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South Africa may resist the temptation to play an all-pace attack on what is certain to be a spicy Wanderers surface in the third Test against Sri Lanka, which starts from Thursday. Substantial rain in the lead-up to the match resulted in the pitch being prepared under a tent during the weekend, but with skies set to clear a little over the next two days, South Africa will weigh up their options carefully as they go in search of a whitewash.”We need to wait until the last minute,” Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach said. “The groundsman says there is a lot of grass on the wicket but the weather could change and at the last minute he could take the grass off. But we’re not scared of going in with a spinner.”Both Test captain Faf du Plessis and coach Russell Domingo have long been in favour of including a spinner in the team, especially if that spinner can hold one end for long periods of time to allow the quicks to rotate from the other. In Dane Piedt, South Africa were not quite sure they had that – and they have since sent him back to the franchise system to tighten up – but in Keshav Maharaj, they are more convinced they do. “Keshav is economical, he does hold up an end,” Langeveldt said. “When we were playing well in Australia, we were holding up both ends and it gave KG (Kagiso Rabada) the freedom to attack the stumps more.”On Rabada’s home ground, he is likely to be given even more of a license to attack, especially now that he has found the rhythm that was lacking in the first Test, which makes Maharaj’s chance of playing higher. “This wicket actually suits KG a bit more with the extra bounce. He loves bowling in Johannesburg – in a first-class game he got 13 wickets here,” Langeveldt remembered.Wayne Parnell has had two solid seasons in the franchise system, working on consistency in terms of game time and bowling•AFP

That does not necessarily mean Rabada will take the new ball. Langeveldt indicated he is more in favour of Wayne Parnell opening the bowling with Vernon Philander, as he has done for his franchise, Cape Cobras. “I would tend to go with the left-armer. He brings something different, gets a bit of shape back into the right-hander and does swing the ball up front,” Langeveldt sad.Langeveldt’s comments also suggest rookie inclusion Duanne Olivier will have to wait for his first cap because Parnell, who was in the squad for the first two Tests but did not play, could get the nod ahead of him in a three-pronged pace pack.Since last playing a Test almost three years ago in March 2014, Parnell has worked specifically on consistency, both in game time and bowling terms. Before that, Parnell played sporadically on the domestic circuit because he was often a non-playing member of the South African touring party and he had a reputation for being wayward with the ball. After two solid seasons in the franchise system, in which Parnell has also made changes to his action, Langeveldt is excited to see what he can do. “It’s going to be a challenge to see what Wayne has to offer. Can we get him to be more consistent in his lengths? Test cricket is all about getting the ball in the right area,” Langeveldt said.Morne Morkel is stil nursing a back injury but will play a List A match later this month to determine his availability for the limited-overs matches against Sri Lanka•Getty Images

Even if Parnell slots straight in and Olivier returns to the Knights with only a training session or two to show for his maiden call-up, Langeveldt has provided an assurance that Olivier will come up for consideration again soon, especially as South Africa rebuild from Kyle Abbott’s Kolpak-induced exit. “It’s an exciting time. We’ve had it in previous years where guys have left to play Kolpak cricket and it’s going to be a challenge. But we have to look at what our next line of players is. There are a few young and upcoming bowlers in the A side, but international cricket is a big step for them. We have to invest in them in the next couple of months.”The leap a player has to make from the first-class set-up to the international stage is considerable and that may be why South Africa want Olivier around the camp for a little longer before they unleash him. “There’s a huge difference. We saw that when Dale and Vernon were injured and we played against England. We saw the shortcomings and saw the difference in length,” Langeveldt said, referring to last summer when South Africa tried everyone from Chris Morris to Hardus Viljoen, without success, to fill in for their spearheads. “In first-class cricket if you bowl full and straight and fast you will get wickets. Once a guy gets to the international [level], it’s a whole new ball game.”Du Plessis has also spoken of the importance of experience in a Test attack. That brings into question how desperate South Africa are to have Morne Morkel back. Morkel is still nursing a back injury sustained at the CPL. “Morne Morkel is always going to be in the pecking order. He’s probably next in line when he’s not injured. He brings a whole different dimension to our attack when he’s around,” Langeveldt said.Morkel trained with the squad at Newlands last week and will play a List A match for provincial side Northerns on January 22 to determine his availability for the third T20 against Sri Lanka and the ODIs that follow. Should Morkel be declared fully fit, Langeveldt believes he is “probably going to be in our one-day set-up”, and will likely also come into consideration for the Tests against New Zealand and England later this year.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMichael Klinger’s love affair with Melbourne Renegades continued•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Perth Scorchers have played Melbourne Renegades six times, and won the lot. Last year, in this very fixture, they recorded the BBL’s first ever 10-wicket win. This time, they won, but it was not that simple.It required a swatted six from Ashton Agar with the game’s final ball, a full toss bowled by Aaron Finch (yes, you read that right). Scorchers required nine from the final over, and Finch dismissed the set man Mitchell Marsh, caught at long-on off another full toss, and Adam Voges, run out by a direct hit trying to pinch a single. Agar, who had faced just two balls, required three off the last, and smote high and handsome over cow corner for six. It was a remarkable conclusion.Klinging in the rain
One of the great joys of the BBL is that it has made household names of the likes of Michael Klinger, who – rightly or wrongly – has never played international cricket. Klinger, the BBL’s most prolific batsmen ever, has been the Man of the Match (with 105 then 91, both unbeaten) in the Scorchers’ last three wins over the Renegades and, with rain falling outside and the roof on, played the game’s defining hand here.His 72 was a triumph of functionality and calmness as he set Scorchers up to cruise home with overs to spare; alas, it was not that easy. He found the boundary with ease, not least when he launched Brad Hogg over long-off for a six that took him to 50 and nonchalantly flicked Nathan Rimmington over fine leg with the same result. Everyone in the stadium was surprised when his leading edge floated back to Sunil Narine with victory in sight. The Renegades had finally dismissed Klinger after 173 balls.Dwayne Bravo was stretchered off the field after injuring his hamstring near the boundary•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Why on earth was Aaron Finch bowling the final over?
The Renegades’ best laid plans went to waste when Dwayne Bravo suffered a game-ending – and perhaps worse? – hamstring injury fielding in the 11th over of the Scorchers’ chase. At that stage they were one down and needed 81 off 57. Bravo had bowled just one over; the loss of his three overs meant the misfiring Nathan Rimmington had to be bowled out (at a cost of 45) and Finch had to bowl two. Briefly, remarkably, it looked like they might have got away with it.Turner’s turn
Offspinner Ashton Turner’s name is as fine a case of nominative determinism as cricket can currently offer. Anyway, spin has historically played a big role at Docklands Stadium, and his excellent performance set the path for the rest of the game. Turner’s first over only fuelled the Renegades’ excellent start, as Marcus Harris thumped him for two fours. Adam Voges persisted with Turner, and that paid dividends when Harris top-edged a sweep to deep midwicket. After Cameron White and Callum Ferguson put on 50, back came Turner to begin the stall; his four overs cost just 25, and he had White caught at deep midwicket.Ashton Agar celebrates with Sam Whiteman after smashing a six off the last ball•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

A tale of two brothers
A fine night for Mitchell, but not so much for Shaun, as both look to hustle their way back into the Australian squad for the final Test of the summer, which will be named on Friday. Shaun has fond memories of this ground, having put on 171 with Klinger last year to seal that 10-wicket win. The pair extended their unbeaten run to 207, but Shaun struggled on Thursday. His tortuous seven took 14 balls, with just three of them resulting in runs. There was one lovely slash through point for four and drive through mid-off for two; the rest was a tale of ugly timing.Mitchell had a much better night. The allrounder kicked things off with a fine spell of bowling, hammering away at a length for four overs, and picking up a wicket – Ferguson, the man who very briefly replaced him in the Test side – with his final ball. He took two fine catches – on the fence at third man to see off Tom Cooper, and at deep square leg where he was picked out by Peter Nevill – to boot. Mitchell’s brutal knock took the Scorchers to within seven runs of a win, before he dragged himself from the field having holed out. Fortunately for him, Agar saved his blushes.

Speaking for the first time since being found guilty of ball-tampering on Tuesday evening, South Africa’s stand-in captain Faf du Plessis used the first half of his pre-match press conference to continue to claim innocence. Du Plessis began with an explanation of what he considered the difference between altering the condition of the ball and merely looking after it, and that he firmly believed he was only doing the latter.”Yesterday was the hearing and the verdict was that I was guilty. I completely disagree with that. I felt like I have done nothing wrong,” du Plessis said. “There’s two ways of looking at it, either ball-shining or ball-tampering. For me, if you talk about ball-tampering, that is something that’s wrong. It’s picking the ball, scratching the ball.”Shining is something that all cricketers would say is not in that same space. It is something all cricketers do and I think there will be a lot of emphasis after this incident on where the game is going, what the ICC is going to do about it. I don’t believe shining is wrong. It’s not like I was trying to cheat or anything. I was shining a ball and I see no problem with that.”Du Plessis admitted he had a “massive mint” in his mouth and was not trying to be insidious about what he was doing in using saliva that had mixed with the sweet to shine the ball, but he questioned why he would have escaped charge had his actions not been seen by television cameras. “I wasn’t trying to actually hide it,” he said. “I put a massive mint in my mouth and my mouth was that wide open. Whether you shine the ball with a sweet in your mouth or whether you don’t see the sweet, and the sweet is still there, it’s exactly the same thing.”And according to du Plessis, he has received enough support from both current and former players, including Australian captain Steven Smith, who in his own press conference said his team “along with every other, shine the ball the same way”, to know that it is commonplace in the game.”The ex-players have spoken about it. It’s part of our game. It’s been an unwritten rule,” du Plessis said. “Some people use sunblock to shine the ball. I know of people who carry lip-ice in their pocket and shine the cricket ball or gum. So many things. It’s just so difficult to say what is right and what is wrong. To say that when you have a sweet in your mouth, it’s wrong but when you have a sweet in your mouth and the camera doesn’t pick up on it, it’s okay. It’s just a really massive grey area.”The everybody-does-it defense made headlines in the lead-up to du Plessis’ hearing, when footage emerged of Virat Kohli shining a ball when he appeared to have gum in his mouth, and David Warner shining a ball after applying lip-balm to his mouth. Neither Kohli nor Warner were charged – the visuals of their actions emerged after the ICC’s five-day window for reporting incidents – and although du Plessis would not be drawn on whether they should have been, he asked for consistent application of the rules. “I just ask that everyone gets treated the same way,” he said. “The ICC has taken a stance against me to use me as a scapegoat. All you can ask for is that everyone gets treated the same.”He also, along with Cricket South Africa CEO Haroon Lorgat, who was present at the press conference, hoped there would be clarity on what constitutes an artificial substance, and believes his case could lead to thorough research into whether sugar can make the ball swing.”Ninety percent of the time, cricketers have got sugary saliva,” du Plessis said. “Whether we are drinking Powerade, Coke, Gatorade, eating sweets, sucking on jellies, our mouths are always full of sugar. It’s such a grey area in the laws of cricket and its something that will be looked at. Us as cricketers, we think that it makes a difference but we are not scientists. We are not sure if it makes a difference. It’s opened up a can of worms, what’s going to happen now, going forward with the game. Something like this needed to happen to create a little bit more awareness on it.”Lorgat confirmed that CSA will engage the ICC on the matter at the next cricket committee meeting but until then, du Plessis has asked not be branded underhanded and for the practice to be considered acceptable. “It’s never nice to be in a position like this because with ball tampering, it’s a really negative connotation that gets put to it and the term cheat has been thrown around and that’s something I do not take lightly,” he said.”It’s something I don’t want to be associated with in any space and as I said, I felt I did nothing wrong. I was shining the cricket ball. I’ve been doing that for my whole career and every single team I have played in does exactly the same thing and it’s not something that’s frowned upon my anyone, not even the umpires. So to make such a big thing, I just think it was a little bit blown out of proportion by everyone.”He has also thanked his team-mates for their united showing of support when Hashim Amla addressed the media at the MCG last Friday, with the entire squad alongside him. “If you know the character of someone like Hashim Amla, you will understand that for him to go out and stand in front of the press and say the things that he said, he will feel very strongly about it. He is just the most honest guy on the planet so for him to say that means a lot,” du Plessis said. “It’s speaks a lot about our culture and how we don’t let any outside noise creep into our space.”The noise may not have got in, but du Plessis has been warned to expect a hostile reception at the Adelaide Oval, perhaps from the opposition but definitely from the crowd. While he does not think Smith and co will have anything because he believes they do the same thing.”I think the Aussies won’t talk about it at all because they know that’s part of their team as well. It’s not been driven by the cricketers. You don’t expect to go out there against Australia and walk out with a clap and welcome to the crease. It’s part of playing against Australia, you expect that and that’s something I have grown used to,” he said, but challenged fans to understand his perspective. “I’m hoping that cricketing sense will be prevail. It’s obviously something that if you are a cricketer and you understand cricket that this is not actually that big of a deal.”With the ball in the spotlight, du Plessis’ tactics on shining the pink ball will come into focus but he has indicated it may not need as much work. “The timing is perfect that it’s the pink ball. Apparently it swings more. It will be interesting to see how to shine the ball. I will probably just touch my finger like that and get a little bit of spit on it,” he joked.And will he still use mints as the sugary substance of choice? “Possibly just for bad breath now, not for shining the ball. I still the feel exactly the same way. Whether I was guilty or not, whether the sentence was different or not, I still feel exactly the same way. Maybe that needs to change now but possibly for this one game, I just maybe need to stay away from the mints.”

Karnataka captain Vinay Kumar capped his return from injury with a second-innings half-century and five-wicket haul that sent Vidarbha crashing to a 189-run loss inside three days in Vadodara. The win took Karnataka to their third victory in four games, thereby topping Group B at the season’s halfway mark.On a 17-wicket day in 71 overs, Karnataka first crumbled from 108 for 3 to 209 all out. Set 301 for victory, Vidarbha were skittled for 111, with Vinay returning 5 for 28.Left-arm pacer Shrikant Wagh (4 for 59) and Lalit Yadav ripped through Karnataka’s lower middle-order, before Vinay rescued them with 56 from No. 8. He hit eight fours along the way to build the lead.After top-scoring with the bat, Vinay returned to lead the bowling charge, by picking three of the first four wickets; Vidarbha slumped to 12 for 4 at one stage. Jitesh Sharma counter-attacked to make 61, before S Aravind and K Gowtham dismissed the tailenders to finish off the innings inside 37 overs.Saurashtra dismissed Assam for 171 in Kolkata with Jaydev Unadkat taking six wickets, but not before Assam took a first-innings lead of 18.Saurashtra started the day on 121 for 9 with Unadkat and Shaurya Sanandia adding 32 runs in the morning for a cumulative partnership of 46 runs for the final wicket – their highest in the innings. Unadkat’s 46 helped creep their score up to 153 before Sanadia was dismissed by Dhiraj Goswami.In the reply, Assam lost their first wicket in their second over and Unadkat’s double-strike in overs 13 and 15 saw them stranded at 26 for 3. But a 52-run partnership between Arun Karthik and Swarupam Purkayastha for the sixth-wicket took them close to Saurashtra’s score, before the former was dismissed for 57. Purkayastha was out the following over and then Unadkat and Jadeja cleaned up the tail to constrict Assam to a slender lead.Saurashtra lost opener Avi Barot to Arup Das – his eighth scalp of the match – as they ended on 0 for the loss of one wicket at stumps.Opener Ranjit Singh and Subhranshu Senapati helped Odisha to 244 for 2 after following-on against Rajasthan in Patiala. Their unbeaten partnership of 159 runs in 56.3 overs gave Odisha a 93-run lead before final day’s play.Beginning the day on 143 for 8 in their first innings, Odisha fell short of avoiding follow-on by one run as Pankaj Singh picked up the last two wickets to finish with 4 for 61 as they were all out for 172, chasing 343.Odisha batted better in their second innings; opener Sandeep Pattnaik scored a 32-ball 40 before his partner Singh and Senapati – both of whom remained not out on 89 and 90 – steered Odisha to a significant lead while playing out the seven Rajasthan bowlers used in the innings.Unmukt Chand reached his century and followed that up with another half-century as Delhi reached 165 for 1 in their second-innings at stumps against Jharkhand in Thumba after being asked to follow on.Starting the day on 225 for 3, Chand and overnight centurion Rishabh Pant added 36 runs more before the latter was removed by Ashish Kumar. Chand fell one run later, but not before he had completed his eighth first-class ton earlier in the day. The last five Delhi wickets could add only 72 more runs as they were dismissed for 334, trailing by 159. Kumar and offbreak bowler Sunny Gupta returned with three wickets each.In their second innings, Chand put on 109-runs with fellow-opener Dhruv Shorey before Gupta dismissed him for 63. Shorey continued, to post his third first-class fifty, and ended not out on 67 with Nitish Rana, at stumps with Delhi on 165 for 1, leading by six runs. * The report erroneously mentioned Karnataka had beaten Baroda. This has been corrected.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKusal Perera smashed 15 fours and two sixes in his 121-ball 110•AFP

Kusal Perera preyed on a sub-par bowling effort, a docile Harare surface and sloppy fielding to hammer his maiden Test ton, a 121-ball 110, as Sri Lanka racked up 317 for 4 against Zimbabwe on the first day.Perera, batting at No. 3, signalled his aggressive approach from the outset. Two wild swings early in his innings, one of which took the outside edge, didn’t alter his tactics. He plundered a tiring bowling attack for 15 fours and two sixes, including taking debutant Carl Mumba for five fours in an over after the tea break.Perera was supremely confident against anything too full, often muscling boundaries straight including two sixes to the long-on area off Hamilton Masakadza in the space of three balls. The bowlers’ natural response was to drop short but a slow surface helped him read the length early and execute the pull efficiently in the arc between square leg and fine leg.Despite Perera’s dominance, it would have been the Sri Lanka openers who may have worn the widest smiles on their journey to Zimbabwe. In their home series against Australia, Sri Lanka’s opening stands amounted to 27 in six innings, an average of 4.5. In their first Test since that series, Kaushal Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne saw off the swinging new ball and added a 123-run stand against a harmless bowling attack.Silva was typically staunch in defense and capitalised on the occasional short or overpitched delivery. After a slow start, Silva found his run-scoring rhythm towards the latter part of the first session.After the lunch break, Silva made a slight change to his technique: he chose to play the ball later and use cross-batted shots – pulls and cuts behind square – to accumulate his runs. He struck 11 boundaries, most of which came via errant lines. Just after the tea break, a loss in concentration cost him his second successive ton, shimmying down and chipping part-timer Malcolm Waller to mid-on for 94.Karunaratne was repeatedly dismissed in the same fashion against Australia: playing around his front pad and missing Mitchell Starc’s straight deliveries. He fell over against Zimbabwe’s accurate seamers too, but was able to manipulate the midwicket region because of the difference in pace. The bowlers weren’t helped by a sluggish pitch that got slower as the day wore on.An error in judgement at this level can often be fatal. Karunaratne, who was looking impregnable on 56, went back to turn an innocuous delivery on the pads to square leg but reached the ball a fraction early. A leading edge was snaffled up at midwicket.Zimbabwe’s seamers had extracted enough from the surface and in the air in the first hour, but Sri Lanka’s openers were disciplined. Many deliveries were left alone and a few even beat the bat. After that though, lateral movement ceased and they made use of the favourable batting conditions.Sri Lanka may not have had as much success had Zimbabwe held on to their chances. Mumba pitched his first ball on middle – the second over of the day – and got it to swerve away just enough to take the shoulder of Karunaratne’s bat. Williams backtracked from gully but couldn’t cling on to his overhead one-handed attempt.In the second session, Zimbabwe dropped three catches. Wicketkeeper Peter Moor spilled two of them standing up to the stumps, off Perera and Silva. Perera was given another reprieve when Malcolm Waller spilled a chance while running in from long-on.Cremer lent some respectability to Zimbabwe’s day by having Kusal Mendis caught behind off a vicious legbreak. Towards the end, he also had Perera caught at cover to finish with figures of 3 for 82 in an otherwise substandard day.

Former Middlesex and Sussex batsman Toby Radford has been hired by the WICB as the batting coach for the UAE tour. Radford will join the West Indies squad, which has already reached the UAE, where they will play three T20Is, three ODIs, and three Test matches against Pakistan from September 23.”He has been contracted just for this series,” WICB CEO Michael Muirhead said. “He knows the youngsters well and had done well especially with them”. Asked whether Radford could retain a long-term position, Muirhead said: “Highly unlikely. We’ll engage as and when we need him.”Radford’s appointment is a surprising development considering earlier this week the Welshman had quit as manager of the national academy in Ireland citing “family reasons”. Incidentally Radford had taken the role at Cricket Ireland only in July, having left his job as head coach at Glamorgan last December with one year remaining in his contract.Radford is well acquainted with West Indies cricket and most of its players having worked as assistant coach (batting) during Ottis Gibson’s tenure as coach when West Indies won the World T20 for the first time in 2012. Radford will assist Henderson Springer, who has been appointed caretaker coach after the WICB sacked Phil Simmons earlier this week.

Pakistan 542 (Younis 218, Shafiq 109) and 42 for 0 (Azhar 30*, Aslam 12*) beat England 328 (Moeen 108, Sohail 5-68) and 253 (Bairstow 81, Yasir 5-71) by ten wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA typically erratic burst of brilliance from Wahab Riaz cracked England’s resistance on the fourth afternoon at the Kia Oval, as Pakistan finished their Test series in the same magnificent style with which they had begun it at Lord’s last month, by swarming to a famous series-levelling victory in the fourth and final Test against England.Set 40 for victory after overcoming some stiff but ultimately futile resistance from England’s lower-middle order, Pakistan had recouped 16 of those before tea, before romping to a ten-wicket victory in the space of 20 minutes after the resumption, thanks to the efforts of Sami Aslam and Azhar Ali, to whom the honour of the winning hit, high into the pavilion, eventually fell.England had resumed the contest with four wickets already squandered, and a stiff deficit of 126 runs still to be overcome, but they summoned the last vestiges of their intent and determination, largely thanks to Jonny Bairstow’s 81 from 127 balls, to stave off an innings defeat and extend the contest into the day’s final session.However, after Pakistan had chiselled out two vital wickets in a nervy morning’s work, the return of Wahab’s fierce pace in the first hour after lunch was the moment at which all hope for England was blown away.Wahab’s impact in his first spell had been tempered by the attentions of umpire Bruce Oxenford, who handed him his second warning for following through on the pitch. Given how futile his efforts have been to combat a series-long no-ball problem, Wahab’s expulsion from the attack was only ever a matter of time. And sure enough, his day’s work was brought to a premature end two balls into his 12th over when Oxenford handed him his third and final strike.By then, however, the only two balls of his spell that really mattered had already come and gone. Charging in for his first over of the afternoon session with the sort of startling impact that only bowlers of genuine pace can create, Wahab got rid of each of England’s last two recognised batsmen, Bairstow and Chris Woakes, in consecutive deliveries to reduce England to 209 for 8.The timing of his intervention was as shattering as the spell itself, coming as it did with England a mere five runs shy of parity, and with two in-form men at the crease who might well have backed themselves to eke out the sort of three-figured lead that could have put their opponents under pressure in the fourth innings. Instead, in the blink of an eye, England’s only remaining ambition was to avoid an innings defeat, which they duly managed to ironic cheers when Finn clipped Wahab through midwicket three overs later.The first of the big two to fall was Woakes for 4, sold a dummy at the non-striker’s end as Bairstow hopped on to the back foot to nudge a Wahab lifter for a single into the leg side, only for the bowler himself to gallop across in his follow-through, pounce on the ball and shy from five yards while still on his knees. Woakes was nowhere near getting back.One delivery later, and clearly rattled by his own misjudgement, Bairstow attempted to reassert his authority but chose the wrong ball against which to do so. More heat outside off stump from Wahab meant that Bairstow was never in position for his drive, and Azhar at short cover completed a sharp low chance to send his team-mates into ecstasy.It was hard luck on Bairstow, who up to that point had scarcely blinked in his bid to haul England back off the canvas in this contest, and in the course of his innings, he became only the second player, after VVS Laxman in 2002, to score 900-plus runs in a year batting at No. 6 or lower.After taking a handful of overs to find his range, Bairstow laid into Pakistan’s left-armers with three rifled drives for four off Amir and Wahab, as Misbah’s natural reticence – even at moments of clear dominance – translated into a slightly tentative opening gambit from his team.It was the less-heralded wiles of Sohail Khan that finally prised the opening, as Gary Ballance – who had also been lining up the left-armers with confidence as they angled the ball back into his pads – found the right-armer’s seam and swing less easy to comprehend.Sohail’s fourth delivery of the morning was a triumph of line and length, as he pitched the ball on the left-hander’s off stump, found a modicum of movement off the seam and some steepling extra bounce to take the edge and climb through to Sarfraz Ahmed.Moeen Ali, coming off the back of a brilliant first-innings hundred, immediately got off the mark with a flicked four off the pads and he too resolved to remain as fluent as possible as England sought to chip away at their deficit.For the best part of an hour, Moeen and Bairstow blotted out the match situation in a brisk 65-run stand for the sixth wicket, as England revived some timely memories of the match-turning alliance that the same pair had produced from a similarly dicey position in the third Test at Edgbaston.Yasir Shah, whose confidence appeared to have been restored by his three-wicket burst on the third evening, struggled at first for the same impact and Moeen cashed in with a yawning straight six over long-on.But, with five minutes to go until lunch, and having begun to find a decent rhythm from around the wicket as he targeted the rough outside the left-hander’s off stump, Yasir claimed the big breakthrough with the one that went straight on. Anticipating the spin, Moeen was instead suckered by extra bounce, and Sarfraz behind the stumps took a sharp edge with a hint of a juggle.It was the prompter that Yasir needed to get back onto the offensive, and soon after Wahab’s twin interventions, Pakistan’s legspinner completed his series as he had begun it so memorably at Lord’s, wrapping up his sixth five-wicket haul in 16 Tests when Stuart Broad sent an attempted reverse sweep to Younis Khan at slip.It meant that Yasir finished the series with 19 wickets at 40.73 – but 15 at 18.13 in his two Tests in London. He now has a grand total of 95 wickets in 16 Tests, and had it not been for his anonymous showings in Pakistan’s two mid-series defeats at Old Trafford and Edgbaston, he would surely have raced past George Lohmann’s 120-year old record and become the fastest bowler to reach 100 wickets in Tests.Yasir could not apply the coup de grace to England’s innings. That honour instead went to the debutant Iktikhar Ahmed, who brought an end to some spirited defiance from England’s final pair, and picked up his maiden Test wicket, when he extracted an lbw verdict against James Anderson for 17.With nothing less than a miracle required to salvage the contest, Alastair Cook threw the ball to his likeliest wicket-takers, Woakes and Steven Finn, only for the latter to limp out of the attack after two deliveries after picking up a hamstring strain. It was an apt finale to a series in which each of England’s forward strides seemed to have been matched by an equal leap in the opposite direction.For Pakistan, however, the glory was absolute – sealed by Azhar with a mighty six into the top tier of the pavilion off Moeen, and on their nation’s Independence Day holiday to boot.As the players posed on the outfield with a large Pakistani flag before embarking on a lap of honour, they could reflect on a stunning series draw that not only denied England their stated goal of holding all the series trophies against all nine of their Test opponents, but reaffirmed their own prospects of achieving the unthinkable and rising to become the No.1 nation in the world. For a side that has not played a single match on home soil in more than seven years, that would be a glory without parallel.

ScorecardNick Browne maintained his gluttonous run-scoring against Derbyshire (file photo)•Getty Images

Nick Browne’s unbeaten double-century provided the platform for Division Two leaders Essex to take complete control of the match against Derbyshire at Derby. The opener was unbeaten on 229, his second double-hundred of the season against Derbyshire, when Essex declared at 530 for 9 with Ryan ten Doeschate scoring 60 and Paul Walter 47 on his first-class debut.Derbyshire seamer Tom Milnes claimed a Championship best 6 for 93 but it was the only positive for the home side who collapsed before tea and closed the day 116 for 6.Essex went into the second morning already well placed and Browne and ten Doeschate accumulated steadily to take their partnership to 140 before Milnes broke through.Derbyshire should have removed Browne on 144 when he swatted a full toss from legspinner Matt Critchley to square leg but Charlie Macdonell spilled a simple chance. It was the second time Browne had been put down and he made the most of his good fortune by batting Essex into a position of utter dominance with the help of ten Doeschate and Walter.The Essex captain straight drove Critchley for six and although this was one of his less explosive innings against Derbyshire, his side were well on top when he played on to Milnes who claimed three more wickets in three overs after lunch. James Foster pulled to fine leg, Will Rhodes edged to second slip on his Essex debut after arriving on loan from Yorkshire and Graham Napier gloved a catch down the leg side but that was as good as it got for Derbyshire.Walter strode to the middle to dominate a stand of 83 in 13 overs, taking three consecutive fours from Callum Parkinson to bring up the 500 before Browne drove Tony Palladino over long-on for his second six.Essex pulled out when Palladino clipped Walter’s leg stump and Derbyshire were soon in deep trouble with Ben Slater lbw to Jamie Porter’s second delivery and Billy Godleman bowled in the fourth over. Wayne Madsen walked out needing 22 for 1000 championship runs for the season but was lbw to a Walter yorker without scoring and when Will Hughes was well taken down the leg side, Derbyshire were 34 for 4.Neil Broom looked secure and Macdonell showed application in his first Championship innings as the fifth wicket pair resisted for 17 overs before Napier produced a quicker ball to have Broom taken at first slip for 31. Walter returned to tempt Macdonell into an edged drive and although Alex Mellor and Matt Critchley dug in for 13 overs, Derbyshire were 414 behind at stumps.

ScorecardTravis Head smashed 175 in his fourth innings for Yorkshire (file photo)•BCCI

Individual hundreds from Travis Head and Jack Leaning and a partnership of 274 – a List A record for the county – helped Yorkshire complete a third consecutive win in the Royal London Cup, keeping the Vikings firmly on course to reach the quarter-finals of this season’s competition.Head hit 175 off 139 balls while Leaning finished unbeaten on 131 off 110 as Yorkshire recorded their highest List A total against another first-class county, beating the 352 for 6 made against Nottinghamshire in Scarborough in 2001. Their highest total, 411 for 4, was made against Devon in 2004.Leaning, whose century was his second in List A cricket, said it had been a pleasure to bat with Head, in only his fourth match for Yorkshire, describing the 21-year-old as “a huge talent who will play a big part for Australia in the future”.”It was also good to keep up our current form. Wins always breed confidence, and we can take this into a busy period of games,” Leaning added.Having been asked to bowl first, Leicestershire might have thought fortune was going to favour them after Yorkshire opener Adam Lyth, who scored centuries in his two previous List A games, was run out for just 2 following a mix-up with partner Alex Lees.Lees himself was stumped for 32 off the bowling of Foxes offspinner Rob Sayer, coming down the wicket and missing with an ugly heave across the line, but 51 for 2 was as good as it got for Leicestershire. On a flat track Head looked in fine touch from the start, while Leaning hit the third ball he faced, from Sayer, high over long-off for six.Head brought up his half-century from a relatively sedate 60 balls, but accelerated thereafter, reaching his hundred off 99 deliveries. He might have been dismissed on 116, when he lofted a delivery from Mark Cosgrove to long-off, but although Sayer held the ball one-handed above his head, he did so in the act of stepping over the boundary and was forced to throw the ball back inside the rope.Leaning also had an escape, a more straightforward chance dropped by Robson at deep midwicket off Sayer when he was on 83, and the pair had eclipsed Yorkshire’s previous List A record partnership of 242, between Martyn Moxon and Ashley Metcalfe against Warwickshire in 1990, by the time Head passed 150 and Leaning his hundred.Head eventually top-edged a simple catch behind the wicket to be dismissed for 175 – remarkably, still 25 short of his best List A score of 200, made for South Australia last October – but Leaning finished unbeaten as Yorkshire continued to pile on the runs.Leicestershire’s reply began poorly, when captain Mark Pettini was bowled by a superb in-swinging delivery from David Willey, and though Angus Robson could consider himself unlucky to glove an attempted hook at Tim Bresnan and be caught by the wicketkeeper down the leg side, Kevin O’Brien can only have been disappointed with the shot that saw him give midwicket a simple catch.Cosgrove was caught off a leading edge, and though Lewis Hill played well in going to 50, the rest of the Leicestershire batsmen had no answer to the spin of Azeem Rafiq and Adil Rashid.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsWest Indies pulled off a coup to beat South Africa for the second time in the triangular series and book a place in Sunday’s final against Australia. The hosts, ranked eighth in this format, were only given an outside chance of making it to the last match, ahead of the tournament, but they ended with as many wins as top-ranked side Australia.At 21 for 4 in the fifth over, West Indies looked out of the reckoning but Darren Bravo’s third ODI century led the recovery after Kagiso Rabada’s searing opening spell. Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who scored a ninth ODI fifty, shared a record 156-run stand for the fifth wicket to drive West Indies to 285.Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, playing only his second ODI, then made sure South Africa could not get there. He reduced them to 28 for 3 and South Africa failed to find a batting hero. Farhaan Behardien was the only batsman in the top seven to get past 16 and only South Africa’s last pair put on a stand over 31 as they were dismissed for 185 in 46 overs.Earlier, it seemed West Indies would be in danger of folding in a similar fashion. They were flattened by Rabada’s raw pace and blistering accuracy on a surface with good carry. After Wayne Parnell had Andre Fletcher caught behind, Rabada dismissed Johnson Charles and Marlon Samuels off successive balls. He was unable to emulate his bowling coach Charl Langeveldt and claim a hat-trick, but an over later he set Denesh Ramdin up by hitting him on the shoulder with a bouncer and then going full to remove his middle stump and leave West Indies reeling.Things could have got worse for them when Bravo, who was on 11 at the time, top-edged Morne Morkel but Parnell misjudged the catch and parried it over for six. Three balls later, the light drizzle that had hung around turned into a downpour and the 20-minute break allowed West Indies to catch their breath and plot a comeback.They returned to face spin for the first time in Imran Tahir but Bravo dealt with him with authority, so much so that Tahir went wicketless for the first time in the series. Pollard led the assault against the seamers and took on Morkel and Chris Morris, both of whom struggled to find their lengths.Bravo and Pollard scored at more than six runs an the over to force AB de Villiers into making constant bowling changes, all to no avail. Not only was the South African attack unable to find a way through the pair, but they were untidy in their efforts and bowled 19 extra deliveries.They had a brief respite when Pollard tried to clear long-on and Faf du Plessis took a sharp catch running back from the inner ring but with 20 overs left in the West Indian innings, Bravo read the situation well and pressed on. He was in the 80s when Pollard was dismissed, and entered the nineties with a four off the bottom edge off Morris and brought up his most important hundred in this format off the same number of balls.Holder took 17 balls to get his first run but he could afford to be circumspect. After settling in, he scored a vital 40 and shared a 54-run stand for the seventh wicket with Carlos Brathwaite.Having watched Australia chase down 283 on Tuesday, South Africa would have been confident of their chances but their line-up let them down, despite several let-offs.Hashim Amla should have been out off the fifth legitimate ball he faced, when he chased an awayswinger from Gabriel but Ramdin shelled the chance. He made up for it two overs later when Quinton de Kock got a bottom edge and Ramdin took a one-handed catch.Du Plessis should have been run out when Amla set off for a risky single, but Andre Fletcher missed a direct hit from point. Five balls later, Gabriel sliced du Plessis into half with a sharp inducker and appealed for the lbw. Amla coaxed du Plessis into a review, but it went in vain.De Villiers offered a chance, when he chased a wide one from Gabriel, delivered at 144.4kph and Ramdin did not miss out. He fell on his injured right shoulder to take the catch but it ensured the South African captain ended the series without a single fifty. Amla’s luck ran out when Sunil Narine trapped the opener in front with his second ball to expose South Africa’s middle order.Jason Holder, having recovered from a hamstring strain to play this game, bowled an uninterrupted ten-over spell and found reward when he had Duminy popping a leading edge to gully. Holder should have had another wicket when Behardien top-edged to fine leg but Gabriel dropped it. By then, South Africa were 65 for 6 and West Indies were not left to rue their missed chances.Gabriel did not bowl again in the match and went off the field to tend to an injury, which allowed Behardien and Wayne Parnell to mount a brief fightback. With the required run rate climbing, the only purpose South Africa’s tail served in keeping West Indies in the field was to frustrate them and Sulieman Benn was particularly irked. He searched for a wicket without success, but that would not take the gloss off West Indies’ win.