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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
0:52

Babar Azam’s stellar ODI run

Babar Azam’s seventh ODI hundred combined with a sublime all-round performance from Shadab Khan saw a listless Sri Lanka slump to their ninth consecutive ODI defeat. They lost by 32 runs, although the margin would have been much greater but for a fighting hundred by Sri Lankan captain Upul Tharanga; no one else scored more than 22. Sri Lanka were on top in the first quarter of the match, having reduced Pakistan to 101 for 6, before Azam and Shadab put together a gritty 109-run stand to propel Pakistan to 219.

Tillakaratne rues batting collapse

Batting coach Hashan Tillakaratne rued Sri Lanka’s collapse in their chase of 220 in the second ODI, but was hopeful the team could turn things around in the remaining three matches. “It has been very difficult and disappointing,” he said, after they crashed from 79 for 3 to 187 all out in the second ODI. “I thought we could have chased down that target and bounce back by winning the game. But still series is open and we need to rectify our mistakes and come back strongly.”
Sri Lanka’s middle-order collapse was triggered by legspinner Shadab Khan, who dismissed Dinesh Chandimal, Milinda Siriwardana and Akila Dananjaya for single-digit scores. In the Test series, it was 31-year old Yasir Shah who had troubled them, and Tillakaratne acknowledged the batsmen need to work on this area of their game. “We have been practising to face leg-spinners and hopefully we will put up a good show in the third game,” Tillakaratne added

It was a particularly grave indictment on Sri Lanka’s batting display that they were not in the chase for most of their innings, despite what was, by modern standards, a modest target. The batsmen didn’t find many answers to the relentlessly accurate spin trio of Shadab, Mohammad Hafeez, and Shoaib Malik, on a surface on which runs were especially hard to come by. Tharanga was handed at least four chances during the course of his hundred. The chasm between the sides appeared so wide that Pakistan could afford to be that generous and still bowl Sri Lanka out for 187.With Sri Lanka’s current ODI plight and Pakistan’s bowling prowess, Sri Lanka weren’t expected to make light work of the chase on a slow surface. Sri Lanka lost two early wickets – Niroshan Dickwella and Kusal Mendis – and consumed plenty of dot balls in attempting to absorb the pressure, as if surviving a tricky Test match session. Tharanga and Lahiru Thirimanne added a scratchy 40 runs off 72 balls, and when the latter was eventually dismissed, the asking rate had already climbed to close to 5.50.The rut set in straight after as the spinners knocked the wind out of the chase. Five wickets fell off the next 33 balls. Shadab took a wicket in each of his first three overs, getting prodigious turn with both his legbreak and googly.Jeffrey Vandersay was involved in a 76-run, eighth-wicket stand with Tharanga, who found his range towards the close of the game, looming as the last line of defence against Pakistan taking a 2-0 lead in the series. Shadab was also taken for boundaries and his immaculate length started to waver as Sri Lanka narrowed the gap between runs required and balls remaining.Pakistan could have established a near-impregnable position far earlier had they been less charitable in the field. Tharanga had lived a charmed life; he was dropped three times. That wasn’t the end of his fortune either, he was also given out caught before being overturned on review, and survived another review for lbw. He was trapped right in front later in his innings, but Pakistan ran out of reviews.As the asking rate came down and Sarfraz began to panic, berating his players almost every delivery, Pakistan broke through with 51 runs still to get, Vandersay holing out at deep square off a Rumman Raees slower ball. Lakmal was then run-out following a mix-up with Tharanga. It was fitting, in this frenetic contest, that the game ended via another run-out as Tharanga became the first Sri Lankan batsman to carry his bat through.The first innings had effectively boiled down to a contest between Sri Lanka and Azam after another top-order collapse. Ahmed Shehzad poked and scratched around while Fakhar Zaman also struggled for timing. Zaman was the first to go, Lahiru Gamage angling the ball across Zaman, whose outside edge flew to a wide slip. Shehzad joined him three overs later, driving a wide delivery from Suranga Lakmal straight to point.Lakmal and Gamage were once again terrific with the new ball, getting sufficient movement. Mohammad Hafeez broke the shackles with a glorious six back over Gamage’s head, but edged the next ball – gently seaming away – to the keeper.As Malik and Imad Wasim also fell cheaply, Azam continued to show signs of his quality and composure as a batsman. He held the innings together instead of letting the pressure of the situation get to him. Seemingly oblivious to the collapse around him, he guided the lower order, establishing a magnificent, match-changing partnership with Shadab.There were no slog overs, no pinch hitting. Just mature, calm batsmanship by a pair whose combined age is less than that of recently-retired skipper Misbah-ul-Haq. The singles came freely and easily, and twos were routinely pinched. If the opportunity presented itself, the occasional boundary was struck, too, but not if a risk had to be taken.Not until the first ball of the final over, anyway, when Azam tried to clear long-on with a tired heave. His job had been done, and he left the bowlers with enough room to do theirs. That, usually, is a winning strategy for Pakistan, and so it proved yet again.

Bangladesh pacer Rubel Hossain will travel to South Africa on Thursday night, after receiving security clearance from the South African authorities. Rubel had been barred from travelling with the Bangladesh team on Saturday, as the airlines refused to issue his boarding pass.”The security clearance of Rubel has arrived and he will be taking the evening flight,” Jalal Yunus, BCB’s media committee chairman, said.In a press briefing earlier in the afternoon, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that Rubel was a victim of mistaken identity; another person of the same name and date of birth is barred from entering South Africa. The resultant confusion stopped Rubel from boarding the flight for Johannesburg.The incident prompted an emergency meeting at the board headquarters on Thursday, headed by the BCB chief Hassan.”We have continuously been in contact with Cricket South Africa, who are also in touch with their home ministry,” Hassan said. “We have received the photo and name of another “Rubel Hossain”, whose date of birth also matches with the player. But this person is barred from entering South Africa, so we have confirmed to them that it is not the cricketer Rubel Hossain. I think they got confused, but the photos don’t match.”

St Lucia Stars have named New Zealand’s Jesse Ryder and Mitchell McClenaghan as replacements for David Miller and Lasith Malinga respectively, for the upcoming edition of the Caribbean Premier League, which begins on August 4. While Miller is likely to join South Africa A for their two four-day matches against India A, Malinga, who has been having injury troubles lately, might feature in the limited-overs series against India.Ryder played his last competitive game in March, scoring an unbeaten 109 in the second innings to take Central Districts to a win against Canterbury. The all-rounder, whose international career has been regularly interrupted by a spate of alcohol-related issues, last appeared for New Zealand in 2014. He has, however, been named in New Zealand’s 12-man squad for the Indoor Cricket World Cup in Dubai, which begins in September this year. He averages 26.13 in 133 T20s and strikes at 147.02.McClenaghan, the left-arm fast bowler, played a key role in Mumbai Indians’ successful IPL campaign this year, taking 19 wickets to finish as the team’s second-highest wicket-taker. McClenaghan has made 28 T20I appearances, taking 30 wickets at an average of 25.26.Speaking about the new signings, Manan Pandya of the St Lucia Stars franchise said: “Both Jesse and Mitchell are world-class players who will bring firepower to the squad in terms of both batting and bowling. We are sure that these new Stars will shine as we work on bringing home our first Hero CPL title.”

Gary Ballance has been ruled out of the third Investec Test against South Africa at the Kia Oval after fracturing his left index finger.Ballance was struck on the finger by a short ball from Morne Morkel on the fourth and final day of the Trent Bridge Test. He went for an X-ray on Monday night and was told the results on Tuesday.He saw a hand surgeon in Leeds on Tuesday evening, when the diagnosis was confirmed. He will continue to be monitored by the England medical team and could still be available for selection in the fourth Test at Old Trafford next month..But with the third Test starting on Thursday week, Ballance was never likely to recover in time, despite being willing to play through the injury. He has a top score of 34 in the series to date – and an average of 21.25 – and his position was far from secure anyway.Surrey’s Mark Stoneman is the most likely replacement. Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, admitted after Trent Bridge that Stoneman and Essex’s Tom Westley had been discussed as options ahead of the series and should be considered “on the edge” of the team.Stoneman, who made half-centuries in both innings of England Lions’ match against South Africa A, could bat anywhere in the top three, providing an opportunity for Keaton Jennings to slip down to No. 3 if required.His selection will do nothing to appease Durham supporters who feel that ‘more fashionable’ clubs receive more attention from the England selectors. Stoneman, 30, spent a decade at Durham but may well find that, only a few months after moving to Surrey, the selectors’ attention has been grabbed. He is averaging 58.53 in the Championship season with three centuries.He has been left out of Surrey’s side for the last couple of T20 games and is understood to be training only against a red ball at present.Bayliss, who admits he has never yet seen Stoneman bat in the flesh, had previously indicated that he was reluctant to consider making too many changes as it be inconsistent with policy of recent months. He might also have hinted, depending on your interpretation of his words, that England’s problems in finding a top-order partner for Alastair Cook may be due to the quality of batsmen being produced by county cricket.”Since Andrew Strauss, I’ve forgotten how many guys have played at the top of the order,” he said. “All of those guys have been picked because they’ve done well in county cricket.”They’ve then probably started off well in Test cricket and then fallen away a little. So that’s a concern, obviously.”But one of the things we’ve tried to do since I’ve come in is give those guys a bit longer to show what they have. It still hasn’t worked, to be honest. But if we’re consistent with our selections Jennings, at the top of the order, should get some more goes.”The last selection meeting we had before this series started, players like Stoneman and Westley were spoken about at length. Obviously, Haseeb Hameed, too, but he is a little out of form this year. So those guys, they are on the edge.”Bayliss had previously seemed to reject the idea of bringing in a new man to bolster the batting. He suggested a side should not require eight batsmen and that Moeen Ali, in particular, would be peeved by being demoted down the order yet again.”The one I’d be concerned about the most is Moeen,” Bayliss said. “As a batter, I’d be upset having to bat No.8.”It’s almost a waste having eight batters in the team. We played that way against Australia and were successful because Moeen, as a batter at No.8, scored a few runs.”But in a way, that’s papering over the cracks a little. It’s saying we’re not confident with our batting line-up. The simple fact is we’ve got to do better with the bat.”While Bayliss strongly refuted any selection that England paid for playing overly aggressively – “If you look at the top seven, we had five blokes out blocking,” he said – he did admit he was concerned by England’s inconsistency.”If you look back over the couple of years I’ve been here, we’ve won one well and then lost one well,” he said. “It is a concern.”I put the questions to the team: if we win a game, does our mindset change? So we approach the next game differently? It’s only them that will be able to say as a group or as individuals. But we’ll go away over the next few days and when we get together again I’m sure we’ll sit down and have another discussion about it.”The white ball team is a lot more lot more settled. In fact we have other guys who could quite easily be in the team. It’s not quite like that in the red ball team. There are still a number of guys trying to cement a spot, which always creates a little bit of pressure.”The one thing we have – and we certainly admit – is that whether you’re an attacking style player or a defensive type player, we’ve got to do it better. Definitely.”England are also expected to provide an update over Mark Wood’s fitness imminently. He suffered bruising on his left heel during the second Test and may be sent for a scan to assess the extent of the damage. Wood has undergone three bouts of surgery on his left ankle.The squad for the third Test is due to be named on Friday or Saturday.

Kuldeep Yadav has bowled in two matches for India. On Test debut in March, he took four first-innings wickets, turning the ball both ways to trip Australia up after they were 144 for 1 in the series decider. The first time he bowled in an ODI, on Sunday, Kuldeep had West Indies in a tangle with his wrong ‘uns and finished with 3 for 50. What is it that makes the 22-year old left-arm wristspinner hard to handle?”It becomes difficult when he bowls cross-seam deliveries turning both ways,” the India captain Virat Kohli said, after his side’s 105-run victory in the second ODI in Trinidad. “Usually bowlers bowl seam-up deliveries turning in and cross seam bowling the googly. But he can do both bowling cross seam, so that becomes difficult to pick from the wrist.”Then when batsmen try to attack, he can slow his pace down, just beat the batsmen halfway into the pitch. So he’s quite amazing with what he does with the ball. I’ve faced him in the IPL as well, he’s not easy to get away – especially when the wicket is dry like it was today, he becomes even more lethal. Credit to him for putting in a performance like that in his first bowling performance in ODIs.”In the Champions Trophy earlier this month in England, India had an unlikely weakness: spin. The offspin of R Aswhin and left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja proved ineffective, prompting former captain Rahul Dravid to suggest it was time to try wristspin. Given Kuldeep’s immediate success, Kohli was asked if he would be one to stick with in ODIs.”A wristspinner is always a bonus, something we have identified now in this series, so all sorts of options are open,” Kohli said. “The 2019 World Cup, we’ve got 15 players here, then we’ve got a pool of 10 or 12 back home who will probably be tested over the next two years, see how they react in pressure situations, and who’s able to make more impact through the middle overs for us, especially with the ball. That’s something we need to look at as a side, to improve upon going ahead, then figure out who the best guys are.”India’s other top performer in Port of Spain was Ajinkya Rahane, who struck 103 off 104 balls to set them on their way to 310 for 5 in 43 overs. Rahane did not get a game in the Champions Trophy, with India’s first-choice opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma in fine form. However, with Rohit rested for this series, Rahane stepped in and made 50-plus scores in the first two ODIs.Kohli said Rahane remained India’s preferred back-up opener in limited-overs cricket and offered the team the option of selecting an extra bowler because of his ability to bat in the middle order as well.”Jinks [Rahane] has great potential at the top of the order, but when Rohit and Shikhar as an opening partnership play well in one-day cricket then that becomes a powerful package for us,” Kohli said. “Jinks is always in there for us as the third opener, and having got the opportunity in this series he has batted really well. Today, the way he paced himself I thought was really, really nice. He was going at a run a ball, never fell behind.”If he keeps performing like this… he’s someone who has done the middle-order job as well in the past, so he can very well be that floater in the middle order. He’s someone that might allow you to take an extra bowler in a big tournament like a 2019 World Cup. There are very few guys who can open and play in the middle order and Ajinkya is one of them. In future we see him providing more balance to us as a side in terms of taking an extra bowling option maybe on tour.”

Match facts

Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians
Delhi, May 6, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)4:11

‘Mumbai empowering young batsmen’

Head-to-head

This season: After a strong bowling performance that restricted Mumbai to 142, Daredevils crumbled to 24 for 6 in the chase and lost by 14 short despite late resistance by Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris.Overall: Mumbai lead marginally overall, with a 10-9 record. However, they haven’t beaten Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla since 2011 – that is four wins in a row for the home team.

Form guide

Delhi Daredevils (sixth): beat Lions by seven wickets, beat Sunrisers by six wickets, lost to Kings XI by ten wickets
Mumbai Indians (first): beat RCB by five wickets, beat Lions in Super Over, lost to Rising Pune by three runs

In the news

In a mid-game interview during Daredevils’ match on Thursday, Zaheer Khan hinted that he is closing in on a comeback. He said he had had a “good running session” but “bowling is the biggest hurdle” and that he would give bowling a go over the next day or two. Daredevils continue to monitor Zaheer’s fitness and Karun Nair is set to continue as captain. Allrounder Morris was benched on Thursday but could get a look-in against Mumbai. This could be the last match he is available for this season. It is understood that he and Rabada were originally set to leave on May 7 for national duty, but the outcome of the Mumbai game is likely to determine their plans.Harbhajan Singh missed the last game through injury but is expected to be back. The extent of Krunal Pandya’s injury landing on the ball in the previous match is unclear.

Qualification scenario

Daredevils need to win at least three of their next four games to stay in contention for a playoffs spot. They play three of those games at home, including this, which will be their third consecutive one at home.Mumbai Indians are at the top of the table and two points clear of Kolkata Knight Riders with a game in hand. Their focus will be to hold on to that spot and ensure they make it to the first qualifier, which is scheduled to be held at Wankhede Stadium.

The likely XIs

Delhi Daredevils 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Karun Nair (capt), 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Marlon Samuels, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Chris Morris/Pat Cummins, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Shahbaz Nadeem
Mumbai Indians 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Rohit Sharma (capt), 5 Krunal Pandya/Karn Sharma, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Harbhajan Singh/K Gowtham, 9 Mitchell McClenaghan, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Strategy punt

Bumrah has dismissed Pant twice in the six balls he has bowled to him, and conceded only three runs. Mitchell McClenaghan has dismissed Sanju Samson thrice in nine balls while conceding 14. Rohit Sharma might bowl them in tandem if the pair are batting together.

Stats that matter

• Morris has struck at 206.9 in the slog overs this season, the highest for any batsman with a minimum of 100 runs. He has also taken seven wickets at 7.76 in the death overs – by far the most successful of the Daredevils bowlers. They will have a big void to fill when he leaves.
• Carlos Brathwaite hits a boundary every 2.4 balls in the slog overs in the IPL. However, his strike rate against spinners in all T20 cricket is only 103.01. Given the spin weakness, Daredevils might settle for Corey Anderson as the finisher with Marlon Samuels expected to play an anchor role.
• Jasprit Bumrah has become progressively better as the playoffs approach – he took four wickets at an economy of 8.80 in the first five matches. In the next five, he has taken eight wickets at economy of 7.25
• Amit Mishra has conceded 75 off 81 balls against Rohit Sharma, and has dismissed him on five occasions

A week after the BCCI announced new annual contracts, it has emerged that some players are unhappy with the revised pay structure. Despite the annual retainer having been doubled, it is understood that the players’ response has stemmed from the revised contracts not meeting their demands. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the issue had been a concern for a while and that the players have made a concerted effort to address it in the last few months.”Things have gathered momentum over the last three months or so, through the New Zealand and England series,” an insider aware of the developments said. “Almost every player has been involved in the discussions.” The coach, Anil Kumble, who was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the central contracts system in 2003, is learnt to have pushed for a complete overhaul of the existing structure to ensure contracted players get a bigger slice of the whole revenue pie, and not just a percentage of a whittled-down portion.Earlier this month, Kumble had made a presentation on a revamped compensation structure on behalf of the players and support staff to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) in Bengaluru. Although one source said the players are likely to meet the CoA in the forthcoming days to revisit the new contracts, a CoA official said no such meeting was on the cards.The CoA, though, believes Kumble’s proposals require an entirely new framework, which will require time to formulate. “Kumble is also aware that it cannot happen overnight,” the CoA official said. “That will be thought through and we will see what we can do on that. That is not something that can be done in 24 hours or 48 hours. It will take a lot of deliberation because it is a complete re-think of how the compensation model is thought through.”Last week, a few days after Kumble’s presentation, 32 players were handed new retainers, in which seven Grade A-contract holders – including Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane and R Ashwin – will be paid INR 2 crore (USD 300,000 approx) each per year. According to the new arrangement, those in Grade B and C will now earn INR 1 crore (USD 150,000 approx) and INR 50 lakh (USD 75,000) respectively. The match fees were also increased from INR 7 lakh to 15 lakh in Tests, 4 lakh to 6 lakh in ODIs and 2 lakh to 3 lakh in T20Is. This revision in the pay structure was the first since 2010.The assistant coaches – Sanjay Bangar (batting) and R Sridhar (fielding) – were also given a 50% hike in retainership fees; they will now earn 15 lakh each per month, barring the two-month IPL window, for which they are not paid.There were other financial rewards, too, with the BCCI announcing payments – INR 50 lakh per player, 25 lakh for Kumble and 15 lakh for each member of the support staff – for India becoming the No. 1-ranked Test side. The ICC also awarded the team USD 1 million for finishing the year as the top-ranked Test nation.Despite the windfall, some players believe the pay rise isn’t commensurate with the growth in BCCI profits. The BCCI’s total income in 2015-16 stood at INR 1365.35 crore. Out of this, the board paid a total of 56.35 crore to players. An amount of 46.31 crore was paid as “additional payment to players”, as per the board’s annual statement last year.The sticking point, though, is the income from the television rights, which is the board’s biggest revenue stream. The norm has been distribution of about 70% of the income – generated from rights – to the state associations. For perspective, when the contracts were introduced in 2003 by the BCCI, the board paid players – both international and domestic, including the junior categories – 26% of the overall revenues. Of this, half (13%) was assigned to the men’s international players, while 10.3% was distributed among the domestic players. The remaining 2.7% was allotted to a bracket featuring the junior players, although women were added to this category subsequently.What has further irked the players is that their annual retainer is comparatively lower than that of their English and Australian counterparts. Different sources have estimated Joe Root and Steven Smith’s annual retainers at between INR 8 crore and 12 crore. “When the ECB and CA compensate their players handsomely, why does the BCCI, the world’s richest board, not do enough?” the source asked. “In addition, the BCCI’s coffers have seen a huge increase since the introduction of the IPL, but the players don’t get a fair share of such revenues. It is ultimately the state associations that walk away with the lion’s share of the money.”Another source said the BCCI could not use the players’ IPL earnings as a pretext for not substantially increasing the annual retainers. “One player might get a contract worth 12 crore, another may be bought for 30 lakh, and there are players who don’t get any IPL contracts,” the source said. “Why should the board be concerned with the amount of money players make from the IPL? The values of both these properties are different, so why do they connect the two? The BCCI is the richest board and the money is meant to be spent on cricket and cricketers, not stadia.”The other cause of consternation has been the gulf in the pay structures between domestic and international cricketers. A veteran domestic player said there was very little financial incentive for someone to play only first-class cricket. “A player in the Test squad makes 7.5 lakh per game, even if he is not included in the playing XI,” he said. “If I play a whole season of first-class cricket – I get paid 40,000 per four-day game, along with a percentage of the board’s gross revenue – I will probably make a little more in a season than what a player on the bench makes per Test match.”He said that a contract system had to be put in place for domestic cricketers as well. “The absence of any concrete financial benefit is why people in first-class cricket are constantly looking to play only the IPL,” he said. “After all, not everyone can play for India. But, with a system like this, you are not producing people who would want to play Test cricket. The disparity is huge.”

England Lions 353 (Livingstone 105, Westley 68, Pushpakumara 8-127) and 32 for 2 trail Sri Lanka A 548 (Karunaratne 212, Samarawickrama 185) by 163 runs
ScorecardOllie Rayner’s marathon stint brought four wickets [file picture]•Getty Images

England Lions face a battle to avoid defeat in their second four-day match in Dambulla against a Sri Lanka A side battling to square the series.Sri Lanka A took a commanding lead of 195 then took two wickets early in the Lions’ second innings. When bad light stopped play with 23 overs of the day’s allocation remaining, the Lions had been reduced to 32 for two, with Haseeb Hameed and Tom Alsop both undone by the early introduction of spin.Malinda Pushpakumara, the left-arm spinner who took eight wickets in the first innings and four in each innings of the Lions victory in Kandy, opened the bowling and had Hameed caught behind for 16 in his fourth over, leaving the Lancashire and England opener with only 35 runs from his four innings in the series.Alsop, the Hampshire left-hander who came in for Nick Gubbins in this match, fell lbw pushing forward to the off-spinner Dhananjaya De Silva in the next over, just before the umpires decided that the light was no longer playable.So Tom Westley will resume with captain Keaton Jennings on the last day with the Lions still 163 runs behind – and facing the sort of test that is part of the purpose of development tours such as this.The Lions had spent a total of more than 135 overs in the field in Dambulla’s combination of heat and humidity, with Ollie Rayner bowling almost 50 of them.Rayner is the sole survivor in this Lions team who played in a high-scoring draw at Dambulla three years ago, when he bowled a total of 44 overs without a wicket.So figures of 48.2-8-164-4 represented a significant improvement for the 31-year-old Middlesex off-spinner, whose county team-mate Toby Roland-Jones also earned highly respectable figures of three for 67 from 20 overs.”We’ve done 150 overs in the dirt there – that’s tough,” said Rayner. “And they played very well. I’m feeling like one of the older guys on the trip at the moment. But I think the boys stuck at it. We maybe struggled later on Saturday, let things drift a bit. But we came back today, especially after lunch.”You have a lot of chances to take wickets when you bowl 48 overs. You can’t just have one plan when you bowl in the sub-continent, because it doesn’t go to plan, as we’ve seen today – 30 for 3 to 333 for 3. I feel like I’ve got a few more options than when I last came out here with the Lions three years ago.”Unfortunately for us it was starting to turn a bit more at the end there. But hopefully with a bit of a dust and a roll overnight that should tidy it up.”There was a second wicket for Tom Curran, who had made the first breakthrough on Saturday morning as the Sri Lankans were reduced to 30 for three, and one for Somerset spinner Jack Leach – with Surrey wicketkeeper Ben Foakes taking five catches, including a spectacular one-handed effort to give Curran the wicket of Pushpakumara.Sadeera Samarawickrama and Dimuth Karunaratne, who had made the Lions toil for more than two sessions without a wicket on Saturday, extended their fourth-wicket partnership to 315 before Roland-Jones denied Samarawickrama a maiden double century with the second new-ball, trapping him lbw for 185 as he worked to leg.But De Silva then joined Karunaratne to add further punishment in a fifth-wicket stand of 131 in 28 overs.To take the last six wickets for 72 represented a decent fightback by the Lions, with Rayner claiming three of them. First he had De Silva caught behind down the legside for 74 from 95 balls, and four overs later the left-handed Karunaratne outside-edged a drive to Tom Curran at backward point.The opener, who is expected to return to Sri Lanka’s Test team for the forthcoming home series against Bangladesh, had posted a new first-class career best of 212 from 319 balls – and Rayner in particular must be sick of the sight of him, as he made 156 here against the Lions three years ago.Roshen Silva then pushed a return catch to Roland-Jones, before Foakes leapt to his right to dismiss Pushpakumara, and then claimed his fifth victim when Jeffrey Vandersay edged a cut at the persevering Leach.Rayner claimed the last wicket courtesy of an excellent one-handed catch by Alsop diving forward from short leg, but the Lions already knew they were in for a battle.

Virat Kohli has said India are looking at being 1-0 down against Australia not as a setback but as an opportunity to improve ahead of the second Test in Bengaluru. India’s 333-run defeat in Pune snapped a winning streak that lasted 19 Tests, and Kohli said it was inevitable for teams to lose focus on their weaknesses during extended runs of good results.”I think it’s an opportunity to understand what other things we still need to work on,” Kohli said, on the eve of the second Test. “We are all professional cricketers. But sometimes when you are winning a lot of games, you don’t tend to focus on points that need to be improved as such. Because someone or the other is stepping up.”When the whole team does not execute the things that you want to, you understand the things that you need to work on as a team. That’s always a good sign. We got to know a lot more things that we need to still keep working on to be the top side in the world. As I said last time, you can’t take anything for granted at any stage of a Test match. It’s something that you look [at] as an opportunity to learn rather than a setback. I think these things are also important for your cricket journey.”Kohli said India had not deviated from their usual training routines before the Bengaluru Test, and stressed on the importance of playing without inhibitions or fear of things going wrong.”We don’t necessarily push people to practice in different ways because every individual has his own way of preparing for the game,” he said. “But in terms of mindset we have made a conscious push to go out there and express ourselves without thinking about ‘what if’. Individuals want to play their natural game and they should; they want to bowl a certain way and they should, not thinking about the outcome necessarily.”There won’t be any hesitation from here on till the end of the series from our side. That’s something we’ve addressed. Practice has always been similar, win or lose. That’s how you become consistent as a team, when you repeat the same things day in and day out. We have a set pattern of practise we always execute before every Test match and this time is no different. When you lose because of lack of intent, those things need to be addressed and we’ve done that.”Kohli didn’t divulge the combination India would play in Bengaluru, but hinted that there might be surprises, while answering a question about whether they were thinking of leaving out Jayant Yadav, who was the least penetrative of India’s three spinners on a square turner in Pune.”We have our ideas; we will go in with the best combination possible,” Kohli said. “Jayant has been outstanding. You can’t put too much pressure on a guy who’s played just one series. He’s been brilliant so far; the way he’s grabbed his spot has been outstanding. He’s a very intelligent cricketer.”All of us go through the grind. We have good games, bad games, off days as well. Pune wasn’t his best game. I won’t sit here and judge him because he’s played only a few games but he knows how to turn things around and get back into that mindset he started his first series with. I’m sure he’ll get back into that zone. As far as the combinations are concerned, we are studying a lot of options. Eventually we’ll come to a conclusion this evening, on what is the XI we want to go with. But yes, all kinds of possibilities tomorrow. Might be a few surprises.”

Azhar Ali is likely to be removed as Pakistan’s ODI captain after his side lost the series in Australia 4-1. Pakistan were beaten in the final ODI in Adelaide, slumping to the same score line they had suffered in England last year, and the PCB is keen to use it as an opportunity to replace Azhar with the T20 captain, Sarfraz Ahmed.The move, ESPNcricinfo understands, could be the precursor to eventually appointing a single captain for all formats, though any such decision will have to wait until the Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq takes a call on his future.Leadership issues were discussed in a meeting in Lahore during the fourth ODI of this series by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Mushtaq Ahmed, the head coach at the National Cricket Academy. They are thought to be united in their belief that Sarfraz should take over the ODI captaincy but will wait until Misbah retires to name a new Test captain.They differ as to whether Pakistan should move ahead with a single captain, but if they do go down that route it could mean that Azhar is overlooked as the Test successor to Misbah; Azhar is the Test vice-captain and, in Misbah’s absence, led Pakistan recently in a Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. It could also mean the end of an experiment begun after the 2015 World Cup, when, for the first time, Pakistan had three different captains – Shahid Afridi was then the T20 captain.If Azhar is axed, it will end a difficult tenure that began right after the 2015 World Cup. He was not in the squad for that tournament and had, in fact, not featured in an ODI since January 2013. What he did have going for him was a secure position in the Test side, and good form in List A cricket: in the domestic Pentangular Cup that season he was the leading scorer with 302 runs at an average of 60.40 and strike rate of 86.28. In the President’s Gold Cup, he scored 234 runs at a strike rate of 86.98.Under Azhar’s leadership, Pakistan’s slipped to a record-low ninth in the ODI rankings. They have since risen one place to at least be in the running for direct qualification to the 2019 World Cup, but they only scraped into this year’s Champions Trophy. Much of their decline in the limited-overs formats has been building for some time, but it has become much starker under Azhar.Pakistan have won only five out of ten bilateral series under Azhar, two of them against Zimbabwe, and one each against Ireland, Sri Lanka and West Indies. In all, Pakistan won 12 and lost 18 games.The PCB has been thinking of removing Azhar for some time. In September last year, following a 4-1 thumping in England, Shaharyar had asked Azhar to consider stepping down. Azhar decided to stay on, however, and led Pakistan to a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies in the UAE. That win left the PCB no choice but to retain him for the Australia tour. A day before the first Test in Brisbane, however, Shaharyar again raised concerns, telling ESPNcricinfo that Azhar’s place in the ODI side was on shaky ground and that they were considering replacing him.Azhar’s individual performances have not been poor in that time – he has scored 1152 runs at 37.19. He has expanded his limited-overs game, evident in the improvement of his strike rate. In his first 14 ODIs between 2011 and 2013, his strike rate was 64.84 – during his captaincy that jumped to 79.90. However, that improvement might not be enough to save his place as captain, or even in the side. Last year, Pakistan Super League franchise Lahore Qalanders also removed Azhar from the captaincy.What the PCB will be weighing up is the potential impact such a move could have on his position in the Test side. He was Pakistan’s most prolific batsman last year, scoring a hundred in England, a triple hundred in Dubai and then crowning it off with a double at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test; he scored more runs in a three-Test series in Australia than any Pakistan batsman before him.