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Australia employed an unsuccessful, wild approach in their second innings because it was the only way the batsmen thought they could survive, said coach Tim Nielsen. After being set a victory target of 516, Australia were reduced to 58 for 5 on the fourth afternoon after openers Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich smashed their way to 49 in 7.2 overs.Hayden signalled the tourists’ intent by charging the first ball of the innings, but the momentum swung quickly when offspinner Harbhajan Singh picked up both openers in the over before tea. “Whatever India made,” Nielsen said, “we thought that to be successful we had to have the mindset to chase it down.”Trying to bat for nine or ten hours and just saving your wicket, or defending against the quality of the bowlers they have, makes it very difficult. Our challenge was to put pressure down by scoring runs and knocking the bowlers off their length.”The risky move failed badly and Australia now has only five wickets remaining after finishing at 141 for 5. The visitors still need 375 for victory or to bat for 90 overs to secure a draw.”We had some success for a short time, but unfortunately we weren’t quite able to get through,” Nielsen said. “We lost two wickets in an over and the wind certainly went out of our sails.”Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin stabilised the previously frenetic situation in an 83-run stand, with Clarke unbeaten on 42 and Haddin on 37. Nielsen retained faith that the pair could negotiate the final day.”There’s a fair bit of water to go under the bridge tomorrow,” he said. “They’ve played well for the last hour and a half, and they can get a start tomorrow India will need to bowl very well.”Nielsen refused to point fingers at his under-performing players despite seeing them dominated throughout the first four days of the test. “We’re aware we’ve been behind the eight-ball for much of this game,” he said. “We’re working hard to get through this game and then after that we’ll have some time to sit back and have a bit of a think about what we’re doing and how we can do it better.”One major area of concern is the performance of bowling spearhead Brett Lee, who has failed to penetrate on the Indian pitches over the first two games. Ricky Ponting did not use Lee until after lunch on the fourth day, when he picked up Sourav Ganguly for 27, finishing with 1 for 61 off 14 overs.”It’s certainly not an indictment of how poor he’s bowled,” Nielsen said of delaying Lee’s entry. “He hasn’t got the results he would like, but has had some decent spells at times. “It’s probably indicative of our whole tour at the moment. We can’t quite put the pressure we need for extended periods.”

Australia’s two spinners in India, Bryce McGain and Jason Krejza, have just over a week to press their claims for the specialist slow bowler’s position in Australia’s Test line-up. The coach Tim Nielsen said Australia were likely to field three fast bowlers and one spinner for the opening Test, which begins in Bangalore on October 9.Australia’s attack during their previous Test series, against West Indies earlier this year, comprised Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson, and Stuart MacGill in the first two Tests. Beau Casson stepped in for the final match following MacGill’s retirement.”I think we did a pretty reasonable job in the West Indies playing on low, flat, pretty slow wickets that spun late in the game, especially the first two Tests, with three quicks and a spinner,” Nielsen said. “So I’d expect that’s what the mix will be, I think that suits the way we play best. We’ll just have to sort out what that mix is and who our spinner is, basically.”There’s still two or three spots people are still trying to force their way into. It depends a little bit on what the Indian team is as well, whether they pick a lot of right-hand batsmen or left-hand batsmen and that might make a little bit of a difference to our spinning options.”The offspinner Krejza made a bright start to the tour, taking three wickets in a practice game against a Rajasthan Cricket Academy side in Jaipur. The legspinner McGain hasn’t had a proper bowl yet because of a shoulder problem sustained during Australia A’s tour of India earlier this month. He will get his opportunity during the tour match against a Board President’s XI in Hyderabad starting on October 2.”He’s [McGain] just finishing off [his rehabilitation], it would have been nice to get him going in the two-day game but the physio just felt if we tried to do everything in the competitive game he might be going a little too hard,” Nielsen said. “We’re trying to keep it controlled, now he should be fit and right to play in the four-day game.”Australia are without the option of Andrew Symonds’ offbreaks on this tour after he was left out of the squad. However, they can utilise the part-timers Michael Clarke, who bowls left-arm orthodox, and Simon Katich, who bowls left-arm wrist-spinners.

The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) may have told its players not to tour Pakistan for the Champions Trophy in September, but concerns are growing in Pakistan that the decision was made based on hasty, possibly inaccurate security assessments.An increasingly exasperated Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has questioned the wisdom behind the ACA’s decision and particularly the information on which it was based. “All we can do logically about the situation, we have done,” Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer told Cricinfo. “This is now beyond logic. If they are haunted by horror stories there is little more we can do.”The frustration is understandable, given the lengths to which the PCB has gone to address various security concerns – Naghmi is scheduled to meet David Morgan, the ICC president, and Sharad Pawar, the ICC vice-president, in Dubai later on Wednesday. Cricinfo has learnt that a lot of importance was given to Reg Dickason’s private security assessment of venues by players from Australia and New Zealand, even though his was a whistle-stop tour of venues during the Asia Cup in June.Dickason, hired by Cricket Australia, New Zealand Cricket and the ECB, provided, broadly, “a very negative report based on a one-day stay in Karachi simply advising them not to tour” according to an official involved in the recent meetings between the ICC task force and Australian players.The PCB is particularly unhappy for it feels the more comprehensive and accurate assessment of the situation is provided by Nicholls-Steyn, security consultants hired by the ICC who have been analysing the ground situation in Pakistan for several months. The appointment of the firm itself was a recommendation of an earlier ICC security assessment, the Janusian report, carried out in the first week of June.That report, based on a two-day stay in Pakistan, found several concerns, though one of them was the contention that as cricket was a ‘western game’, it constituted a valid target for extremists. But their key recommendation was the presence of a security team permanently in Pakistan to properly assess the situation, one which the Pakistan board readily accepted and which brought Nicholls-Steyn came into the picture.Since then Nicholls-Steyn have worked assiduously with a number of relevant stakeholders to paint an accurate picture of what is happening in Pakistan. Led by Bruce Spargo, they have held briefings not just with police and interior ministry representatives – as most security firms do – but with a much broader network of security, military and intelligence officials.”For example, they met men with hands-on experience of the Afghan situation, with real connections and people who know what is going on in the country and the various threats,” Naghmi said. “They were told there was no feasible threat to the tournament.”Unlike the Dickason report, the Nicholls-Steyn assessment was discussed at the ICC annual meeting at the end of June. Minor concerns were discussed and immediately addressed by the PCB and the interior ministry. The Asia Cup in June and July provided a good dress rehearsal for security arrangements and Nicholls-Steyn were more than content, claiming the arrangements to be “beyond our own expectations.” Such were the arrangements that even the ICC task force, including FICA chief Tim May, was said to have been impressed.Even before the task force was created, however, the concern had already shifted to whether such elaborate arrangements could be sustained and delivered during the tournament itself, with May leading the questioning. “It appears that no matter what he [Bruce Spargo] says, Tim May questions the ability of the Pakistan authorities to deliver the ‘Plan’,” said an official who attended the meetings between Australian players and the task force.While in Pakistan, May suggested organising two practice matches on consecutive days between local teams to get a clearer picture of the arrangements in action. The PCB agreed to this and sent an email to the boards concerned a week ago but have yet to receive a reply.Thus, less than a month before it starts, the status of the tournament remains in limbo. Fear and paranoia is such that when a Pakistani police official spoke of a contingency plan in case of a rocket launch attack during meetings with the task force, he was immediately asked whether he was expecting one.

Division One

James Adams’ career-best 86 guided Hampshire to a five-wicket win against Somerset at Taunton. His 98-ball innings ensured the visitors eased home to their adjusted target with seven balls to spare. He added 95 with Chris Benham to make sure the run chase was completed in efficient style. Somerset fell away after a positive opening from Justin Langer and Marcus Trescothick, who was caught at mid-on, and slipped to 87 for 4. James Hildreth (47) and Wes Durston (42) repaired the damage with a stand of 82, but Liam Dawson took two key wickets and Hampshire kept control at the death.Lancashire suffered their third washout of the season as they shared the points with Middlesex at Old Trafford. There were just occasional showers during the afternoon, but the heavy overnight rain had left the outfield saturated. This was the final match of the season at Old Trafford as the outfield is now being dug up and relayed while Lancashire finish 2008 at outgrounds. At least the early call-off allowed everyone the chance to watch Manchester United take on Newcastle a few hundreds up the road.

Division Two

Stewart Walters fell nine runs short of a maiden one-day century, but his 91put Surrey on course for a welcome victory as they beat Northamptonshire by 63 runs at The Oval. Surrey produced a display of attacking batting, led off by James Benning’s 46-ball 55 as he and Walters added 89 for the second wicket. Walters then held the innings together as the middle order all chipped in. He hit 10 fours and two sixes before being bowled by Jason Brown with his century in sight. Northamptonshire suffered a horror start as they sank to 7 for 3 in the third over, but they didn’t give up without a fight. Rikki Wessels struck his first limited-overs century, an even 100 off 86 balls, adding 107 with David Sales for the fourth wicket. But no one else could stay with him and he became a first wicket for Robert Frylinck, a 23-year-old South African Kolpak making his debut.

Scorecard

Surrey’s top four batsmen made it look like hard work, but their lower order came to the team’s rescue on the second day at Trent Bridge where the promised rain failed to materialise. There were two maiden fifties by promising young players in Matthew Spriegel and Chris Jordan, and, considering Nottinghamshire’s rather fragile batting so far this season, Surrey can consider themselves to have an advantage going into the third day.Surrey’s overnight pair continued to make heavy weather of it. After scarcely ten minutes, Jonathan Batty, with 21 off 88 balls, was bowled through the gate by Darren Pattinson by the ball of the day, whipping in viciously at genuine pace from outside the off-stump.Mark Ramprakash, for his part, continued to bat as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, spending 90 minutes while adding just 11 to his overnight 19 before he showed any inclination to attack the bowling. And ten minutes later a drizzle started and lunch was taken early. He was lucky on 23, playing a bad shot that skied a ball backward of point, for the fielder running back hard to miss a very difficult chance, and it ran for four. It might have been a kindness to put him out of his misery.In contrast, Usman Afzaal looked in good form almost from his arrival at the crease on the dismissal of Batty. He played some handsome strokes of real class, and tried to dominate Pattinson, whose superb bowling was Surrey’s main threat. He didn’t altogether succeed, but at one stage hit him for two superb cover drives in an over, and then pulled Charlie Shreck twice to the boundary. He overtook Ramprakash on 30, and reached his fifty just before the early lunch, off 61 balls.Andre Adams also bowled well, troubling Ramprakash, whose painful innings finally came to an end, for 42 off 166 balls and in 218 minutes, as he got a leading edge to a ball from Pattinson and was caught by Graeme Swann, diving forward at cover. Pattinson ran through to give him a distasteful send-off, a foolhardy act as umpire Peter Willey is well known for his strong stand on such behaviour, and Pattinson will not have heard that last of that.There followed a lengthy stand of 79 between Afzaal and Spriegel, the left-handed captain of Loughborough UCCE, who played quite an impressive, if rather slow, innings. Afzaal never recovered his pre-lunch fluency, but he should have reached a century, had he not lost patience, swung across the line at Shreck and lost his off stump for 89 (128 balls, 12 fours).After tea, Spriegel reached his maiden first-class fifty off 146 balls, a patient innings with occasional impressive strokes. One run later, though, he popped a ball from Swann to short leg, making Surrey 252 for 6. But then followed the most positive and impressive partnership of the innings, as Matt Nicholson and Jordan, supposedly bowling all-rounders, played with real flair and good judgement. Jordan was particularly impressive with his clean, orthodox driving.They added 47 in entertaining fashion when Nicholson, trying to bring up the 300 with a six, holed out on the long-on boundary for 38. However, Saqlain Mushtaq proved a more than adequate partner, in an inconspicuous way until he suddenly drove Adams over long-on for six. Jordan, despite a couple of sudden rustic heaves that failed to make contact, went on to reach his maiden first-class 50 off 66 balls, with a vigorous hook to the boundary off a bouncer from Shreck; he clearly has the ability to score many more.With only seven wickets down after two days’ play, rain having ruined the first day, Surrey will have to play well – or the home team badly – to force their first victory of the season. They have their noses in front in Nottingham, and day three should reveal whether they have the attitude and determination to make a good fist of it.

Shakib Al Hasan, the allrounder, and Syed Rasel, the left-arm seamer, have been included in Bangladesh’s preliminary 21-man squad for the four-nation Twenty20 tournament in Toronto in August and the following tour of Australia. The squad will be trimmed before the team leaves for Canada.Shakib opted out of the recent tri-series at home and the Asia Cup in Pakistan due to his academic examinations while Rasel had to sit out due to an injury.A notable exclusion is Aftab Ahmed, the middle-order batsman who missed both tournaments due to a fractured finger. At the start of June, he was ruled out for six weeks. Nazmul Hussain, the right-arm fast bowler who took a five-wicket haul in Bangladesh A’s tour of England, has been included, as well as batsman Naeem Islam.The Twenty20 tournament, also featuring hosts Canada, Pakistan and West Indies runs between August 14 to 17. Bangladesh then head to Darwin, Australia, for a three-match ODI series between August 31 and September 6.

Graeme Hick rolled back the years with a clinical and brutal display of strokeplay, as Worcestershire overwhelmed Gloucestershire by nine wickets at New Road. Hick clubbed 11 fours and a six in a 58-ball 88, and made light work of Gloucestershire’s sub-par total of 168. He was the dominant partner in an opening stand of 143 with Vikram Solanki, who was hardly sluggish in making 51 from 43 balls, and on 71, he went past 1000 runs in the tournament’s history. None of the visiting bowlers had any answer to his onslaught, least of all Carl Greenidge, whose two overs went for 32 runs. Earlier, Marcus North was the pivotal figure for Gloucestershire with 45 from 33 balls, as he added 53 for the third wicket with Chris Taylor, but it was not nearly enough.

A 62-ball century from Greg Smith gave Derbyshire the perfect start to their Twenty20 campaign, as Darren Gough’s Yorkshire came a cropper at Headingley. Smith opened the batting after Rikki Clarke won the toss, and he was still there at the end of their innings, having cracked 12 fours and two sixes in a tone-setting performance. Tim Bresnan struck an early blow for the hosts when Dan Birch was caught and bowled for 12, but Wavell Hinds joined in a 149-run stand for the second wicket before being run out for 61 from 43 balls. Derbyshire’s total of 181 for 2 looked imposing even before Michael Vaughan – auditioning for a role in Allen Stanford’s million-dollar showdown – fell second-ball for a duck. His fellow opener, Andrew Gale, also went cheaply for 4, and only Anthony McGrath, with a 43-ball 55, put up any resistance.

For Martin Williamson’s report on Middlesex’s seven-wicket demolition of Essex at Lord’s, click here.

The owners of last year’s Lankan Premier League (LPL) winning side – Jaffna Stallions – are incensed, after tournament organisers announced last week that the Jaffna franchise would have a new owner for the tournament’s second edition.Related

• LPL 2021: SLC to allow double vaccinated spectators up to 50% stadium capacity

• Kusal Perera, Angelo Mathews miss out on LPL drafts

• Lanka Premier League postponed to November-December due to packed cricket calendar

• Colombo Kings, Dambulla Viiking have contracts terminated, withdraw from LPL 2021

The Stallions’ termination means that three of the league’s five teams will have new owners for the second edition of the LPL, with the Colombo and Dambulla franchises previously having been terminated. Jaffna’s new owner is Allirajah Subaskaran, founder and chairman of the Lyca Group of companies in the UK, and it seems now that the team will no longer be called Stallions. The league is now scheduled to to take place in December, having been postponed from August.Tournament organisers Innovative Production Group (IPG) have hit back at the Stallions’ narrative, and we will get to their comments. But first, the Stallions owners’ complaints are these:

• Despite having been one of only three franchises to have fulfilled their financial commitments for 2020 (this was confirmed by tournament organisers), they have been “unfairly treated” by the LPL.
• The LPL’s first edition was conducted without a serious commitment to transparency, particularly as at least two franchises were being underwritten by the organisers themselves.
• Their refusal to pay the franchise fees for the second edition of the tournament this far out was because of the uncertainty surrounding the tournament. They claim they had been required to make payments sometime in the middle of this year, despite their suspicion that the league would be postponed, which it ultimately was.
• That their prize money for winning the inaugural edition had been delayed for months.

Rahul Sood, a former Microsoft executive who was co-owner of the Stallions, described their removal as a franchise as “disgusting” on Twitter. “Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine something like this would happen. We were blindsided.”IPG, meanwhile, has called the Stallions’ claims “baseless rumours being spread with malicious intent” in a strongly worded release. The group’s counter-claims, which are many, include:

• Stallions had not appropriately paid their fees in the first edition either (which Stallions’ ownership vehemently deny).
• That the Stallions have not paid their fee for the second edition, when two other teams (Galle Gladiators and the new Dambulla franchise) already have.
• That the Know Your Customer (KYC) details that the Stallions submitted to both tournament organisers and the ICC were convoluted, because they included as many as 14 owners.

IPG CEO Anil Mohan told ESPNcricinfo that he had submitted the Stallions’ KYC application to the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, which he said was of the view that 14 owners were too many. The ICC has not officially verified this, however, nor has it publicly taken issue with the Stallions’ involvement in the inaugural LPL, although the team did seem to have fewer owners then. The Stallions themselves claim they had been described as a “model franchise” by an ICC official during the first edition.The first-edition of the LPL was largely seen as a success, with the tournament having gained substantial local support, and supposedly having commanded a significant television audience. That the league has now terminated the popular champions of that edition, to follow a tournament postponement, does raise questions about its viability.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:37

Ugra: India’s top six are clear about their responsibilities

Another series. Another double-hundred for Virat Kohli. The opposition buried under a mountain of runs. The theme first unfolded in Antigua in July 2016, then in Indore and Mumbai. On Friday in Hyderabad against a listless Bangladesh attack, Kohli became the first batsman to hit double-hundreds in four consecutive Test series. By the time they declared at 687 for 6, India had become the first side to rack up 600-plus scores in three-consecutive innings.India’s day became sweeter when Umesh Yadav dismissed Soumya Sarkar for 15 with a 142kph ripper. Sarkar was unperturbed by the outswinger, but was done in by a full ball, which snaked in off the seam. He attempted a limp drive and Wriddhiman Saha threw himself to his right to collect the ball. India challenged the on-field not-out decision with UltraEdge picking up a thin deflection off the toe end. Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque hung on to take Bangladesh to 41 for 1 in 14 overs at stumps.A double-hundred in Tests might be the fantasy of several batsmen, but this innings from Kohli seemed inevitable. He arrived 30 minutes before tea on the first day and completed the landmark at the start of the third over after lunch on the second, swishing left-arm spinner Taijul Islam over cover, the first time he played a lofted shot off a spinner.Probably Kohli’s only nervous moment came on 180 when he was beaten by a sharp offbreak from Mehedi Hasan Miraz and was declared lbw by umpire Joel Wilson. Kohli reviewed the decision, with ball-tracking showing it was turning too much and heading past the leg stump.Soon after making a double-century, Kohli was pinged on the pad by a low-arm slider from Taijul and was given out by umpire Marais Erasmus, at the start of the 126th over. Kohli opted not to review this time; ball-tracking detected the impact was marginally outside off.On either side of Kohli’s exit, Ajinkya Rahane, who was picked over Karun Nair and returning from a finger injury, and Saha, returning from a thigh injury, waltzed to fifty and hundred respectively.Kohli and Rahane had set the tone for the day by extending their overnight 122-run partnership to 222. They scored 70 runs in the first hour as India scored 121 in the morning session.Kohli toyed with the field and with Taskin Ahmed, who did not help Bangladesh by frequently erring short in a spell that read 5-0-38-1. Kohli lashed Taskin over the top to the left of deep point, and cut the next ball along the ground and to the right of the same man. When Taskin went shorter outside off, Kohli ramped him over the slip cordon. Mushfiqur Rahim followed the ball and posted a third man, only for Kohli to beat him to his right with a sliced four.Wriddhiman Saha reached his second Test century with a six•AFP

Along the way, Kohli snatched the record for most Test runs in a home season from his former colleague Virender Sehwag. Rahane played some sparkling shots of his own, but for most part he just did his thing – bunting the ball into the gaps – before he spooned a catch to short cover, where Mehedi dived to his left and came out with the ball in one hand.If Bangladesh thought the wicket, which came after nearly 300 balls, was an opening, they were wrong. It was another false dawn. The ball suddenly started to turn sharply, and Taijul drew Saha a long way out of the crease, but Mushfiqur reprieved him. He had so much time that he missed the stumping opportunity twice. By the time he swiped the bails off on the third attempt, Saha was safe.Saha relied on deft flicks and a variety of cuts, and went onto hit a fifty off 86 balls. R Ashwin looked set for a fifty of his own until he nicked Mehedi to first slip for 34.Saha wasn’t done yet. He was also deft in using his feet against spin, and one such trip down the track saw him stylishly loft Taijul over his head for a six and raise a second Test hundred off 153 balls.That wasn’t the only hundred of the day. Bangladesh’s front-line bowlers – Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Taskin, Mehedi, Taijul and Shakib Al Hasan – all conceded more than 100 runs.Ravindra Jadeja did not miss out on the fun either. India hinted at a declaration when he launched Taijul into the second tier beyond long-on and followed it with a violent slog-sweep over midwicket in Taijul’s next over. In between, Jadeja was dropped by Tamim, running in from long-off, on 40. He cashed in and recorded the sixth fifty-plus score of the Indian innings. He celebrated the landmark with a signature Rajputana sword dance. How Bangladesh would have wished they had something to celebrate.