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For a brief period in Townsville, India had a fright in a game they had to win to avoid being sent to the Plate Championship of the Under-19 World Cup. From the boondocks of 30 for 4, Zimbabwe’s Malcolm Lake resurrected the chase of 262. He singlehandedly dragged his team along with his clean, long-handled hitting but cricket isn’t supposed to be played by one man against 11. Lake was the last man out in the 45th over, having scored 118 out of 198, with the next highest contribution being 29.Lake, only just 18, is a tall allrounder from Harare who bowls right-arm medium pace but bats left-handed, like other illustrious Zimbabwe allrounders Neil Johnson, Sean Ervine and Andy Blignaut did.After making a duck against Papua New Guinea, he chose the grandest stage of his career so far to play his best innings.”It’s definitely my highest score,” Lake said. “It’s up there with the best I’ve batted for my team, just sad we couldn’t get over the line [in] the end.”He had an 87-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Luke Jongwe, which revived the chase, and it ended with a run-out that left Lake sitting on his haunches and shaking his head in disappointment as his partner walked back. His remaining partners did not stay as long.”In the beginning with Luke, [we wanted to] just knock it around, get ourselves into a position from where we can expand later, from where we can hit and get the big shots away,” Lake said. “Near the end I just wanted a partner. I was excited about the hundred but just sad we didn’t get over the line.”And he did play some big shots. The boundaries at Tony Ireland Stadium are of considerable size, although one side was shorter than the other today because the pitch closest to the pavilion was used. Lake picked out gaps in the off-side field for his fours but preferred the long-on and midwicket region when attempting sixes. He cleared it four times.His coach Chris Harris called it a “magnificent innings.” “It was one of those innings, when looking from the sidelines, you felt as though you had a chance, how well he was striking the ball,” Harris said.This century, however, was a dramatic turnaround in form for Lake, who had been struggling for runs even before his duck against Papua New Guinea. “He’s probably been in the worst nick of his life leading up to this tournament,” Harris said. “He’ll be the first to admit it. But he’s a tremendous striker of the ball and he is very much a confidence player, and we’d like to think he picked up a lot of confidence today. I’ve always seen him as a match-winner.”Some of Lake’s confidence with the bat would have come from his bowling performance, an economical seven-over spell that prevented India from getting 300. Harris reckoned Lake could have been faster than he was, and Lake also said he had told himself “not worry about the pace, get it in the right areas.”Those right areas were short of a length and straight. Kyle Bowie, Curthbert Musoko and Jongwe, however, bowled a fair number of full balls but were primarily guilty of giving India’s batsmen width to free their arms. India were 122 for 0 when Lake began his spell in the 23rd over.”During practice, we had been through a few plans [for the Indian batsmen],” Lake said. “The main plan was definitely to bring the length back and put them on the back foot. Campbell [Light] and I bowled very well to that plan.”Lake broke through in the third of his seven consecutive overs, giving Zimbabwe their first wicket, and denied the batsmen scoring opportunities. And though he had three overs remaining, he was not used anymore after the 35th over and ended on 1 for 19.That wasn’t the last questionable bowling decision the Zimbabwe captain Matthew Bentley would make. Light had been introduced only in the 42nd over and he had figures of 3 for 14 in three overs before conceding eight in the 48th over. Bentley replaced Light with Musoko for the 50th and watched Kamal Passi plunder 24 runs, propelling India from 237.”To be fair [to Bentley], part of the reason Curthbert has been picked is to bowl at the death, he’s been practising it,” said Harris. “From Matthew’s point of view, he thought Curthbert was the specialist bowler picked to do it. Today he had an off day.”Zimbabwe now need to beat West Indies and also get their net run-rate higher than that of India, who will probably beat Papua New Guinea. If they can’t do that, they will compete for the Plate Championship, after which several players will hope to secure places in Zimbabwe’s domestic franchise system.Harris had said that several of the Under-19 cricketers had come through the age-group system and it was vital their talent wasn’t lost after this World Cup because Zimbabwe Cricket had invested heavily in them. Lake is one such investment. He hasn’t played first-class cricket yet and he hopes his performance has caught the attention of the franchises.”I’ve come through all the age groups of Zimbabwe Cricket,” he said. “The standard of school cricket in Zimbabwe is what’s brought me through, many coaches at school and national level have brought me to this point. I’m still to see where cricket takes me, and where I’m going in my life.”With the right breaks, Lake could begin to follow the path Johnson, Ervine and Blignaut took.

Shalabh Srivastava, the Uttar Pradesh fast bowler who was banned for five years by the BCCI for conspiring to fix a match, has claimed he is innocent and has not been given justice. Meanwhile, TP Sudhindra, who was banned for life after admitting he took money to bowl a no-ball in a domestic game, will take legal advice ahead of his next step.The BCCI’s disciplinary committee found Srivastava guilty of agreeing, and negotiating terms, to fix a match though no fixing eventually took place. But the player maintains he could not have done so as he did not pay a single game in this year’s IPL.”I still maintain that I am innocent and I have not got justice,” Srivastava told the . “When I spoke to the BCCI officials, I told them that I have never been involved in any match-fixing. I told them that I haven’t even played in this year’s IPL… I thought I would get proper justice and won’t be punished as I am innocent.”Srivastava, 30, did concede that it was a mistake to be so friendly with people he did not know, but insisted that the subject of match-fixing was never discussed. “I had injured my knee and was recuperating in Lucknow. How could I have negotiated with someone and promise him to fix matches and bowl no-balls?”At this stage, however, he has not considered appealing against his ban. “I don’t know what to do now that I have been banned for five years. Maybe some sort of divine intervention would help me and that’s why I have come to seek Sai Baba’s blessings [in Shirdi].”As for Sudhindra, he told the : “I regret my wrongdoing.” He plans to consult his lawyers about his next step. He said he turned down an offer of Rs 1 crore (US$ 175,450) during the sting operation despite his family’s money problems. He was found guilty of taking Rs 5,000 to deliver a no-ball in a local game.”People don’t realise the financial state my family was in. I was trapped,” he said. “But I did decline an eight-figure offer made by the same people. I will come out with the true story soon. Let me talk to my lawyer first. I don’t want another youngster to be trapped like me.”Sudhindra and Srivastava are two of the five Indian domestic players to be banned by the disciplinary committee. The BCCI announced the penalties on June 30 after studying a report on the allegations, which had arisen in May after an India TV sting that alluded to the five being involved in match-fixing and negotiating for extra – and illegal – pay.The three other players – Madhya Pradesh batsman Mohnish Mishra, Goa offspinner Amit Yadav and Himachal Pradesh allrounder Abhinav Bali – were given one-year bans for bringing the game into disrepute through “loose talk and unsubstantiated bragging.” The punishments took effect from May 15, the date on which the IPL governing council suspended them.

Cricket Australia’s chief executive, James Sutherland, has ruled out an extension of the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the players as the June 30 deadline draws closer with no sign of resolution. Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) will meet again later this week in an effort to resolve their ongoing pay dispute, and neither side has shown any willingness to budge on their demands.The existing MoU expires at the end of the month and if a new deal is not agreed by that time, Australia’s players will be out of contract and could consider strike action. The limited-overs squad departs on Thursday for a one-day tour of England and Ireland, and they will have four matches still to play when the contract talks are due to expire.The ACA chief executive, Paul Marsh, has declared strike action a last resort, and said the union’s preferred option would be to continue with the existing MoU if a new agreement is not reached. That was the outcome last year, when a one-year extension was agreed as a compromise when the parties couldn’t find common ground on a new deal, but Sutherland said Cricket Australia was not willing to do the same this time around.”From our perspective, we’re not entertaining any thoughts of rolling over the contract,” Sutherland said on Tuesday. “We have a strong view that there needs to be a new agreement going forward and we’re negotiating on that basis.”The ACA remains frustrated at Cricket Australia’s push to change the pool of revenue from which the players take a 26% cut, but the board is adamant the players will be better off financially. Although neither side has shown any sign of giving ground – in public, at least – somebody will need to compromise to avoid a messy situation on July 1, and Sutherland said he remained hopeful that a deal would be reached.”We’re probably coming into the eleventh hour,” he said. “We’ve got a sharp focus on trying to make sure we can get something done. We’ll give it a good crack. We’re confident in our position and the attractiveness of the offer we’ve put on the table. Hopefully the ACA will see it themselves and see their way through to be able to come to an arrangement with us this week, or in the next couple.”We’ve got a clear position that our board has mandated on. I guess that puts us in a position of needing to be strong and work through that. I think the ACA is understanding of that position – not necessarily agreeing with it – but we’ll talk to them about it and see how we go.”The prolonged nature of the discussions has been especially frustrating for the states, who cannot complete contract negotiations until a new agreement is confirmed. That means players who intend to switch states have been forced to remain with their existing teams for the time being, while there is also no certainty over how many of their players will fall under the Cricket Australia contract list.”I’m always frustrated when things don’t come together as quickly as you’d like,” Sutherland said. “It’s a really important agreement for cricket; it’s a really important agreement for our players. People take time over these things and they’re complicated. Sometimes with complex deals they don’t come together as quickly as you’d like and they get resolved right at the end. Hopefully that’s what we’ll see in the next couple of weeks.”

West Indies captain Darren Sammy has insisted his team can go on to success in England after again surrendering the Frank Worrell Trophy to Australia, a trophy the hosts have not held since 1995. Questioned at some length following the series about how his side’s batting had continually folded – the tireless Shivnarine Chanderpaul aside – Sammy said the team’s sense of belief had to remain strong and steadfast ahead of a three-Test date with arguably the world’s most accomplished seam and swing bowlers.”Different conditions, some of the guys are playing there for the first time,” Sammy said after making his highest Test score on the final day of a 75-run loss to Australia in Dominica. “We’ve still got to learn and believe that whatever comes our way that we can overcome it. It’s going to be another tough series for us but like we fought against Australia we’re expecting to do the same against England. Keep showing that attitude and hopefully we can get victories in England.”At the end of the day, its up to each individual to go out and do what is necessary for the team and to try to perform and score runs. No one wants to go out and fail – it’s about getting your mind right and going out and executing properly. We talk, we develop a plan, a formula to go out and play with, most times we don’t execute properly.”The top six is where we should get the bulk of the runs. Shiv batted really well for us again but we didn’t have consistent contributions from everyone there. We have youngsters at the top and like Shiv has said, they’re learning their skill at the international level. I back the guys to go out and play up against a higher-ranked team with lots of experience. Our guys are young and the selectors have decided to give them a run, an opportunity to develop and hopefully they can do that for us in the future.”One member of the top six at Windsor Park who will not be going on to England is Kraigg Brathwaite, the teenaged opening batsman omitted after scores of 0, 0, 0 and 11 in his final four innings of the series. Sammy said Brathwaite had not been forgotten, and would figure in the team again in the future. However he admitted the selectors had become concerned by his propensity to be out early to the new ball. Sammy also said the leg spinner Devendra Bishoo’s absence from the touring party did not mean the end of his time in Test cricket.”The selectors and coach spoke to him yesterday,” Sammy said. “Obviously he didn’t have the best series this time. He’s definitely one for the future for us. He’s out of form and in England where the ball tends to swing a bit more – this series he was getting out to the swinging ball a lot. We have a few A-team tours coming and the coach has told him he’ll be there to get some form.”We also have the high performance centre where he can go and work with the coach over there. Just like we said to Bishoo. Bishoo had an excellent year for us last year and he was not part of the Test squad but I expect them to come back. They’re both strong mentally and they’ll go and do what’s necessary to force their way back into the team.”In contrast to the batting, West Indies have developed a bowling attack that stands some chance of snipping the top off England’s batting on potentially helpful early season pitches, starting with the first Test at Lord’s from May 17. Sammy reserved particular praise for Kemar Roach, who with 19 wickets vied with Chanderpaul for man of the series honours.”Last year he had a tough year in Bangladesh, he broke down in tears but this year he has come back really, really strong,” Sammy said. “People might say well he bowled more overs than me, but he keeps asking me for the ball and that is the sort of attitude I really like to see. When I thought he was tired, he said ‘No, I really want the ball’ putting his hand up. His wickets show the hard work throughout this series.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMarlon Samuels helped Pune Warriors post a competitive 166•AFP

The thousands who made their maiden trip to the brand new Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in the outskirts of Pune, proudly and loyally filling the stands with blue, got their money’s worth as Pune Warriors India pulled off a comprehensive win against a struggling Kings XI Punjab. It was an all-round performance, led by an 81-run partnership for the third wicket between Robin Uthappa and Marlon Samuels which set them to a competitive 166 before a combined bowling effort sealed the game.A score of 166 is normally considered slightly above par in these conditions, but Warriors made it a winning total by creating opportunities by sound ground fielding, effecting two early run-outs and not giving Kings XI any leeway. Warriors recorded their second win in as many games and now share the top spot with Rajasthan Royals.Warriors made the right move at the start, promoting the experienced Samuels to No.3. However, some circumspect running, and a subsequent run-out of an out-of-sorts Jesse Ryder gave Kings XI early control.Samuels combined well with Uthappa to boost the scoring after Warriors were 43 for 2 after seven overs. The eighth over went for ten runs and the 10th, bowled by the left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma, went for 13.With the more experienced Praveen and Dimitri Mascarenhas proving more difficult to score off with their restrictive stump-to-stump lines, also with the keeper up to the stumps, the pair took to Bipul. Both used their feet, clearing long-off for sixes, one of which just beat David Hussey’s desperate leap at the edge of the rope. The duo also studied the field well, using the pace of the ball to fetch a couple of boundaries off deft touches to third man, with the fielder within the circle.Uthappa fetched an audacious six, off one hand, over long-off but the bowler Harmeet Singh got the better of Samuels in the same over, bowling him off a slower delivery. Harmeet’s following over yielded just a run and the wicket of Callum Ferguson, but his next was bitter-sweet. After bowling Uthappa with another slower delivery, Harmeet had to be taken out of the attack for bowling two full tosses above waist height. Bipul completed the over, which produced three massive hits over the on-side thanks to Manish Pandey and Steven Smith.The 19th over produced 27 runs, and from that point, Kings XI found it hard to bounce back. The chase never took flight for a sustained period to threaten Warriors. The short of a length deliveries from Ashok Dinda and Ashish Nehra skidded off the surface, making strokeplay difficult. Smith’s fielding created the opportunities to derail the top order with two run-outs.Paul Valthaty sacrificed his wicket for the experienced Adam Gilchrist. Following an lbw appeal, the ball deflected to the off side but Gilchrist’s anxiety to get back on strike caused a communication mishap and Valthaty helplessly ambled out of his crease before the bails were broken at the non-striker’s end. The sacrifice didn’t help as Gilchrist himself was run-out the following over, failing to beat an agile pick-up and throw from Smith at short midwicket.Kings XI were poking around at 13 for 2 after five overs, with just one boundary. The drought had extended to 26 balls before Mandeep Singh cut Rahul Sharma to the deep point rope. However, even Mandeep failed to set a base and fell for 24, nicking Ryder to the keeper in an attempt to force the pace.Kings XI also lost the game tactically by not promoting Hussey, a batsman capable of turning a game. Hussey, Abhishek Nayar and Piyush Chawla all made starts, but the fact that none of the recognised batsmen scored more than 24 summed up what was a sorry batting performance. Late hitting by Bipul only reduced the margin of defeat.Edited by Abhishek Purohit

Andrew Strauss retains the belief he can return to being a force in Test cricket despite again failing to convert two starts in Galle as England slumped to a fourth straight defeat.Strauss contributed 26 and 27 in England’s two innings during their 75-run loss but insisted he feels in good form. He hasn’t scored a Test hundred since Brisbane at the start of the 2010-11 Ashes – now 16 Tests ago – and the pressure has been increased by the manner of his dismissals. In the first innings he tried to sweep a delivery that was too full and in the second whipped Rangana Herath to short midwicket when trying to go over the top.”At the moment it is frustrating me as much as anyone,” he said. “I’m hitting the ball nicely and feel in good form but you’re judged on your performances and I’ve not performed well enough. Hopefully I will put it right next week.”Sometimes it goes with the territory and you go through periods where you can’t kick on for whatever reason and then you get through it, release a barrier and you get some big scores in a row.”Strauss is now 35 but strongly resisted suggestions that time was catching up with his batting. “If you keep getting to 30 then I don’t think it is a terminal decline, unless you’re very unfit, which I don’t think is the case with me,” he said. “My job in the side is to score runs and I haven’t done that as much as I would have liked over the last 12 months or so, but I want to put it right next week.”He has only been dropped once during his Test career and that was when he missed the previous tour of Sri Lanka in 2007, having failed to recover from a difficult 2006-07 Ashes series. This time his position comes with the added weight of the captaincy but, understandably midway through a series, talk of his future was off the agenda.”Questions about my position are just not something I’m going to answer in the middle of the series. My focus is very much on winning the next game and it would be wrong to think of anything else.”Collectively, too, England continue to struggle and have posted 300 just once in four Tests this year. Again it was the first innings that proved really costly, slumping to 192 and conceding a 125-run lead to Sri Lanka. Strauss wanted to offer up something positive after Jonathan Trott’s second-innings hundred gave the team hope, but it wasn’t an easy task.”It is hard to say we’re making progress having lost four in a row,” he said. “I think individually people’s gameplans against spin have come on but we haven’t showed it out in the middle. If you want to win Test matches you need to get runs on the board and we haven’t done that. In the fourth innings you can understand the odd dismissal but we had less of an excuse in our first innings.”Another potential headache is an injury to Stuart Broad who was suffering from a tight right calf on the fourth day. He was clearly limping during his brief second innings but England are waiting to do a further assessment.Broad entered the Test having picked up an injury to his left ankle slipping on the boundary rope before the first warm-up match. He was passed as fully fit for the match but was slightly below his best, bowling eight no-balls – one of which cost England the wicket of Prasanna Jayawardene on the third day when Sri Lanka’s lead was a slightly more manageable 292.Edited by Alan Gardner

Mohammad Amir, the Pakistan fast bowler, has decided not to appeal, in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the five-year ban imposed on him by the ICC for spot-fixing during the 2010 Lord’s Test against England.”Amir told the ICC earlier this week through his lawyer that he would not be appealing against his five-year ban,” an ICC spokesman told ESPNcricinfo.The decision was taken after legal experts said they believed the possibility of a successful outcome was reduced by Amir pleading guilty before the ICC and a London court. Last November, Amir and team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were given sentences for bowling deliberate no-balls during the Test.Amir pleaded guilty and did not contest his case in London’s Southwark Crown Court. He returned home on Sunday, nearly a month after being released from Portland Young Offenders Institution in Dorset, where he had served half of a six-month sentence for his part in the spot-fixing scam. He is currently serving his ICC ban, which ends in 2015.At the trial, the judge Mr Justice Cooke, said Amir was “unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable” and “readily leant on by others”.Amir, who returned with his London-based solicitor Sajida Malik, hasn’t yet spoken about his future. In the meantime, the PCB said it was keen to rehabilitate him till he serves his ban.The PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf insisted that Amir was still an asset and a world-class bowler. “We will consider him for selection once his ban is over,” Ashraf said in Islamabad after the governing board meeting.The PCB is likely to involve Amir in an education programme, but is also keen to talk to him about the spot-fixing case. Under ICC regulations, a player who has been banned must go through a rehabilitation course before returning to cricket.

It was a bittersweet ending to the Castle Logan Cup for the Matabeleland Tuskers, who won the title despite a three-day 154-run loss to Mid West Rhinos at the Kwekwe Sports Club in the final round of matches. The Tuskers had entered the match having built up a big enough lead in the points table to secure the title, even if they lost.The Tuskers chose to field and their bowlers did the job required of them, rolling Rhinos for 116. Bradley Staddon, Richard Jones and Njabulo Ncube picked up all of the ten wickets among them. Rhinos’ Richard Muzhange, though, led a fine fightback. He took five wickets as the Rhinos bowlers combined to bowl Tuskers out for 115. Neither batsman on either side got to a fifty in the first innings.The Rhinos batsmen were relatively better in the second innings: most got starts but couldn’t go on to make big scores, but the consistent contributions through the line-up meant Rhinos set Tuskers a competitive victory target of 298. Captain Gary Ballance top scored with 62. The Tuskers batsmen continued to struggle, and were demolished the second time around by the offspin of Simon Mugava: he took 6 for 41 in 13 overs, as the Tuskers were bowled out for 143.At the Masvingo Sports Club the Southern Rocks held on for a draw in a match dominated by the Mountaineers. The Mountaineers chose to bat and piled up 412 for 9 before declaring. Their innings was built around hundreds from captain Timycen Maruma and Donald Tiripano. Opener Daryl Mitchell fell six short of a ton.The bowlers too put up a team showing, sharing the wickets around as Rocks succumbed for 145 in a little over 50 overs. The Rocks were made to follow-on, and showed solid resolve in their second innings, batting out 62 overs for 114 runs. They went to stumps on the final day with four wickets in hand.

Shahriar Nafees’s half-century on the first day of the second Test against Pakistan has put the other two Test fifties he made this year in the shade. Despite the significance of half-centuries in Harare and Chittagong, this innings has reinforced his place in the Bangladesh top-order from a position that could accurately be described as “hanging by a thread”.It was hardly a secret that Nafees was the most vulnerable among the top-order to get the sack after a string of low scores beginning from the second Test against West Indies at the end of November. In this ongoing series, he was averaging 13.4 in five innings before he walked out to bat in the third over of the cold, murky morning.The pressure on him at that point was mostly at a personal level. He was one bad Test match away from oblivion. Having made two comebacks in his five-year international career already, expecting a third would have been quite un-Bangladeshi for a cricketer.There was a time this year when he had struck three fifties in a row, two of them coming against Australia in the April ODIs. He carried that form into Zimbabwe but after a flashy 50 in the second innings, he looked out of sorts in the ODIs. He started off the West Indies series with a duck in the third one-dayer before being slammed on the head by Fidel Edwards in the first innings in Chittagong. He struck an unconvincing 50 in the second innings, though given his state of health, it was appreciable.So when he saw Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Nasir Hossain trudge back to the pavilion in the first hour, it was clear that Nafees had to survive the onslaught of Pakistan. Shakib Al Hasan was, thankfully, striding out and it was quite clear what lay ahead for the left-handers.After surviving till lunch, both batted at a fair pace to add 99 during the second session in 25 overs. Though innocuous, it meant a whole lot more for the Bangladesh side. This was the first time in almost two years that a pair had batted through a session without getting dismissed. The last time it happened was in March 2010 when Junaid Siddique and Mushfiqur Iahim were battling for survival against England. On that occasion too, one of them made a century (Junaid) and the other fell in the nineties (Mushfiqur).Shakib went on to score his second Test century while Nafees fell in the nineties when a real snorter from Umar Gul had him fending to the wicketkeeper but his broad smile said something else.”It is satisfying to have made the runs against this attack and in such conditions and especially when the team was in trouble,” he told ESPNcricinfo, adding that he tried to focus on only two things during the four-and-a-half hour stay.”Whoever I’ve met after the last Test whether it was family members, ex-cricketers, management, journalists, etc they said that I looked very hurried. I didn’t want to do it today,” Nafees said. “The other thing was that I won’t get out badly. I could be out but I didn’t want to raise the question of why you got out like this?”His distinct lack of regret couldn’t hide the fact that he was just pleased to score the runs but also that he had little to do against that particular delivery. “I couldn’t move my hand, unfortunately. I was disappointed at once but I got out to a good ball so there isn’t much to do. If I got out to a bad ball, then I’d have felt bad,” he said.The 180-run stand between Shakib and Nafees was also the highest fifth wicket stand for Bangladesh in Test cricket. Importantly, it took Bangladesh out of the woods and into a position of promise.Nafees was highly grateful to Shakib’s class as a batsman, which allowed him to relax at his end and the runs came more frequently. “The team needed this partnership. We weren’t in a good situation when Shakib walked in. There was much to learn from this. I wanted to keep myself in control. We talked normally, nothing big, in the middle. Tried to enjoy the situation.”Shakib is very cool when he bats,” said Nafees. “He can calm things down. He was doing it today, playing spin so well. It became easier at my end. We talked constantly. The best part of the partnership was that we took a lot of singles, it took off the pressure from us.”This innings has taught him a few lessons, especially to calm down and not rush into decisions. Striking though would be the fact that a batsman in the Bangladesh team only reacts when his backs are firmly against the wall, his skills coming out and the mental blocks removed when the fear of the chop comes to the fore.

Stuart Law, the Bangladesh coach, has said it was disappointing that his batsmen were getting themselves out, instead of making Pakistan toil for wickets, and that it was a frequently recurring problem. Bangladesh were dismissed for 135 on the first day of the Chittagong Test because several of their batsmen played rash shots.”We are not making Pakistan get us out, we are just giving up our wickets easily. It’s happening over and over again, that is disappointing for anybody,” Law said. “It’s not through lack of talk, not through lack of practice. I can’t really explain it.”Bangladesh had good batting conditions as well, after Misbah-ul-Haq made the surprising decision to bowl after winning the toss. They were all out inside two sessions, though. Of the top six batsmen only the debutant opener, Nazimuddin, went past 10. He was involved in the highest partnership of the innings – 24 for the seventh wicket with Mahmudullah. Bangladesh got past 100 only because of Nasir Hossain’s 41 at No. 8.”The conditions were ideal for batting. The wicket may have been a little slow, but if you prepare for bat a long time, you got it easy and easier,” Law said. “It looks like a pretty good batting wicket as well. It was probably a little bit of a gamble by Misbah, very well calculated and credit to Pakistan, they picked up the wickets they needed at a regular intervals.”Two bright points, Nazimuddin, on debut, I think he looked very good. He looked very comfortable. And once again Nasir Hossain continued to score runs. He has put his hand up to probably go up the order at some stage.”Law said the key was to bat carefully at the start because the pitch eased out after the tea break. The Pakistan openers virtually wiped out Bangladesh’s total during their partnership. Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar added 132.”We have very talented cricketers, we just have got a mental block somewhere,” Law said. “We tried to talk about the longer we bat, the easier it gets. After tea today it was one of the nicest batting wickets.”