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England hope that Brydon Carse can replicate Liam Plunkett’s success in the middle overs after drafting him into their World Cup squad as a replacement for the injured Reece Topley.Carse will arrive in Bangalore ahead of England’s match against Sri Lanka on Thursday, though is unlikely to be considered for selection having last played competitively four weeks ago. He featured in one of England’s four ODIs against New Zealand last month after impressing in the T20I series, and also played for their second-string side against Ireland.Carse, 28, was born in South Africa but is a UK passport-holder who plays for Durham and Northern Superchargers in domestic cricket. A tall, powerful seamer who can also contribute with the bat from the lower order, he has won 12 ODI caps and three T20I caps since making his debut in 2021.”He’s a brilliant all-round package,” Joe Root said on Monday. “He can score some handy runs for you, is very dynamic in the field and has a unique wicket-taking ability. He’s got that [Ben] Stokes element to him where sometimes, you feel like nothing is happening and he’ll pick up wickets.”England had swiftly and unceremoniously moved on from Plunkett after the last World Cup, when he was 34, and Carse is the closest like-for-like replacement that they have used in the four years since. “He almost feels like a junior Plunkett,” Root said. “He’s very similar. Pudsy [Plunkett] might not like me saying this, but he’s probably got even more to offer with the bat as well.”Root also expressed his sympathy for Topley, who was officially ruled out of the World Cup on Sunday after scans confirmed a fracture in the index finger of his bowling hand. “The poor lad, it just doesn’t seem to stop for him,” he said. “Every time he does extremely well and gets a string of performances together where he’s playing good cricket, he just seems to get a setback.”England travelled from Mumbai to Bengaluru on Sunday afternoon following their 229-run thrashing by South Africa. They will train on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon before playing Sri Lanka at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, the first of five must-win group fixtures as they aim to reach the semi-finals despite three defeats in their first four games.”The situation we find ourselves in now, we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready and in the best possible place to perform well in the next game,” Root told Sky Sports. “We’ll look at that as a World Cup final now – then do the same for the game after that, and the game after that. All we’ve got to do is really focus on Sri Lanka.”I’ve played in a number of different England teams, good ones and bad ones,” Root said. “This is one of the very best. It’s a very together team. We know what we need to do… We’ve got some very simple messaging in front of us right now: we have to go out and win. In some ways, that unshackles us and frees us up to do what we do.”

Jake Fraser-McGurk grabbed the headlines off record six-hitter Chris Lynn to help Melbourne Renegades to their first BBL win of the season. Chasing Adelaide Strikers’ 177 for 6, in which Lynn belted 56 off 34 balls, Renegades reached their target at Marvel Stadium with four wickets and eight balls to spare, with Fraser-McGurk blasting 70 off 37.Fraser-McGurk added 75 with Shaun Marsh (54 in 33 balls), with Renegades racing to 123 for 1 in the 12th over, before a late clutter of wickets. Joe Clarke (28* in 19) was there at the end after earlier retiring hurt with a quadriceps issue.Starting the match on 196 sixes, 33-year-old Lynn brought up No. 200 and also reached his fifty with a massive straight six off Renegades’ captain for the night, Will Sutherland. Lynn also became the first BBL player to reach 3500 runs before skying a delivery from Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3 for 20) to deep extra-cover in the first of the Power Surge overs.Lynn has moved an incredible 82 sixes ahead of the next in the list, Aaron Finch, but couldn’t prevent Strikers from suffering an eighth consecutive loss.But Fraser-McGurk, 21, continued his breakout campaign, which has included efforts of 55 in 23 balls against Brisbane Heat and 48 in 24 balls versus Sydney Sixers.Chris Lynn became the first batter to hit 200 sixes in the Big Bash League•Getty Images

He produced his biggest BBL score on the day, savaging the Strikers attack with his powerful hitting before being yorked by James Bazley.Marsh, who scored 59 in 36 balls in his only previous innings in the tournament, joined in the fun, taking 16 off the last three balls of Cameron Boyce’s second over.Renegades’ chase got off to a terrible start with Quinton de Kock out to his first ball and the second of the innings.All of Lynn’s sixes on Friday came off the quicks, with spinners Mujeeb and Adam Zampa proving harder to hit than their quicker colleagues.Opener D’Arcy Short (54 in 47) picked up the pace after struggling in the first half of the innings, though he benefited from two dropped return catches from Zampa on 12 and Sutherland on 40. Jamie Overton (29 in 15) and Harry Nielsen (17 in five) added more substance with brisk cameos in an unbroken seventh-wicket stand in the closing overs.Renegades made a big selection decision before the game, with regular captain and out-of-form batter Nic Maddinson left out of the side.

The past week has been unlike any other for 20-year-old Nitish Kumar Reddy. The Andhra allrounder made an unbeaten eight-ball 14 when Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Chennai Super Kings four nights ago. But on Tuesday, he played a bigger role – hitting a 37-ball 64 that lifted a floundering Sunrisers innings from 64 for 4 to 182 for 9, which proved to be match-changing.It wasn’t just his batting contribution that was key. Nitish, who bowls lively medium pace in the mid-130s, dismissed Jitesh Sharma in the 16th over with Punjab Kings looking for a late charge.More than the wicket, it was the manner of his setup, of bowling a slower bouncer into the pitch and having Jitesh hack towards the longer boundary, that was even more impressive. Nitish finished with figures of 1 for 33 off three overs. No wonder Pat Cummins, the captain, was extremely delighted with Nitish’s performance.Related

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“He was awesome,” Cummins said. “Straight to the top of the order [in this game], was fantastic in the field, bowled three overs too. To get us to 180 off his bat, it was amazing.”Nitish himself seems to be a man of few words, but seemed pleased at being able to contribute. It’s likely he only got the opportunity because Sunrisers decided Abhishek Sharma’s form was too good for him to be batting at No. 3. With Mayank Agarwal sick, Abhishek made a splash against CSK with a 12-ball 37 to set the tempo in their chase of 166, which they comfortably achieved with 11 balls to spare.That performance may have tempted the team management to continue with Abhishek at the top with Travis Head, paving the way for Nitish to keep his place even though Agarwal was ruled fit for this match. Nitish repaid the faith with a back-to-the-wall knock in which he hit four fours and five sixes.”For me, it is a big contribution for my team and myself,” Nitish said at the presentation. “I have been talking to myself that I have to believe in myself and that I have to be there [for the team]. The seamers were bowling well, so I did not want to take them on. When the spinners came on, I wanted to attack them and that is what I did.”The game was a lot closer than it looked like it would be at one stage. That was down to a slew of catches going down in the death overs, including two in the final over that were tipped over the ropes for sixes. Needing 29 off the final over bowled by Jaydev Unadkat, Kings fell three short with Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma giving Sunrisers a mighty scare.Cummins highlighted Sunrisers’ approach as he summed up their tight win. “It was a great game of cricket,” he said. “They bowled really well at the start, we did well to get to 182 and then defended it. The beauty of the impact player is that you feel you have really deep batting. We try to be positive, to take the game on.”If you get 150-160, you are going to lose nine out of ten games anyway. We knew the new ball was going to be a key time. We were pretty happy [with our score]. We saw what happened with the new ball for them, so thought if me and Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] could start off with a wicket, it would be good. We have plenty of left-armers, right-armers, so just tried to give the bowlers the best chance of success.”Shikhar Dhawan, the Kings captain, lamented their top-order meltdown in the powerplay. Kings were tottering at 20 for 3 in the fifth over with Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Dhawan all back in the dug out. That they had a shot at victory was courtesy a late flourish from Shashank and Ashutosh, who added 66 off just 27 balls for the seventh wicket.As the final ball was nailed for a six, Kings couldn’t have helped but look back on the six they conceded off the last ball when Harshal Patel missed an opportunity at the long-on boundary.”Shashank and Ashutosh played great knocks. I feel that we kept them to a good total. Unfortunately, we could not cash in on the first six overs and that is where we lost the game,” Dhawan said. “That pinched us hard. The wicket was not offering that much bounce so every individual has to come up with better plans.”We could have stopped 10-15 runs more and that made a difference as well. As a batting unit, we did not perform. It is important for the top order to perform. Shashank and Ashutosh’s performance gives us confidence and hope for the next game. We have to do better in certain areas and improve.”

Bolstered by the return of four England players, Thunder proved too strong for The Blaze as the Trent Bridge side slipped to a fourth defeat in five matches in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy – but only just, scraping home to a nervous one-wicket victory in a gripping finish.England A batter Seren Smale made 58 and England opener Emma Lamb 44 and at 89 without loss in 15 overs, Thunder looked to be cruising to a second win of their campaign. Yet they collapsed to 161 for 9 after skipper and left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon and off-spinner Lucy Higham took three wickets apiece and England leg-spinner Sarah Glenn 2 for 33 in a gutsy fightback.It was left to last-wicket pair Phoebe Graham and Hannah Jones to hold their nerve and see their side over the line, Jones hitting the winning boundary in the 45th over.England’s 18-year-old left-arm seamer Mahika Gaur had taken 3 for 33 and left-arm spinner Jones 3 for 37 as The Blaze were bowled out for 174 in 46.4 overs.Gordon made 43 – her highest score since an unbeaten 60 for Scotland Women nine years ago – as the East Midlands regional side recovered from 108 for 7, but her efforts in the end were in vain.After Thunder had won the toss, England opener Tammy Beaumont (25), back in Blaze colours for the first time this season, helped the home side to enjoy a productive powerplay, reaching 49 for 2 from 10 overs, yet the Blaze innings lacked the early partnerships that might have given it real impetus.Teresa Graves picked up a couple of early fours but nothing more before she was bowled middle stump by a superb ball from Gaur, who then produced a near-identical delivery, full and swinging back in, to dismiss South African international Nadine de Klerk for 3.Beaumont, dropped on 24 off Graham, added only a single before becoming the third victim of Gaur’s impressive opening spell, reaching for her shot and chipping to the left-armer’s mid-on, where Kate Cross made no mistake.Blaze had been scoring at five an over but Ellie Threlkeld’s introduction of left-arm spin at both ends applied the brake and brought two wickets in quick succession as Marie Kelly, looking nicely set on 23, miscued Jones to midwicket and Glenn gave her fellow England spinner Sophie Ecclestone a straightforward caught-and-bowled.Beth Gammon and Gordon rebuilt to a degree but Gammon was bowled making room against Jones and when off-spinner Fi Morris took over at the Radcliffe Road end, her first ball accounted for Ella Claridge, who hit straight to cover.Gordon and Sophie Munro put on 35 only for a breakdown in communication to see the latter was run out. Gordon and Higham added value with a further 29 in 28 deliveries before the latter was bowled by Jones.The Blaze have been more effective with ball than bat so far but their hopes of denying Thunder looked to be disappearing in the first five overs of the reply, when new-ball pair De Klerk and Grace Ballinger struggled with their lines and conceded nine boundaries as Lamb and Smale helped themselves to runs.Even after a double bowling change, Thunder pushed on to 69 without loss after 10 overs, well ahead in the game. But from 89 for none in the 16th over, they suffered a collapse that saw six wickets fall for 39 as the Blaze spinners fought back.Glenn’s introduction brought a double breakthrough as Lamb’s slog-sweep lobbed to mid-on and Katie Mack was bowled for just a single, before Higham’s off-spin claimed two more wickets. Higham had Morris caught at mid-on and Threlkeld at mid-off.Smale completed her half-century from 57 balls but Thunder had lost four wickets for 21 runs.Naomi Dattani was trapped leg before on the back foot as Higham struck for a third time, after which Blaze suddenly sensed an unlikely win as Gordon returned at the Stuart Broad End to bowl Smale with Thunder’s target still 47 runs away.Ecclestone and Cross eased Thunder’s nerves a little by bringing the required runs below 30 but then Gordon took two wickets in two balls, bowling Ecclestone and then pinning Gaur in front to leave the visitors in peril at 146 for 8.As all three Blaze spinners completed their 10 overs the balance seemed to tip towards the experience of Cross to get the job done. Munro raised the pressure again as she uprooted the England bowler’s middle stump with one that kept low, but with overs on their side, Graham and Jones kept calm to see their side home.

A “mild back stiffness” forced Rohit Sharma to play as Impact Player in Mumbai Indians’ match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.”He just had a mild back stiffness so it was just a precautionary thing,” Piyush Chawla said at the post-match press conference.Rohit made 11 off 12 balls as MI failed to chase down a target of 170 on a two-paced Wankhede pitch. It was their eighth defeat in 11 games, leaving them languishing in ninth position and their playoffs chances hanging by a thread. Upon being asked what’s left for MI to play for, Chawla was candid.”For the pride and the reputation,” he said, “because sometimes when you enter on the field, you don’t think whether you are going to qualify or you are not going to qualify. You have to play for your name and that’s what we are playing for.”For Chawla, the silver lining during the match was becoming the second-highest wicket-taker in the IPL, going went past Dwayne Bravo’s tally of 183.Chawla got there by having Rinku Singh caught and bowled with his first ball of the match. Reflecting on his record, Chawla said: “It has been a beautiful journey because IPL started 17 years back and at that time nobody gave that much preference to the spinners, but now if you see that in top few wicket-takers from India are all the spinners, [R] Ashwin, Yuzi [Yuzvendra Chahal], myself, so it’s a good feeling.”

England will go into Thursday’s fifth Test at The Oval without their captain, with Ben Stokes ruled out with a torn shoulder muscle. Ollie Pope will deputise, leading for the fifth time in Tests, and England have made four changes in all from the draw in Manchester, with Jacob Bethell, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton and Josh Tongue all coming into the side.Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse are both rested after heavy workloads last week, while Liam Dawson is left out altogether. Bethell and Joe Root are the two spin-bowling options, with Chris Woakes retained to lead an inexperienced seam attack: England’s other three fast bowlers have 18 caps between them.Stokes arrived at The Oval on Wednesday morning hopeful to play as a specialist batter but after discussions with head coach Brendon McCullum and England’s medical team, and 20 minutes of quiet reflection, decided against playing through the pain. “The risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is,” Stokes said. “It’s obviously very, very disappointing.”Related

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England refused to reveal the exact nature of the injury, but it is understood that Stokes has sustained a grade-three tear in a shoulder muscle and that his recovery will take at least six weeks. He was not scheduled to play any more cricket this summer, and is confident that he will be fully recovered ahead of England’s first Ashes Test in Australia on November 21.Stokes bowled 11 overs on the final day of the Manchester Test but grimaced throughout his two spells. He repeatedly clutched his shoulder while bowling and said afterwards that he was “very unlikely” to miss the fifth Test despite struggling with a biceps tendon injury, but woke up feeling “pretty sore” the following morning and scans confirmed a significant tear.His absence is a major blow for England, and for Stokes personally: he is the leading wicket-taker in the series with 17, scored his first Test century in two years in Manchester, has been named Player of the Match in the last two Tests, and his injury represents yet another frustrating setback after two hamstring tears in the second half of last year.Stokes insisted he could not have prevented the injury. “When I’m out on the field, I play to win and give everything I possibly can,” he said. “If I feel there’s a moment in a game where I need to put everything I’m feeling aside, I’ll do that because of how much this team means to me, how much playing for England means to me, how much winning means to me.”Jacob Bethell has found a spot in the XI for the final Test•PA Photos/Getty Images

He also suggested that playing at The Oval could have aggravated the injury to a worrying extent. “It was risk-reward,” Stokes said. “I’ll always try to push myself as much as I possibly can. There’s absolutely nothing I could have done [differently] before. Being a professional sportsman, injuries are part of this game and I can’t do anything about that.”England were planning to head into the fifth Test without a specialist spinner as soon as it became clear that Stokes would not be fit to bowl. Dawson bowled economically in Manchester but failed to take a wicket in 47 second-innings overs, and England are expecting a match dominated by seamers at The Oval, with a healthy covering of live grass on the pitch on Wednesday morning.”The Oval generally plays that it’s your seamers who take the wickets,” Stokes said. “We felt that, here, that gives you the best chance of winning the game. The way it’s played here through the year in the Championship as well: it’s looked very similar to this, and played like that. There’s a bit of intel there, and we wanted to give ourselves four seamers.”Stokes’ absence means Bethell will bat at No. 6, having scored three half-centuries at No. 3 in his maiden series in New Zealand last year. “Being the type of player that he is, where he plays all three formats, it probably allows him to be a bit more versatile with where he bats in the order,” Stokes said. “I’m very confident in his ability. He’s a quality player.”England’s seam attack is their biggest area of concern. Woakes has never bowled more overs in a series than the 167 he has got through over the past month, while Atkinson returns from a hamstring injury that had ruled him out since May. Overton wins his second cap, and first for three years, and Tongue is back after missing out for Archer in the third and fourth Tests.Stokes will remain with the squad this week, as he did last year when he missed four Tests – three against Sri Lanka, and one in Pakistan – through injury. Pope, his vice-captain, will again stand in on his home ground and will look to Shubman Gill for inspiration after struggling to “compartmentalise” his two roles when he deputised last year.”We know that the series is still on the line here,” Stokes said. “It’s been toe-to-toe throughout the whole series so far. We know that India will be coming out fighting, because they don’t want to leave England with a loss. The next best thing for them is a draw, so we’ll be doing everything in our powers to not let that happen.”

England XI for fifth Test against India

1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Jamie Overton, 11 Josh Tongue

Chandika Hathurusingha has returned to the Bangladesh men’s national team as its head coach.Not long after Cricket New South Wales confirmed that Hathurusingha had parted ways with them, the BCB announced a two-year deal starting next month. It has, however, not been confirmed which formats Hathurusingha would be in charge of, with S Sriram also around and at the helm of the T20I side.ESPNcricinfo understands that discussions about the roadmap between Sriram and the BCB in Dhaka earlier this month didn’t provide clear answers. But the board had said in December last year that it wants Sriram to be the long-term T20I head coach. If that remains true, Hathurusingha might only be connected with the Test and ODI sides.Related

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“It’s an honour to have been given this opportunity to coach the Bangladesh national team once again,” Hathurusingha said in a statement. “I really loved the warmth of the people and the culture of Bangladesh. I’m looking forward to working with the players once again and enjoying their successes.”This is 54-year-old Hathurusingha’s second stint with Bangladesh after he had served as the head coach from 2014 to 2017. That included Bangladesh’s famous ODI series-winning streak at home, that included beating Pakistan, India and South Africa in consecutive months. Under Hathurusingha, the team also made the knockout stages of ICC events at the ODI World Cup in 2015 and the Champions Trophy in 2017, and also recorded their first Test wins against England, Australia and Sri Lanka.

BCB: Hathurusingha ‘a proven tactician’

During Hathurusingha’s time with the team, Bangladesh had a 40.20% success rate in 102 matches across formats. For the record, that’s lower than what his successors – and now predecessors – Steve Rhodes (51.11) and Russell Domingo (42.34) achieved.”Chandika’s experience and knowledge of Bangladesh cricket will be an advantage for him and will benefit the players,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said. “He is a proven tactician and we have seen his impact on the national team during his first assignment.”Following his time with Bangladesh, Hathurusingha went back to Sri Lanka, his home country, and took charge as the head coach of the national men’s team there, before moving to New South Wales in July 2020.

Big Picture

Smriti Mandhana vs Jemimah Rodrigues. Ellyse Perry vs Meg Lanning. Dane van Niekerk vs Marizanne Kapp. Brace yourselves. And it will all happen in front of a sold-out crowd at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai as Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Delhi Capitals on Sunday.Both sides have superstar captains. Mandhana, the most expensive player at the inaugural auction at INR 3.4 crore, will be leading Royal Challengers, who look the most balanced side in the tournament. In Lanning, Capitals have a brilliant captain, who comes into the tournament a week after leading Australia to their sixth T20 World Cup title. Ahead of the WPL, she said she’s looking to inculcate that winning culture in this Capitals side.A number of international names linked up with their respective teams just a few days before the tournament following the T20 World Cup in South Africa. While Mandhana is looking to make use of her knowledge of the Indian domestic players to put a solid XI together, Lanning said she would be leaning on her team-mates Rodrigues and Shafali Varma to handle the younger and unknown players.Related

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Players to Watch

Both teams have an enviable mix of overseas and Indian talent. Royal Challengers have Richa Ghosh and Renuka Singh, the two high-profile India internationals. Capitals, meanwhile, have the likes of Shafali, Poonam Yadav and Radha Yadav.Perry, van Niekerk, Heather Knight, Sophie Devine, Erin Burns and Megan Schutt are the overseas options in the Royal Challengers side, which means the team management will have some head-scratching to do over picking just four from this star-studded list. They have captain Mandhana to do the heavy lifting from the top, while Devine, Perry, Ghosh and van Niekerk will be expected to provide the firepower in the middle order. While Royal Challengers’ pace-bowling unit looks solid with Schutt, Renuka and Perry, they do not have an experienced Indian spinner in their ranks.Capitals’ strong top order has Shafali, Rodrigues and Lanning, with Kapp and Taniya Bhatia to follow. They will, however, be left to choose from a largely inexperienced pace-bowling unit, barring Shikha Pandey and Kapp. However, they have the option to bring in USA left-arm pacer Tara Norris, an Associate player who can be included as the fifth overseas player in the XI. Among the spin-bowling options, Capitals have Radha Yadav, Jess Jonassen and Poonam Yadav.

Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals (possible): 1 Shafali Verma, 2 Jemimah Rodrigues, 3 Meg Lanning (capt), 4 Marizanne Kapp, 5 Laura Harris, 6 Jasia Akhter, 7 Taniya Bhatia (wk), 8 Jess Jonassen, 9 Radha Yadav, 10 Shikha Pandey, 11 Tara NorrisRoyal Challengers Bangalore (possible): 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Disha Kasat, 3 Sophie Devine, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Dane van Niekerk, 6 Richa Ghosh (wk), 7 Komal Zanzad/Asha Shobhana, 8 Preeti Bose, 9 Megan Schutt, 10 Renuka Singh, 10 Kanika Ahuja/Shreyanka Patil

Stats and trivia

• Perry had finished as the second-highest run-scorer during Australia’s T20I series tour of India in December 2022
• Mandhana has scored 831 runs, the most in women’s T20Is since January 2022
• This game will have three key players who were part of India’s U-19 winning World Cup squad: Shafali, Titas Sadhu and Ghosh.

Quotes

“I love winning, I’m very competitive and I’m coming here to try and help Delhi win as many games as possible. It would be great [to win], every team is probably thinking the same thing but we’re doing our best, and the biggest challenge is to bring everybody together and making sure we’re working as a team.”
“I just don’t like the kind of comparison because what he has achieved is amazing, and I hope that I can reach that level. But I’m nowhere near him. What he has achieved for this franchise, I’d like to try and do that.”
Royal Challengers captain Smriti Mandhana wants to emulate Virat Kohli’s success with the franchise

Derbyshire captain Leus du Plooy steered his side to safety with an unbeaten half-century on the final day of the LV=Insurance County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Derby.Gloucestershire were in with a chance of victory when Derbyshire slipped to 28 for 3 but du Plooy’s 61 off 77 balls guided Derbyshire to 166 for 5 to secure the draw.The visitors claimed their first batting points of the season before being bowled out for 383, a lead of 132, with Ben Charlesworth, Zafar Gohar and Matt Taylor scoring fifties. Gohar and Taylor shared a ninth-wicket stand of 99, a Gloucestershire record against Derbyshire, to set up the prospect of a tense finale but du Plooy stood firm.Any late drama looked unlikely at the start when Gloucestershire’s main objective was to secure batting points. Charlesworth was also eying a maiden first-class century and, with Tom Price, carried his side to within five runs of 250 when Derbyshire broke the partnership.Price had already been dropped twice, at short midwicket off Suranga Lakmal and a caught-and-bowled chance to Alex Thomson, before he went for a big swing at the offspinner and miscued to cover.The pair had put on 63 from 129 balls and Charlesworth, who had passed his previous best score of 77 not out, secured the first point when he cut Henry Brookes over the slips for four. Charlesworth was then caught behind off a short ball from Brookes and Marchant de Lange’s attempts to hit the ball out of the Incora County Ground resulted in a broken bat before he edged Lakmal to second slipBut that was the home side’s last success for 18 overs as Taylor and Gohar eclipsed Gloucestershire’s highest ninth-wicket stand against Derbyshire of 95 by Mark Hardinges and Carl Greenidge at Derby in 2007.Taylor drove Luis Reece for six to bring up 300 and dispatched Brookes for another maximum on his way to a 60-ball fifty. Gohar drove Lakmal for six to reach his fifty from 65 balls and set the new ninth-wicket record before he skied the Sri Lankan to mid-off.The innings ended in the next over but Gloucestershire now had a big enough lead and enough overs left to put the home side under pressure. Any chance of the game meandering quietly to a conclusion vanished when Derbyshire lost three wickets in the space of 17 balls with the arrears still in three figures.Harry Came held his team together in the first innings but this time he lasted only five overs before he got an edge onto his pad and was caught at gully.Price struck in the next over with a full length ball that hit Haider Ali in front and alarm bells were ringing when Wayne Madsen went without scoring. The veteran had his off stump knocked back by a ball from Price that straightened to leave Derbyshire in trouble.Du Plooy decided to be positive from the outset, dancing down the pitch to drive Taylor for six over long-off, but he was close to being run out just before tea, which was taken with Derbyshire 64 behind with 40 overs remaining.Brooke Guest stayed with his skipper for 13 overs before pulling Ajeet Singh Dale to midwicket the over after du Plooy was dropped on 33 by Miles Hammond at slip off Gohar.Mitch Wagstaff, in his second first-class innings, shared a stand of 43 from 70 balls although Gohar thought he had him caught and bowled on 7 only for the umpires to rule the ball had not quite carried. Wagstaff faced 48 balls before he fell cutting Gohar but Derbyshire were now in front and Luis Reece joined du Plooy to finally close the door on Gloucestershire.

Matt Henry has been a one-man band for New Zealand so far in this series. He is their leading wicket-taker (11) and leading run-scorer (85) and is single-handedly keeping the Black Caps’ hopes alive after another difficult day against Australia in Christchurch.He second-top-scored for New Zealand in the second Test running with an important 29 as they were bowled out for 162 having been sent into bat on a seam-friendly Hagley Oval pitch. Josh Hazlewood put on a supreme display of bowling to take 5 for 31Henry was then equally good during his turn, prising out three of Australia’s top four including the in-form Cameron Green to keep New Zealand in the contest. But despite bearing a heavy load, he refused to put any blame on New Zealand’s batters after they were bowled out for under 200 for the third successive innings.”It’s not a concern,” Henry said. “I think looking at our batting line-up we’ve got world-class players there. They’ve been fantastic for a number of years. I [haven’t] got any doubt that they’ll be great and they’ll be fine moving forward. It’s day one of a Test match. The ball is allowed to move around and guys are allowed to bowl well. That’s what happens when you come across world-class performers. They have their day sometimes.”Henry instead heaped praise on Hazlewood saying he provided the perfect example for the New Zealand bowling group to follow.New Zealand haven’t been able to get past 200 in any of their three innings this series•Getty Images

“Josh bowled exceptionally well,” he said. “Obviously watching him go about his work today, it was probably a bit of a blueprint for how we wanted to bowl out there as well. It was a matter of being accurate for a long period of time and creating pressure and he did that beautifully and thankfully we managed to do that in periods tonight as well and to get a few poles.”There were times though during Australia’s reply when it looked like tough Test cricket at one end and very comfortable batting at the other. Henry was nearly unplayable as he worked over Australia’s top-order with relentless pressure.He finally got the slice of luck he deserved when Usman Khawaja was bowled around his legs after the ball clipped the underside of his thigh pad and ricocheted onto leg stump. He later set up Green with a superb sequence. Green continued his Wellington plan of skipping down to Henry to disrupt his length. Henry kept dragging his length back and beat the edge multiple times. The first time Green stayed at home, Henry pushed fuller and seamed one in through the gate to hit the top of off via the pad.Related

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But in between times Green and Marnus Labuschagne profited from some very unthreatening bowling from Tim Southee and Scott Kuggeleijn. Labuschagne shook any concerns about his form, playing beautifully under pressure to finish 45 not out at stumps.The debutant Ben Sears showed some promise to help Henry out by dismissing Steven Smith, who made a horrible misjudgment padding up to a full delivery that was projected to be crashing into off stump.”It doesn’t get much better than that for a first wicket does it,” Henry said. “Searsy is a quiet man and he works really hard. Obviously being a young fast bowler for him to start his career like that was outstanding. I think he showed today so much control and excitement and he kind of got the ball rolling for us.”I think we were obviously bowling well and not much was happening and he was able to get that first breakthrough and we could build some momentum from there. Absolutely stoked for the way that he started.”Henry said it would be critical for New Zealand to bowl well at the start of day two as Australia have a chance of setting up a significant first-innings lead. “Tomorrow morning will be a big moment with the ball. We’ll make sure that we come out there and hopefully we can take some early wickets and put Australia under some pressure and then get back into some batting.”