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MCC 265 and 265 for 4 (Sibley 128) drew with Surrey 520 (Pope 251) Surrey’s bid for victory in the Champion County fixture in Dubai was thwarted by rain, as the final day was curtailed after just 19 overs.MCC had resumed on 221 for 1, a deficit of 34, and had inched into a one-run lead when Tom Westley became the first victim of the day, bowled by Scott Borthwick’s legspin for 28.Dom Sibley, who had resumed on 102, moved along to 128 when he too was bowled, this time by Rikki Clarke, who trapped Tom Abell for a first-ball duck one delivery later.That, however, was the end of Surrey’s surge, as the match was called off with MCC leading by 10.Surrey’s next fixture is against Durham MCCU on April 4, before they launch their County Championship defence against the 2017 champions, Essex, at The Oval on April 11.

Cameron Bancroft says that he is ready to put the past behind him as he prepares to lead Durham into the County Championship season, but accepts that others may take longer to forgive him for his role in the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket last year.Bancroft, 26, was last month named as Durham’s captain for the 2019 season – a surprise appointment from the club’s new director of cricket, Marcus North. However, it is an honour that the player himself is eager to live up to, after claiming to have grown as a person in the course of his enforced absence from the game.”Of course I haven’t had a lot of experience at first-class level captaining but I think all captains, all leaders, at some point in their lives started off captaining zero games of cricket,” Bancroft said. “That’s where I’m at right now and I’m just looking forward to learning about my team-mates, to being a part of the Durham County Cricket Club.”They’re a team that have had a few changes to the squad over the last 12 months and I know they’re all really excited and looking forward to the future and I look forward to sharing and being a part of that.”Images of Bancroft flashed around the world in March last year when, midway through the Cape Town Test against South Africa, he was caught using sandpaper to rough up the match ball, and even attempted to hide the evidence by stuffing the object down his trousers.It led to a nine-month ban from the sport for Bancroft, and 12-month bans for his senior colleagues, David Warner, who was deemed to have hatched the plan, and Steve Smith, who as captain was responsible for his team’s on-field behaviour.Bancroft said he “one hundred percent” hoped to return to the Australian Test team alongside Smith and Warner.”It would mean a lot to me, definitely,” Bancroft said. “But I also know that I’ve got a lot of really great things in my life and even playing just club cricket back home in Perth, it’s a game that I felt like, you get really self-absorbed and single-minded in your pursuits to achieve things.”But I think at the forefront is just the enjoyment of it all and if I do that I know that the result will take care of itself and it might not be. Hopefully that will happen one day.”Bancroft admitted, however, that he had contemplated walking away from cricket.”I’ve had moments where I’ve been really flat, really down,” he said. “You’re in a grieving phase, and you’ve got to be really honest with yourselves. Particularly as men you can sometimes really hold onto things, can’t you? So being able to express that to my family and I’ve had a really great sports psychologist back home. To be able to honour that within yourself is really important.”Walking home one day to where I was staying I had a thought that perhaps cricket wasn’t going to be for me … but once I started playing grade cricket for my club, I had so much fun.”Cameron Bancroft adjusts his pants at short extra cover•Gallo Images/Stringer

The ban was, he reflects, an unexpectedly positive experience, in spite of the turmoil it caused at the time. Bancroft immersed himself in yoga, to “detach myself from the story of being a professional cricketer”, and got involved with volunteer projects, including a camping exhibition with the Kyle Andrews Foundation, which cares for sick and terminally ill children.”As much as I missed cricket, the opportunity it gave me to look at myself was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said. “I had to go home. Sit with myself, grieve, forgive myself, and then ultimately move forward.”I’ve learned a lot about myself, I think being able to take time to detach myself from cricket was something that I found a lot of joy in. To know that the identity and person I created from being a professional cricketer, a game which I love, I think I was just able to connect a lot with different parts of the community, meet a lot of great people.”Turning that event from South Africa into a positive was something I was really proud of and to have that opportunity to grow as a person, you’d be silly not to take those steps forward.”

Leadership was far away from Steven Smith’s mind when there was a knock on his hotel room door on Friday evening in Jaipur. It was a member of the Rajasthan Royals team management, and the message was simple – he was the captain of the team. A day later, Smith admitted to being surprised by the update, and said his first act was to have an “honest chat with Ajinkya Rahane”, who he described as the “perfect team man”.”I think Ajinkya has done a terrific job for the last year-and-a-half. Obviously, he got the boys to the playoffs last year, but the management called me in yesterday and said they wanted me to captain for the rest of the season,” Smith said after steering Royals to a five-wicket win over Mumbai Indians with an unbeaten half-century, his first of the season. “I was a bit surprised by it at the time, but yeah, that’s their decision.”I wasn’t going for the captaincy or anything like that. The management just called me and told me this was how it’s going to be. So I had a chat with Ajinkya, he’s a terrific guy. He said ‘whatever’s best for the team, I’ll support’. You just have to see the way he came out. It’s never easy being told those kind of things but he came out today and played some nice shots at the start, got us off to a good start. He’s a terrific guy and always does what is the best for the team.”It’s the latest upturn in what has been a rollercoaster few months for Smith, during which an elbow problem – and the after-effects of a surgery on it – have been constants. He has been playing with an elbow guard, both while batting and while fielding, to help curb the flexing of the muscles near the area that was affected. While this has impacted his throwing and forced him to curb certain shots, Smith said the good news was that he was “only two weeks away” from complete recovery.”I still have to play quite heavily strapped, there’s still a few issues with throwing, but I am getting there slowly,” he said. “I can’t throw full tilt yet, but in a couple of weeks, I should be able to throw at full pace, which is going to be nice. I haven’t quite enjoyed hiding in the field, it’s not my sort of way around things. I like being in the midst of the action, around the hotspots, and get involved.”The elbow is coming along nicely. Since I’ve been in India, I haven’t felt any pain batting. It’s more about just getting used to the fact that I can’t straighten my arm, which took some time to get around, but I’m feeling good, better with each and every game that I play.”Riyan Parag played an important hand•BCCI

Before this game, Smith has been unable to put up a really big score, or impact the result of a game in a big way. Smith expressed relief at doing that on Saturday, and sounded happy with where his game was at.”I feel like I’m getting better and better, the way I’m hitting the ball,” he said. “More importantly, my mind is probably getting better and better, the decisions I’m making. I base my batting around the decisions I make, and I’m clearer in my mind. I’m getting clearer and clearer about the way I play.”I’m happy where things are at, currently. Hopefully, things can get better for the Royals over the next few games. That’s what I’m thinking about for the moment.”Smith reserved special praise for Riyan Parag, the third youngest after Prayas Ray Burman and Mujeeb Ur Rahman to feature in the IPL. Smith shared a 70-run stand with the 17-year-old to help Royals recover from a mini-slump and canter to victory. Parag’s audacious shot-making, particularly off Lasith Malinga and Hardik Pandya, had Smith run up to him to exchange high-fives.The new Royals captain said Parag had taught even the experienced players, including himself, a few lessons. “He’s a terrific young kid,” Smith said. “He works very hard, he’s a fit and strong young kid. The way he batted, even in the first game that he played, he taught a lot of the experienced players a few lessons, including myself. He played with a really cool head, just came out and played with freedom.”He saw the ball, hit the ball and didn’t worry about anything.”On Parag’s bowling – full of tricks and variations – Smith said, “He’s also got terrific skills with the ball. He bowled really well against Chennai (Super Kings) and bowled really well here. He only started bowling the stuff that he’s been bowling three weeks ago, before that he was just a genuine offspinner. The kid learns very quickly, sign of a very good player, someone who has a bright future. There’s no doubt about that.”

As the Australians arrived for their first training session at Trent Bridge, the head-banging guitar riff and grinding lyrics of ACDC’s You Shook Me All Night Long bellowed from the speaker on the dressing room balcony.Several West Indies players were still at the ground, wrapping up a clinic and signing autographs for children. One member of the camp joked that Bob Marley music would be more welcome.But the upcoming match between the two sides has all the makings of a heavy metal contest rather than a reggae groove; the battle of the bumpers, the barrage of bouncers, so to speak.It’s no surprise. Australia and West Indies boast heavy artillery in the fast bowling department and both deployed it liberally in their opening seven-wicket victories against Afghanistan and Pakistan, respectively. But while Carlos Brathwaite acknowledges that bouncers are a “preferred tactic” for West Indies, he emphasised the importance of the balls that bracket them, the spaces in between.”Obviously we’ve been hearing the talk of bouncer this and bouncer that but it’s always been a part of cricket,” said Brathwaite. “Probably it’s come to the fore a bit because the pitches will take the bouncer and only four fielders out, so the bowlers need to find something and obviously no one likes a ball 140-145 k’s at your head. So that’s why the bouncer has been the favourite tactic thus far.”But you can only bowl two an over and the other four you have to be spot on and I think, as much as it was mentioned against Pakistan about our bouncers, I think those are the four balls in the over if you use them quite well. Up front Jase and Sheldon tried to swing it and myself and Russell tried to hit our lengths and then the bouncer became a surprise, probably even a dot ball option, so whilst it is obviously the preferred tactic, the most important thing is the balls that accompany, the other four balls in the over.”We may get early wickets, we may not. When do we use the bumper? How regularly do we use it? And how much will the effect of the pitch allow us to use the bouncer as well?”As Sid Monga noted in his early analysis of short pitched bowling this World Cup, against Afghanistan, “Eighteen percent of balls delivered by Australia’s quicks were short, almost double the usual rate you see.”West Indies demolished Pakistan with similar roughhouse tactics. Most notable was Andre Russell’s venomous three-over spell, of which 18 deliveries were short, that netted two wickets and conceded just four runs.England tried it unsuccessfully against Pakistan, playing Mark Wood and Joffra Archer in the hope fast, short-pitch lightning could strike twice on the same ground against the same opponents but, as is often the case, while the high-risk high-reward tactic of bowling short did result in six wickets, it also allowed for a big score: Pakistan made 113 runs of their total score off 109 short balls.Thursday’s match will be played on the same pitch that was used in that run-fest. Pitch 6, or the record pitch, as it’s often called after England’s 481 in last year’s ODI against Australia. But Brathwaite knows Australian batsmen are more likely to treat short, fast bowling like Vegemite on toast; a familiar meal.”Traditionally they’ve grown up on fast bouncy tracks and there’s only two balls an over,” said Brathwaite. “And it’s a mental game. If that bouncer can get into their head and allow our other four balls in that over to be perfectly executed or you know give us a bigger margin for error then perfect.”If not then we have to find another strategy but yes, we do expect Australia to play it better than Pakistan. However we need to be better at our other four balls as well because everyone knows what’s coming and it’s about execution versus execution.”We may get early wickets, we may not. When do we use the bumper? How regularly do we use it? And how much will the effect of the pitch allow us to use the bouncer as well?”But while Australia’s batsmen may be more accustomed to facing the heat, Brathwaite suggested that familiarity could occasionally breed contempt.”Some batsmen are traditionally good, some batsmen traditionally not so much,” said Brathwaite. “But there’s a saying in the Caribbean that people that can’t swim don’t drown. So maybe the person that can play the short ball better may be more susceptible and the ones that are more expectant of it may be more wary and, as a result, not take it on so much.”One very short boundary, The Record Pitch, some of the game’s most belligerent strikers and aggressive bowlers.All the elements are there. If they click, it could shake us all game long.

Cameron Bancroft made a shocking admission on the third evening of this game. He confessed he did not yet know the lyrics of “Blaydon Races”, Durham’s famous victory song. “When we sing it, one of the lads has to get the words up on his phone,” said the Durham skipper. Someone at the Riverside should perhaps advise Bancroft to remedy this deficiency forthwith. Folk in the North East might look askance at a bloke bunging an abrasive down his strides in a Test match but not knowing what could be observed down the Scotswood Road on June 9, 1862 is even less easy to excuse.One Durham cricketer almost certainly well acquainted with events at Balmbra’s and the Robin Adair is Ben Raine and he may have belted out the Geordie anthem with particular gusto this glorious afternoon in Hove after his team had completed their 196-run victory over Sussex. Despite spending six seasons at Leicestershire, Sunderland-born Raine was very much returning home when he signed a three-year contract at the Riverside last September and he will have taken particular pleasure in taking four wickets in 16 balls either side of lunch, a spell which all but decided the game.Things got even better for Raine later in the piece. His dismissals of both Chris Jordan and Aaron Thomason sealed Durham’s victory seven overs after tea and they left him with career-best figures of 6 for 27. Moreover, his full analysis – 22.3-13-27-6 – was a fair reflection of his accuracy and it led one or two greybeards to recall the great days of Tom Cartwright and Derek Shackleton. Comparisons do not come any more honourable.Durham’s victory also has a wider significance. For one thing it takes Bancroft’s side off the bottom of a Division Two table which is making the experts’ forecasts look like March madness. At the halfway point of the Championship season Glamorgan, Derbyshire and Gloucestershire are in three of the top five places – just as everyone predicted. It can be argued with perfect justice that Durham are not out of the hunt for promotion, especially if they were to beat Lancashire at Sedbergh in a game beginning on Sunday. In the aftermath of victory, of course, one or two of their players may not be quite sure where Sedbergh is, but on one matter they can be reassured. It is, so far as we know, not on the road to Blaydon.As for Sussex, their straightforward skipper, Ben Brown, identified their dropped catches on the first day and their inadequate batting on the second as contributory factors to their deserved defeat. Yet the odd thing about Brown’s team at the moment is that all of them can bat and supporters feel just as confident about their prospects when they see Delray Rawlins coming in at No. 9 as they do when Harry Finch goes in first wicket down. Injuries to players like Phil Salt and Mir Hamza are not helping either but Durham’s cricket this week may have been enough to defeat a full-strength side and it was far too good for Brown’s batsmen on Thursday.However, until Raine came on from the Sea End before lunch, Durham had not taken a wicket nor had they looked like doing so. The overnight pair, Stiaan van Zyl and Ollie Robinson, had batted with such assurance that it was tough to tell which of them was the nightwatchman. The pair had added 82 runs in 31 overs with van Zyl eventually joining his partner in taking the attack to the bowlers, a tactic which nearly decapitated James Weighell early in the session when he failed to see the ball after it had been savagely cut through point by Robinson off Chris Rushworth. It was hard to think Robinson could carry on like this for long but he did so and deep in the morning Sussex were entitled to ponder the possibility of an extraordinary recovery.Then Raine began to bowl and the runs dried up. Each delivery maintained the tightest of lines between the middle stump and just outside the off. Van Zyl was dropped at first slip by Lees. Four overs later and on the point of lunch, the Sussex batsman nibbled fatally at another good ball and Ned Eckersley took the catch. The Durham players strode off and probably enjoyed their food a good deal more than had seemed likely an over previously.Just after lunch they probably felt like nipping back in for an extra helping of crème brûlée. Raine’s first ball after the resumption – the fourth of his uncompleted over – moved away a shade and took the edge of Laurie Evans’ bat on the way to Eckersley. Brown avoided the hat-trick but four overs later was pinned leg before by an inswinger. The same fate befell David Wiese five balls later and Raine had removed all the specialist Sussex batsmen capable of piloting long-term resistance.Robinson reached his fifty off 119 balls but his 54-run stand with Jordan merely delayed the end of the match. Rushworth had the nightwatchman caught at slip by Jack Burnham and the stage was prepared for Raine to complete a victory which will no doubt be properly celebrated by Durham’s cricketers on their coach trip home. Indeed, come the morning one or two of them may have cause to visit Dr. Gibbs.

Having blamed dropped catches for their first defeat of the season at Northampton last week, Birmingham Bears counted the cost of another mistake in the field as they allowed Nottinghamshire to build a total that they never threatened to overhaul.Liam Banks’s failure to take a routine chance at long-off allowed Tom Moores to underline what a dangerous batsman he is becoming in this format, advancing from 16 to 69 as the home side turned what was shaping up as a modest return for opting to bat first into something far more challenging.A crowd of just over 12,000 – the third of that size in four Vitality Blast matches at Trent Bridge so far – then watched a spin-heavy Nottinghamshire bowling attack impose such a crushing grip on Birmingham’s attempt to put some momentum into the chase that the cause looked lost a long way before the end.No one was more impressive than the tall offspinner Matthew Carter, only now becoming a regular part of Nottinghamshire’s T20 side, who took three wickets in his four overs at a cost of just 14 runs, conceding only one boundary and claiming the rare distinction of a wicket-maiden.Carter, into the action in the second over, bowled Ed Pollock with his fifth ball as the opener went to sweep. Only two runs came off the over and although it was the only wicket to fall in the Powerplay overs, after which Birmingham were still in the contest, a standard had been set for the senior spinners – the Pakistan left-armer Wasim Imad and Trent Bridge stalwart Samit Patel – to follow.At the halfway point, Birmingham still trailed by 112 runs and thereafter every batsman who tried to inject momentum into the chase quickly perished in act. Nottinghamshire’s fielding was exemplary, Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett and Luke Wood all taking fine boundary catches.Carter, 23, has had to work hard to claim a place in a Nottinghamshire team in which spin has not always been a major component, so for him it was an especially gratifying night.”It has been tough,” he said. “I had two games last season in which I felt I did pretty well and I have worked hard during the winter to get my T20 bowling into full swing and it is paying off, so I’m well pleased.”It was the best I have bowled in T20, especially against good players in front of a big crowd. I feel like I have a role in the team now and nine times out of 10 it seems to be paying off, so it gives me a lot of confidence going forward.”It was a good enough wicket but as a group I think the spinners all bowled really well on it, did not give them much to hit and the balls they did want to hit they ended up they got out to. As a unit I think we were brilliant tonight.”The Moores escape came in the 12th over, when Nottinghamshire themselves were struggling to put their foot to the floor after reaching halfway at 72 for 2.The wicketkeeper-batsman has shown himself more than once to be a dangerous opponent in this format, but he should have been comfortably caught at long-off when he sent the ball looping skywards off a Will Rhodes full toss in the last over of the Powerplay, only for Banks to let the ball slip through his grasp.Had it stuck, it might have been a different story, not least because Birmingham did dislodge Clarke, whose half-century sent out another signal of a return to form for the England Lions batsman after his recent troubled times, in the next over.The 20-year-old Banks, fielding at midwicket earlier, had misjudged the flight of a miscued pull by Alex Hales, letting another of the home side’s trump cards off the hook. That one was less costly, Hales falling in the same Henry Brookes over with only four runs added.Moores was not so kind. Three balls later, he crashed a wide half-volley from Rhodes over cover for the second of his six sixes and his destructive mood gathered momentum from there.At the height of his assault, he plundered 30 runs from nine deliveries, lofting Jeetan Patel for consecutive sixes over the midwicket boundary before taking 17 off Ashton Agar in a single over, including a four off the toe of the bat through the legs of wicketkeeper Ben Burgess.Using his feet well against the slow bowlers, he reached 50 from just 27 deliveries. His luck ran out on 69, two overs from the end of a Nottinghamshire innings that proved much more profitable had looked likely at one stage. His six sixes took his career tally to 50.”I struggled early on in the innings but Joe helped me through, he is so calm at the crease,” Clarke said. “I was just pleased to contribute to a win.”We gave to go to Old Trafford tomorrow, which will be a tough game, but we felt it was a complete performance tonight.”

Those who witnessed Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in tandem at Worcester got confirmation – if no actual match play evidence – that the former fast man is better suited to Australia’s Ashes plan than the latter as the right armer was included in the team for the Lord’s Test in place of the rested James Pattinson.Starc’s expensive first spell in the tour game, bowling four overs at a cost of 27 albeit with one wicket, provided a reminder of the regular boundary release balls he is always in danger of bowling in England, while Hazlewood’s far more economical effort (4-2-2-2) in the same passage of play late on day one offered all the evidence the tour selectors required to choose him once it became clear that Pattinson still had some residual stiffness from his Edgbaston efforts.”He’s got an outstanding record. He’s built up over the past few months,” Langer said of Hazlewood. “He missed out on the World Cup because we felt he hadn’t played much cricket. We know he’s an outstanding bowler, we know that the style of play against England that his best he should execute those plans really well. He has bowled well the last couple of weeks and we hope he does a good job this Test match.”Just the style of play we want to play here against England, he hits a great length, he’s usually pretty miserly with his economy rate, that’s what gave him the edge in this game. Don’t get me wrong, it was a hard decision. If it comes off we know what we are doing, if it doesn’t we don’t, that’s just the business we are in. It was a tough call.”Less demanding was the discussion with Pattinson that led to his resting, after prior history indicating that asking the 29-year-old to play two Tests in a row can often have highly damaging consequences.Tellingly, Langer indicated that Pattinson needed some assuaging of his own doubts about how he had been managed in the past.”We collaborated on that one,” Langer said. “And I think it’s been important for him in his return to cricket, I think in the past he’s felt a bit that he had to play and had to play and had to push and had to push and in those instances he usually broke at some point. It was really good collaboration between the two of us, that was our deal in Hampshire when we talked about what his progress would be at Notts and we have had really good communication with Notts as well so yeah he’s fine.”We talked about it. He was a little bit stiff after bowling on Monday morning. We knew he would only bowl one of the two back to back games, and whilst he’s had eight or nine days, we knew he couldn’t play back to back Test matches. We just felt that having pulled up a little stiff after bowling and we thought it would be common sense to keep getting himself hungry and prepared for the third Test.”ALSO READ: Langer lauds fast-bowling depth but warns against complacencyThe Pattinson example may be part of a wider evolution of fast bowler management in Australia, coinciding as it does with the appointment of two new Cricket Australia team performance chiefs in Ben Oliver (national teams) and Drew Ginn (high performance). Their predecessor Pat Howard helped advance the conversation on how to manage fast bowlers in the face of plenty of criticism, and a deep Ashes squad of six pacemen capable of being rotated according to fitness and match conditions is part of his legacy.”It’s the first time in however long I’ve been coaching that we’ve actually had the luxury of having six high class fast bowlers fit up and running,” Langer said. “We’re lucky to have the situation to be able to do that but it doesn’t happen very often. That’s the truth, and maybe that’s why a number of bowlers break down over time, because you’ve got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing, particularly in series, particularly with the schedules as they are now.”We’ve got five Test matches in six weeks, plus a couple of county games in between, so if you have got guys fit you’re not constantly pushing them, which ultimately leads to breaking them and with the unnatural action of a bowler, if you keep doing the same thing over and over, history will tell you that’s what happens. So if we’re lucky enough to have guys we can keep bringing in and out and firing, that’s a real luxury to have.”Tim Paine prepares for the toss-that-wasn’t•Getty Images

As for the first day one of an Ashes Test to be abandoned without a ball bowled since the 1998 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, and the first at Lord’s since 1997, Langer said the awkwardness of a possible toss of the coin at 3pm had raised some intriguing conversation.”We had a joke there for a moment, if the captain tosses the coin and he wins the toss can he ask the opposition to make the choice,” Langer said. “I think we decided you can’t do that. A couple of the umpires weren’t sure, but they checked for us, but you have to make a decisions. It is going to be a tough call. Today would have been tough, we knew there was a bit of rain around, some overhead conditions, the grass is wet and knowing the Dukes ball gets a bit soft when it gets a bit wet. Lucky Tim didn’t have to make the decision. We’ll see how it pulls up but it looks like a pretty good cricket wicket. Quite dry through underneath.”At this stage we’ll only lose two hours in the Test match so it won’t affect too much. Depending on weather, which we can’t control, we’ll still, there’s plenty of time. Two hours in the Test match isn’t much in the overall, in the bigger picture of it. There’ll be longer sessions we’re going to have to deal with but our guys have said all along we have to keep adapting and be ready with whatever the conditions or the situation of the game throws up at us.”

Steven Smith’s unrivalled batting genius, the platform upon which Australia retained the Ashes in England for the first time in 18 years, will buy time for the younger batsmen around him while also allowing David Warner to work his way out of the slump he has endured this series at the hands of Stuart Broad.Australia’s coach Justin Langer was perhaps the most relieved man at Old Trafford when the final wicket fell, having helmed a diligent Ashes campaign in terms of planning, attitude and selection. But he admitted that Smith’s talents, affording the tourists a priceless flow of runs in a series otherwise dominated by bowlers, had dragged an otherwise underperforming bating unit to victory, and described the Australian top six as something of a work in progress.”He [Smith] has done a lot for Australian cricket for the last few years actually, and so has Dave Warner,” Langer said. “But we’ve also got to remember, Travis Head is new to Test cricket, Marnus is new to Test cricket, Marcus Harris is new to Test cricket, Cameron Bancroft is new to Test cricket. You can’t just give them that experience, they’ve got to earn that and we’re very thankful to have Steve batting.ALSO READ – Nicholas: Australia have played better cricket for most of the Ashes“I’ve never seen batting like that. That on-drive he played yesterday, I just don’t know how he does that. I think Ricky’s been saying a lot, how do you teach kids how to bat like that? It’s unbelievable. That on-drive he played yesterday, I can’t work out how he played that shot. We’re lucky to have him but Test cricket takes time. We’ve got to respect that, it takes a lot of time.”Davey hasn’t had a great series but imagine how good the team will be when he starts having a great series and we’re hopeful he’ll do that in the next Test match. The other guys are learning as they go and that’s all part of the experience. I said at the start of the series I thought the team that bats best will win the series because both teams have got very good bowlers. Our bowling attack is world class, we’re very lucky and we’re going to have to keep working on that batting.”The most productive batting by any Australian other than Smith has come from Marnus Labuschagne, and Langer pointed to the similar degree of hunger for runs, ideas and practice that both Smith and the younger Queenslander possessed. “He’s played well, he’s played really well. I just love the energy he brings to the group,” Langer said. “I love how hard he works, he’d do it for nothing, he’d cut his leg off to play – sorry if it’s another cliché.”He loves playing cricket and at the end of the day, Warnie asked me on Sky about Steve Smith – what’s the defining factor about Steve Smith: hunger. He has got hunger. I’ve never seen anyone practise more or love batting more than he does and I’ve seen a few guys who love batting. Same with Marnus, he just loves the game of cricket and if there’s one trait I know about all the great players – they love the game. It’s no effort to get out of bed every day, it’s no effort to work hard, it’s no effort to get into the contest.”Reflecting on the success of the campaign,Langer spoke warmly of Paine’s leadership, particularly the discipline that allowed the Australians to stick rigorously to their plans in the field – essentially devised to dry up England’s scoring and create wickets through a combination of pressure and more judicious use of the Dukes ball by the pacemen.”We knew this was going to be a huge winter with the World Cup and the Ashes,” Langer said. “I just love Tim Paine, I think he’s great – we have a great relationship and that’s how it should be. A lot of people behind the scenes, not just the leadership group, do a lot of work as well. We’ve got a couple of analysts back in Brisbane who we’re really proud of. We worked out a game plan we thought would help us win this series. We used experience from 2004 against India and how we had to be really disciplined as with our approach. He’s very disciplined as a captain.ALSO READ – ‘Is it out? Is it out? What do you reckon, Josh?’“This has meant a lot to him, Tim Paine, from where he’s come from. And I think the big lesson from the last Test actually is we all wanted it so much, sometimes we want something so much you just hold on a little bit tight. Hopefully we’ve learned some lessons over the last week. The other important thing about Tim Paine as a captain and this team, we haven’t won overseas for some time. So to win you’ve got to learn how to win, and that’s why today is so important to us.”Had it have been another draw, or had we’ve just quite not got over the line and it was two in a row, that’s tough on the team and for his captaincy, he’ll take confidence out of that. And so will the team.”There was acknowledgement too, of how the likes of Steve Waugh – who flew back to England for the forth Test having missed Headingley – and Ricky Ponting had provided additional counsel on the tour, after Langer pushed hard for their direct involvement. He cited how, as a young player, both he and Ponting benefited from then cricket academy head coach Rod Marsh bringing in Ian and Greg Chappell and John Inverarity, among others, to mentor his generation into the group that led Australia to the top of the world.”It’s more about the big picture, about helping our guys develop as leaders and to have those sort of guys around and get a feel for what their experience of what is to be winners in the Australian cricket team,” Langer said. “Having Stephen around, it’s been great, of course it’s been good for me and it’s been good for the young blokes more importantly. Same with having Punter around. Glenn McGrath, if he comes into the changeroom in a little while, you wait, you listen to the noise that happens. The boys had him there after the first Test match win – they’re like their heroes.”When Glenn McGrath walks in, and I hope he does, you wait to listen to the noise because they just love him. I’ve said for a long time in Australian cricket when I was a youngster playing at the Cricket Academy, Rod Marsh was the coach – he used to bring his mates in like Ian Chappell and Greg Chappell. To learn from those people, oh my gosh, it’s a great grounding for a young Australian cricketer so that’s why these guys are here. It’s a great opportunity for them to rub shoulders and learn from really passionate and past great players.”

A maiden international century from Rachael Haynes was the standout performance in Australia’s 110-run victory in the second ODI against Sri Lanka that put them 2-0 up in the series.Haynes’ 118 off 132 balls formed the cornerstone of Australia’s 8 for 282 although that was a lower total than appeared likely for large parts of the innings, as Sri Lanka fought back at the death. Haynes and Alyssa Healy added 116 in 19.3 overs for the first wicket after which Haynes put on 103 with Meg Lanning (45) but from 1 for 219 the last ten overs brought 6 for 63.Sri Lanka started the chase better than how they did in the opening game. At 1 for 95 in the 23rd over, they had a glimmer of putting some pressure on Australia, but on a slow pitch where it was difficult to force the pace they couldn’t keep up with the required rate. Jess Jonassen took 4 for 31 which included her 100th wicket in ODIs, the fourth Australian to reach that landmark, as Australia secured a record-equalling 17th ODI win on the bounce to match the mark set by Belinda Clark’s team from 1997 to 1999. This win also gave them an unassailable lead in the Women’s Championship.On a surface being used for the second time in three days, Australia batted first and after some early caution were making strong progress through Healy and Haynes. Healy sprinted to her fifty off 44 balls and appeared set for a big score before falling to Sri Lanka captain Shashikala Siriwardene who again bowled her ten overs tidily for 2 for 41.As the pitch continued to wear out Australia weren’t allowed to completely cut loose and Sri Lanka built some pressure as Haynes approached her hundred, which helped account for Lanning when she edged a drive off Achini Kulasuriya. Haynes brought up her century off 120 balls with a cut for four, surpassing her previous highest international score of 98 which she made on Test debut in 2009.However, the last ten overs only brought three further boundaries – a six from Ashleigh Gardner and two fours by Beth Mooney – with Sri Lanka striking regularly.Jonassen provided Australia with the key early breakthrough when Chamari Atapattu top-edged a sweep which was well-judged at deep square by debutant Heather Graham. Anushka Sanjeewani and Harshitha Madavi brought up a second-wicket stand of 70 but it always felt the required rate was out of reach.Nicola Carey broke through and Australia’s spinners kept control of the middle overs. Georgia Wareham was more accurate than the opening match and claimed 2 for 29 from 10 overs. Jonassen’s 100th wicket came trapping Sugandika Kumari lbw sweeping and there was time for Graham to take her first when Kulasuriya chipped up a leading edge.

Hampshire have pulled off a coup for the 2020 County Championship season after signing Nathan Lyon on a red-ball contract that, international commitments pending, ought to keep him at the club for the entirety of the campaign.Lyon, who toured with Australia this summer as part of their World Cup and Ashes squads, is arguably the finest offspinner to have represented his country, and certainly the most prolific, having claimed 363 Test wickets in 91 appearances – second among all Australian spinners only to the great Shane Warne.His 20 wickets in this summer’s Ashes included nine wickets in a matchwinning display in the first Test at Edgbaston (his 6 for 49 sealed victory in the second innings), and in the course of a 2-2 series that ensured that Australia retained the Ashes, he went past Dennis Lillee’s tally of 355 Test wickets to sit behind only Warne and Glenn McGrath in Australia’s all-time list.”I very much look forward to playing with Hampshire in next year’s County Championship,” said Lyon. “It is a fabulous opportunity to be involved with a leading county who have had a long and successful relationship with Australian cricketers.”One of those Australians, of course, is none other than Warne, who was Hampshire’s captain in the early 2000s and who still has a stand named after him at the ground.”I love playing cricket in England and no doubt will enjoy the 2020 summer with the Hampshire players, coaches, members and supporters,” Lyon added. “We will all be focused on winning the County Championship in 2020 – I can’t wait.”Lyon will play at Hampshire under the captaincy of James Vince – whom he faced on the England tour of Australia in 2017-18 – and will form part of an incisive attack led by Fidel Edwards and Kyle Abbott, the former South African quick whose 17 wickets at the Ageas Bowl in September did so much to derail Somerset’s bid for their maiden Championship title.He will slot into a Hampshire squad that already features four home-grown spinners, among them Liam Dawson, who was an unused member of England’s victorious World Cup squad, and Mason Crane, the legspinner who made his Test debut against Australia at Sydney in January 2018. Lyon has had one previous stint in county cricket, when he turned out for Worcestershire for four matches in 2017.Hampshire Director of Cricket, Giles White said: “Nathan is a really high-class spinner and we identified him in the summer as someone who would be a great addition to our Championship side. He has a real appetite for county cricket and is keen to be a part of what we’re trying to do here, so we’re delighted to secure his signature and we can’t wait to have him on board next summer.”