified for the knockouts the previous season. Group B includes the runners-up Tamil Nadu, as well as Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka who made it to the knockouts last year. Each of the nine teams in Group C played in the Plate League last year.”The initial plan was to have the top teams in one group but we decided to divide them to have two groups of more or less equal strength,” Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the BCCI, told ESPNcricinfo. “We put those semi-finalists who didn’t play each other last season in one group this time.” Rajasthan and Haryana, who played the first semi-final last season, are in different groups, so are Mumbai and Tamil Nadu.The selection for the other two teams of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, Shetty added, will be held roughly a week before the competition.From next year onwards, the Irani Cup will be played after the Ranji Trophy.The season will end with the remaining limited-overs tournaments: the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy and finally, the Twenty20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.The decision to adopt the current format for the domestic season was taken by the BCCI’s working committee earlier this month, together with the approval to allow two bouncers an over in limited-overs matches and permit one bowler to bowl a maximum of 12 overs in a 50-over game. The proposals to tweak the rules and the format were made by the BCCI’s technical committee, headed by Sourav Ganguly, earlier in the year.

Cricket Kenya has announced its list of contracted players for 2012-13. The 20 players named in the list have agreed to the contracts, unlike last year when five players turned them down on grounds of insufficient compensation.Cricket Kenya’s chief executive Tom Sears said: “Cricket Kenya is delighted to announce that 20 players have agreed National contracts. We have great faith in the players selected, they are a young squad and will need time to reach their full potential, but they have an enormous amount of ability and given time there is no reason why this squad can’t start producing the results we all hope to see.”The process of renewing the contracts has been extremely simple this year which has been refreshing, I would commend the players for choosing to represent themselves as opposed to be influenced by third parties, and on the way they have conducted themselves throughout the process. All discussions have been very open and constructive which bodes well for the future.”Contracts list: Ragheb Aga, Duncan Allan, James Ngoche, Shem Ngoche, Alex Obanda, Collins Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Nelson Odhiambo, Irfan Karim, Ibrahim Akello, Alfred Luseno, Peter Kituku, Dominic Wesonga, Morris Ouma, Lucas Oluoch, Elijah Otieno, Rakep Patel, Hiren Varaiya, Seren Waters, Emmanuel Bundi.

ScorecardAlviro Petersen did not take part in a second day restricted to less than two overs after twisting an ankle playing football in the warm-up•Getty Images

One has to feel sympathy for Alviro Petersen, Essex’s overseas signing from Johannesburg. From the heat of the highveld he has been plunged into the soaking cold bath that is Championship cricket in April and now May. He summed up his situation with as much understatement he could muster when he reckoned it was a “bit tough” scoring runs.Rain allowed only 10 balls to be bowled on the second day as Kent staggered onwards from their overnight 17 for 5, though Petersen did not join the fun in his customary position at slip. He remained in the pavilion after twisting his ankle playing warm-up football, allowing plenty of time to contemplate batting in due course. His injury was shrugged off as mild, though Ashley Young has gone to turf for less at Manchester United.Even in such a brief passage of play, Kent could have slipped further, as Geraint Jones padded up to the opening delivery from Charl Willoughby and was hit plumb in front by a sharp inswinger. Luckily for him the ball would have missed, just high. A maiden followed from David Masters, and Kent had stopped the rot for the time being.Petersen, as a Test cricketer, has stuck to his task well with Essex, and his 145 at Cardiff last week was a mature effort. He has not yet succeeded at Chelmsford, but these are early days in his attempt to claw back South African credibility at Essex after Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s embarrassing tenure as a bowler last summer.Tsotsobe started his Essex contract in the April heatwave of blessed memory and flew back home after taking only five wickets in his three first-class games. His Twitter remark declared his sojourn as the “worst two months” of his life. “It’s just impossible to work in this environment,” he said. The most printable reaction from Essex’s coach Paul Grayson was that the comment was “downright rude”.One wonders what Tsotsobe would have thought of the much harsher environment that Petersen has had to endure – tough, even for football.Rain stayed away for most of a second day lit by sunshine, with the absence of cricket caused by overnight torrents. Kent’s first task is to beat their lowest total against Essex, which was 43 at Southend in 1925. Batting is still tricky and with two sunnier days forecast the match could yet have a positive result.

Match facts

Monday, April 9, Visakhapatnam
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Deccan Chargers will dearly want both Amit Mishra and Kumar Sangakkara to play•AFP

Big Picture

This is a game between wounded and hurt teams. Deccan Chargers are the more wounded of the two. Already missing big names, they were without their two big hopes, Kumar Sangakkara and Amit Mishra, when they lost to Chennai Super Kings, who had been thumped by Mumbai Indians earlier, Chargers’ next opponents. Now, though, Chargers are optimistic about Sangakkara and Mishra, who will both join the team before the start of the game. They will be hoping the two join them ready to play: Sangakkara is flying straight from a gruelling Test series against England, and Mishra is recovering from shin and shoulder injuries, and a hernia operation.Monday provides Chargers a chance to upset the slightly shaky Mumbai Indians. It is not an easy job, though. Mumbai Indians have all the means at their disposal, except for Sachin Tendulkar who could miss another game because of his finger injury. They are more hurting than wounded after having lost to the unfancied Pune Warriors India. One big glitch, though, is that even after so many seasons they don’t know how to use Kieron Pollard the batsman.

Players to watch

Visakhapatnam proved to be a high-scoring venue, just the kind the IPL chairman wants. Richard Levi might not mind it either, with his Popeye arms and manic swings. A sample of it was seen when he scored a fifty on IPL debut, against Super Kings.Daniel Christian is one of the few big names Chargers have in their squad. He has been more of a bowling allrounder for Australia, but for a weak Chargers side he might need to step up with the bat too.

2011 head-to-head

Chargers managed to upset Mumbai Indians in one of their matches last year, but were beaten comprehensively in the other.

Stats and trivia

• Mumbai Indians have the services of the three leading wicket-takers in IPL history: Lasith Malinga (65), RP Singh (64) and Pragyan Ojha (63).
• Sangakkara is coming off his worst Test series, which included two golden ducks and a total of 35 runs.

Quotes

“We can’t do anything about injuries. You can’t control that. The way I look at it is that it gives the young guys a chance.”

“Dada [Sourav Ganguly] is a very special captain. He captained India for so long and so well, and made us believe we are match-winners. Today he again showed his skills as a captain with his bowling changes. I have learned a lot from him.”

Andy Flower, the England team director, is keen to ensure lessons are learned on the team’s recent overseas tours are not limited to the senior squad and get passed down the chain to younger players. Flower was boosted by the strides made by the batsmen in Sri Lanka as they fought back to level the series with a convincing eight-wicket win in Colombo following the whitewash against Pakistan in the UAE.The success was set up by Kevin Pietersen’s barnstorming 151 but Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Andrew Strauss all played important innings. But the revival was started by Trott in the second innings in Galle when his 112, although not able to prevent defeat, showed how batsmen can succeed by playing to their strengths.England’s other representative sides – the Lions and Under-19 team – also toured Asia over the last six months with mixed results. The Lions lost in Bangladesh but won in Sri Lanka, while the Under-19s were beaten 5-2 in a one-day series in Bangladesh. Flower wants all levels of the professional game to work together to improve England’s cricket in these conditions.”It is our job, not only to embed all those lessons but also to continue building on want we’ve learnt,” Flower said. “We also need to pass on those lessons to younger English cricketers so that when they are playing international cricket they don’t make the same mistakes as ours did this winter. I think that’s quite important.”It has been a tough winter but our focus has never wavered, our determination has never wavered and I think you would probably have see that best in the field. I think that was a good indication of where the group was. Yes it’s been tough but it’s brilliant to come back and level the series. It’s a real pity that it’s not a three-Test series – both Tests were excellent matches played on good pitches.”England almost left it too late to put in a complete batting performance and while Flower acknowledged it was a lengthy phase of trial and error, the end result has left him very hopeful of what can be achieved in the future.”We all want instant results but the world doesn’t work as easily as that but I do think it’s exciting watching excellent cricketers still have the capacity to learn and improve themselves,” he said. “I think good sides and good players have that capacity and are humble enough to open themselves up to new learning experiences. And I think we did see evidence of our guys learning in the second dig in Galle and out here.”Eoin Morgan was the one batsman to pay with his place after the Pakistan series and there will be focus on Ian Bell and Strauss when England resume action against West Indies in May. Bell has had a poor few months with just one half-century, in the first innings in Galle, to show as reward and his dismissal in Colombo – pulling a long hop to midwicket – was an inglorious way to finish.Strauss, meanwhile, struck an important 61 to lay the foundation alongside Cook in Colombo but has now one Test hundred in 50 innings. From within the team there remains no doubt over his position – something reiterated by Flower – yet he could still do with a productive summer against West Indies and South Africa. Bell, too, will not be dropped although will need to convince the selectors that he has the game to succeed in India next winter with Flower insisting no one is immune to scrutiny.Heading into the home season, No. 6 is the likely spot up for grabs if England revert to their regular balance of six batsmen, a keeper, three quicks and a spinner. Ravi Bopara was the spare batsman on the two recent tours after picking up a side strain in Sri Lanka being overlooked for Samit Patel.”Not one player owns a position in the batting order,” Flower said. “There’s competition for all places. Of course some are more secure than others but I don’t want to comment who’ll bat at six against the West Indies as I need to talk to the selectors. We’ll be having a selection meeting later this month and that’s when we’ll be discussing it in greater detail.”Neither would Flower be drawn on whether he thought the top six that played in Sri Lanka was the ideal combination for India at the end of the year. “I think it’s a little early to say that this batting unit will be there at the end of the year, we don’t know how things are going to pan out,” he said. “Yes, this batting unit is good enough to score heavy runs in India but part of our job is to ensure it isn’t a closed shop and if there are other players in England, we want them pushing the top seven here, constantly. That will drive our standards upwards.”

Kolkata Knight Riders have signed four cricketers from India’s domestic circuit for the upcoming IPL season starting April 4. Debabrata Das, Iresh Saxena, Chirag Jani and Sanju Samson are their latest recruits.Das, from Bengal, was part of the Knight Riders squad in the 2008 season. A batsman and part-time wicketkeeper, Debabrata has played nine Twenty20 matches, scoring 126 runs at 15.75.Saxena, a left-arm spinner, also plays for Bengal, has done will in Twenty20 cricket, taking 14 wickets from 13 games at 16.28 and at an economy-rate of 5.47. He is Bengal’s highest wicket-taker so far in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic Twenty20 tournament.Jani, 22, has had an excellent debut season with Saurashtra in List A cricket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy , averaging 119 from four games with a highest of an unbeaten 98.Samson, only 17, is a wicketkeeper-batsman from Kerala.”Our latest signings continue to reflect our two chosen areas of local players and emerging talent,” Venky Mysore, the Knight Riders CEO, said in a release. Debabrata and Iresh grow out commitment and investment in our catchment area of Bengal – and we are really happy that they will get a chance to secure their places in our team.”Chirag and Sanju represent our investments towards the future, and we know that they have the talent and dedication to significantly contribute to our team one day.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsPakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq played carefully to prevent England completely dominating on day one in Abu Dhabi•AFP

The expressionless demeanour of Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s redoubtable captain, will cause a restless night for an England bowler or two in Abu Dhabi. But before sleep sets in and Misbah stalks their imagination, England will be content after the opening day of the second Test.Misbah’s cussed resistance stabilised Pakistan after they lost 4 for 103, riches that England could not have dared to anticipate after losing the toss. By the close, Misbah had batted 220 minutes for an unbeaten 83 and did not look remotely sated. England will rue the let-off they gave him on 30 when Monty Panesar turned one from around off stump to find the edge but James Anderson uncharacteristically was slow to react at slip and missed the chance.When Misbah was provoked into aggression, it was Panesar who provoked it. Misbah struck him for four sixes, all more-or-less straight, in two batches of two, the last two remarkable for the fact that he unleashed them off successive balls in the final over of the day. Panesar was left with 1 for 91 by the close, Graeme Swann’s three cheap wickets still identifying him as very much the senior partner.Their almost-forgotten double act had dominated the morning. They were together again in a Test for the first time in two-and-a-half years and to mark the occasion both had a wicket to their name by lunch, Swann bowling Taufeeq Umar in his fourth over, Panesar dismissing Mohammad Hafeez in the same fashion in his seventh.Abu Dhabi is the driest Test ground in the world, with less than 100mm of rain a year. What little moisture there was initially came from England’s spinners salivating. Both found appreciable, if slow, turn while the ball retained its hardness; in Abu Dhabi everybody wants to bowl with the new ball. Panesar looked slightly tense, pulling the occasional ball down short, but both he and Swann beat the outside edge enough to rally England’s spirits.The England management had stroked the pitch at length before play; stroked it, stared at it and finally accepted the inevitable. Fielding only two quick bowlers goes against the grain for England and they agonised until the final minutes but Abu Dhabi demanded it and Panesar made his first Test appearance since he stoutly blocked out for the draw against Australia at Cardiff in July 2009.Panesar came on as early as the 10th over; Swann joined him three overs later. Both Pakistan openers fell to balls that slid on without turning. Taufeeq was guilty of misjudgement as he allowed a ball from Swann to strike his off-stump. Hafeez was undone by a quicker arm-ball from Panesar. He had been dropped the previous ball, Panesar failing to clutch a firm return catch down by his bootlaces, bringing a momentary appearance of his sad-clown expression.The pitch flattened as the day progressed. That will tempt England to call for Jade Dernbach as replacement for Chris Tremlett, who is flying home with a recurrence of back trouble. The belief is that Dernbach’s greater variety could be an attractive proposition.The desert was a comparatively cool 18 degrees and there was cloud cover about. England fans had been instructed to show decorum and keep their shirts on. They needed little encouragement. One or two even huddled in blankets. Only Newcastle United football fans would have disrobed in such weather.Taufeeq had one uncomfortable moment when he deflected a ball from Anderson into his grille, seeking to turn the ball into the legside, but the pitch was so slow it rested against his face like a disorientated butterfly. It was not long before Stuart Broad and Anderson began to mentally reduce their likely number of overs in the day. Two wickets for Broad in an excellent afternoon spell kept them busier than they might have imagined.Broad flogged life from the pitch in an excellent nine-over spell, seaming deliveries back to strike the off stumps of Younis Khan and Azhar Ali. There was slackness about the intended on-drive that caused Younis’ downfall. Azhar played straighter but with the same result.Misbah had reason to ruminate, sensing that Pakistan’s discipline during their 10-wicket victory in the first Test in Dubai was no longer quite as evident. He was intent at restoring order, ticking off his younger partner Asad Shafiq for an occasional flight of fancy.Even in Misbah’s defensive posture there was room for him to hoist successive deliveries from Panesar over long-on for six. Shafiq also struck Panesar over the rope at long-off but that came with quicksilver feet. Misbah is not the type to take to the dance floor, preferring to watch and wait, but he showed no indications of wanting to leave early.Shafiq’s ambition finally got the better of him when he fell lbw to Swann, attempting a slog-sweep, a decision that Pakistan failed to overturn by DRS. An over before the new ball was due, it was a headstrong shot.Anderson viewed the advent of the second new ball so seriously that he refused to accept the ball plucked from the box by Ahsan Raza, the third umpire, from Pakistan. “Not the one I chose,” was the gist of Anderson’s comments – he chooses cricket balls as seriously as some people choose modern art – and there was a long delay and an early drinks break before he got what he wanted.The new ball did not bring a wicket for Anderson – Misbah narrowly survived an appeal for lbw after England unsuccessfully resorted to DRS and Andrew Strauss dropped Adnan Akmal, chest high, at slip – but Akmal fell lbw to Broad and Swann nipped in with a third wicket, bowling Abdur Rehman for nought with one that turned, to round off England’s day.

Kent allrounder Adam Ball will lead an England Under-19 squad for the tour of Bangladesh in January. The tour features seven one-dayers, in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.The 15-member squad features eight players who featured in this year’s one-day series against South Africa. The team lost the seven-match one-day series 4-2 to the South Africans.The first match will be played in Chittagong on January 20.Squad: Adam Ball (capt), Muhammad Abid, Shozair Ali, Daniel Bell Drummond, Ben Foakes, Gavin Griffiths, Brett Hutton, Aneesh Kapil, Sam Kelsall, Jack Leaning, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Rammy Singh, Kishen Velani, Sam Wood

Bert Sutcliffe, John Reid … Dean Brownlie: the only New Zealand players to score a half-century in each of their first three Tests. Averages can rise and fall, but that is a list Brownlie can never disappear from. As New Zealand cricketing icons go, he could hardly be in the company of two finer men. His move from Perth to Christchurch two years ago is looking wiser with every passing day.As New Zealand lost wickets liberally on the first day in Hobart, on a difficult, grassy surface, against quality swing bowling, Brownlie just kept doing his thing. And his thing is pretty straightforward: anything on the pads he whips through midwicket, anything short and wide of off stump he cuts with aplomb, any good ball he respects.The most well regarded Test batsmen are not always the flashy sorts who play every stroke. Just as often they are men like Allan Border or Jonathan Trott, who know their range of shots, are aware of their limitations, and play within them. His career is only two and a half Tests old, but Brownlie does not seem the type to lose his head and attempt things that are beyond him.He adds much needed rigidity to a New Zealand batting line-up that looks flimsier with every innings. New Zealand’s top five batsmen – Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder – have scored a total of 179 runs in this series. Brownlie has managed 175.It is hard to believe, watching him handle the Australian bowlers comfortably, that he could not find a place in Western Australia’s side during his years of playing club cricket in Perth. He had played in the state Under-19 team alongside current domestic players like Liam Davis and Theo Doropoulos, but at 25 he decided he had missed the boat with the Warriors.”I was playing grade cricket for Mt Lawley when I decided to leave,” Brownlie said. “I didn’t think I was an opportunity to play for WA. I felt like the players they had there were quality cricketers, and they had good youth coming through as well. I felt like I missed my opportunity and didn’t want to leave it like that. I thought I’d get in contact with Mark O’Neill, who was the WA batting coach and now the New Zealand [batting] coach.”Through that contact, and the fact that his father Jim was born in New Zealand, Brownlie made his way across the Tasman and took a punt on winning a place in Canterbury’s side. On first-class debut, he scored an unbeaten 112. His first-class average, albeit from only 19 matches, sits at 55.53. It is a jump that, for those who saw him as a consistent but not outstanding club cricketer in Perth, is hard to believe.”I think I’ve improved a lot,” Brownlie said. “I’ve worked pretty hard with [Canterbury coach] Bob Carter and now with John Wright. They’ve made me improve a lot by making me work hard. I probably didn’t train nearly as much as I had to to perform at first-class level. I feel like now I’m a professional, I can put in the time that I need to.”Brownlie is not the first Australian-raised player to return to his homeland as an opposing Test player in recent years. Brendan Nash played state cricket for Queensland but qualified as a West Indies cricketer due to his Jamaican-born father, and Geraint Jones, who was born in Papua New Guinea but spent most of his first 22 years in Australia, kept wicket for England in the 2006-07 Ashes.”To play for New Zealand is a huge honour and I don’t take that lightly,” Brownlie said. “To play Test cricket, I don’t think you need any more incentive than that. I wouldn’t have dreamed of this two years ago. Just to be out there is awesome.”To be in the company of Sutcliffe and Reid is more than awesome. It is unfathomable. Next on the list: turning one of those half-centuries into a Test hundred.