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Visitors need 323 more on final day, but Hampshire will fancy chances of claiming six wickets needed

Alan Gardner17-Apr-2021This weekend’s cricket lay spread out for Hampshire, as inviting as the Saturday papers on the kitchen table with time aplenty to leaf through the supplements. Mohammad Abbas had cast a bewitching spell on Middlesex’s first innings, and having chosen to bat again rather than enforce the follow-on, they returned to the Ageas Bowl on this third morning with eight wickets standing, two batsmen in the 90s, and a lead approaching 450.James Vince, the home captain, was at liberty to do pretty much as he pleased, with the luxury of time and scoreboard pressure bearing down on the opposition. None but the greediest of Hampshire fans would have expected another Middlesex implosion, and sure enough this time around the visitors brought a stiffened resolve to their batting. Three quick wickets in the afternoon session raised Hampshire tails before Nick Gubbins and Robbie White lashed together a century stand from the flotsam and jetsam bobbing around them.Set a notional target of 531 to win or, more realistically (though still on the improbable side), five-and-a-bit sessions to survive, Middlesex finished the day on a doughty 208 for 4, White still ensconced after almost three-and-a-half hours at the crease. The draw remained on the table, tucked away somewhere between the business and travel sections, though Hampshire will feel they have the tools to take six more wickets and start the season with back-to-back wins.Related

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There is a distance left to run in this game then, but it has already been a memorable one for Ian Holland. The USA-born, Australia-raised allrounder, winner of the reality TV show almost a decade ago, has become a valuable cog in Hampshire’s side but you might reasonably have suggested he had hid his superstardom under a bushel for much of his five seasons in England. First-class batting and bowling averages of 23.18 and 26.94 going into this game hinted at all-round usefulness but not a great deal more.That said, Holland’s record since being promoted up the order in 2019 is quietly impressive, and his second first-class hundred here ticked his average as an opener above 40. There were a few nervy slashes as he made his way through the 90s, slipstreaming senior colleague Sam Northeast to the landmark in the first few overs of the day, but he was soon thumping the ball about with gusto and walked off with a career-best 146 not out when Vince finally called a close to the innings.His day got better during the evening session, as Hampshire sought a way through the Gubbins-White roadblock. Keeper up to the stumps, Holland was on the mark with his right-arm seam-ups straight away, and with the final ball of his first over, he coaxed enough lateral movement to draw Gubbins forward and clip the outside edge, Liam Dawson throwing himself to his right to snaffle the chance at slip.Holland charged off in celebration, star of the moment without doubt, while Gubbins held the pose and then began to trudge for the dressing room, thumping his bat in frustration as he went. A lengthy evening session, following the break around the country to observe Prince Philip’s funeral, had developed belatedly into an engaging contest as the fourth-wicket pair produced Middlesex’s most-substantial partnership of the season so far.Ian Holland on the drive•Getty Images

Gubbins, who began the second innings on a king pair after being the filling in the sandwich of Abbas’ second-day hat-trick, provided a glimpse or two of the class that saw him elevated to the England Lions set-up several seasons ago, having played such a vital role in Middlesex’s 2016 Championship success. His footwork was sharp, defence compact, and he unfurled his cover drive with a sense of curled-lip disdain. Brad Wheal’s short ball was dispatched with a flourish, though the left-arm spin of Dawson induced one or two moments of uncertainty.His partnership with White, after Middlesex had slipped to 33 for 3 in the face of another examination from Abbas and Kyle Abbott, ensured that Hampshire would have to shelve any notion of a three-day win. White’s half-century, only his third in first-class cricket, was a characterful response to his own first-innings duck. Middlesex’s deputy wicketkeeper, his place in the side was perhaps under most scrutiny with club captain and overseas signing Peter Handscomb set to be available for the next round of games.White will return hoping to convert an overnight 73 to his maiden hundred – he fell agonisingly short when making 99 against Kent in last year’s Bob Willis Trophy – and give Stuart Law and the Middlesex coaching set-up plenty to ponder ahead of the London derby against Surrey. White and Martin Andersson kept Hampshire at bay until the close, adding another fifty stand, though the target, 323 runs away, still appeared as distant as the South Downs visible away beyond the Hilton Hotel.Though the surface has settled down appreciably, Hampshire’s requirement looks altogether more gettable – with Abbas currently sitting on pristine match figures of 8 for 25, Dawson finding some turn and Mason Crane’s legspin a potential gamebreaker. Whether it turns into a Sunday stroll or one for the headline writers, well, that remains to be seen.

In their last five series – against West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa – England have been defeated in their final outing

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's08-Jun-2016They have won the series against Sri Lanka at a sprint, wrapped up after barely more than six days of playing time, and should not come unstuck at Lord’s even though the Sri Lankans have been boosted by their improvement in the second innings at Chester-le-Street. And yet, in their last five series – against West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa – England have been defeated in their final outing.In Barbados and at Headingley last year, their lapses cost them series victories. In Sharjah, the chance to level the scoreline slipped away. On the other two occasions, against Australia and South Africa, the major prize had already been secured so it merely knocked gloss off the end product – although both defeats at The Oval and Centurion were comprehensive enough to raise questions about how far the team’s development had come.Of all the problems to have, and on the list of things Alastair Cook has had to deal with as England captain, it is not the most worrisome. However, this England side are searching for that No. 1 ranking. This summer has been billed as a chance to win all seven Tests – as they did in 2004 – although Pakistan’s stronger attack could well have something to say about that.”We’ve certainly mentioned that in the past, the dead rubbers we’ve not played as well,” Cook said. “We’ve got another opportunity here. Who knows what the wicket will produce – the last [few] games here against Sri Lanka have been draws. So the wicket might not allow it. But we’ve got to make sure that if we want to get to where we want to, which is to be the best side in the world, these are the games we need to play better in.”Alongside the collective ambitions of the team, there are continuing personal subplots to the game, especially for the two men playing on their home ground. Nick Compton is under more immediate pressure than Steven Finn if he wants to continue his role at No. 3 when the Pakistan series starts, but for the longer-term future of English cricket it is the performances of Finn that warrants more attention.Nick Compton needs runs in order to secure his Test berth•Getty Images

In South Africa it appeared things had all clicked for Finn as he strung together a run of three consistent Test performances. Then injury struck, keeping him sidelined, much to his frustration, until the start of the English season. Since his return, that rhythm and threat from the South Africa tour has been difficult to rekindle.Cook is not overly concerned, however, adding that he had first-hand experience of a lively Finn spell in the nets on Wednesday which left him with “a big bruise” on his leg.”Steven, when’s he absolutely on song, is I believe up there in our three best seamers in the country,” Cook said. “We saw that last summer against Australia in particular, when he bowled fantastically well. This winter, when he played, he was absolutely outstanding. It’s not always perfect.”Take James Anderson as a bit of an example. He struggled a little bit, by his own admission, in South Africa, and when he came back he’s bowled as well as he has done in his career. It’s never perfect. We don’t get 11 guys at the top of their game at the same time. But Steven has the ability to take wickets. He’s always done that. When he clicks, he’s a very hard bowler to face. He’s got a big future in the England side.”For Cook, this Test match will allow him to settle back into life without the burden of approaching landmarks after he ticked off the 10,000-run milestone in Durham, although now the talk has shifted to whether he can finish above Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921 at the top of the pile.”That’s a long way ahead,” Cook said, with the air of a man who would prefer to put the record books back on the shelf for a while. Since Durham, he has spent a week at home on his farm which included a day getting drenched in the rain helping to weigh “some fat lambs”.”At the moment a lot of my goals are immediate ones with this England team – as a captain that takes me away from the milestones as a batsman.”There is no escaping the fact, however, that in spite of Cook’s record, James Anderson’s excellence and England’s dashing lower order, this has been a low-key Test series. Although Lord’s will be close to full this week, that prevailing mood is unlikely to change much even if England do secure their first whitewash in a series longer than two Tests since beating India 4-0 in 2011. The Euros start on Friday, with England playing their first match on Saturday, and win or lose the footballers will dominate the sports pages.

The India Test captain is back to reclaim his spot in the XI for the Mumbai Test, but who will sit out? He isn’t telling just yet

Sidharth Monga02-Dec-20215:11

Kohli: ‘We are not playing in normal times’

Virat Kohli is back in international cricket after a break, during which he skipped the T20I series against New Zealand completely and then essentially chose to step off the treadmill and spend time working on his game rather than jump right back into Test cricket. While India played the Kanpur Test, Kohli worked with former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar in Mumbai, which is where he lives.

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Kohli is now back refreshed and recharged, and emphasised on the need to look after one’s mental well-being in this bio-bubbles era of cricket. “It is very important to understand that it is crucial to refresh yourself mentally,” Kohli said a day before the Mumbai Test. “When you play so much cricket at a certain level for so long, it gets taken for granted that you will keep turning up series after series and perform with the same intensity in every match.”Since the situation has changed [with bio-bubbles being introduced as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic], a lot of people have spoken about how difficult it is in bubble life. Our players’ understanding and management’s communication is good, we have spoken a lot about how to manage the workload. More than workload, giving them mental space.Related

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“From my personal experience, I can tell you that practising in an environment where you were not in a structured environment and there weren’t 50 cameras trained at you… we could do that previously, we would have windows where you could step aside and individually work on your game or take some time off where you are not doing the same thing every day. That makes a lot of difference.”To maintain the quality of cricket, to maximise the ability of the cricketers, to keep them in a good space, it is very important to consider this. Not just our team, but across the world, players are in the mindset to manage the workload, more from the mental point of view rather than physical.””When you play so much cricket at a certain level for so long, it gets taken for granted that you will keep turning up series after series and perform with the same intensity in every match”•AFP/Getty Images

Kohli has now gone two years of international cricket without a century. This period has included the break because of the pandemic and his paternity leave, but 12 Tests and 15 ODIs is the longest he has had to wait for a century. Was there anything specific he felt he needed to work on during this week spent away from the spotlight? No, said Kohli.”It was just to stay in the rhythm of playing red-ball cricket,” he said. “The idea was to get repetition and volume, which is important in Test cricket. It is just about getting into the mould of switching in-between formats, something that I have always tried to do. Whenever I get the opportunity to get some time to work on setting up for different formats. It is more so mentally than doing anything technique-wise. The more cricket you play, you understand your game more. It is just about getting into that headspace that you want to play in a certain way in a certain format. It was purely based on that.”There is no soft landing for Kohli. Straight off the bat, he has to make a tricky call on who should make way for him in the XI. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have had low returns for a while now, and Shreyas Iyer has amplified that with a century and a half-century on debut. Kohli didn’t give any information on what changes to expect, but spoke on dealing with such tough calls on a human level, mainly handling the person who is left out.2:12

Agarwal or Rahane: Who will sit out when Kohli is back?

“You have to obviously understand the situation of where the team is placed,” Kohli said. “You have to understand where individuals stand at certain stages during the course of a long season. So you have to obviously communicate well. You have to speak to the individuals, and approach them in a way where you explain things to them properly. Mostly it has been combination-based whenever we have done changes in the past.”We have explained it to the individuals, and they have understood the mindset behind going in with a certain combination. It is not a difficult thing to do when there is collective trust and belief in the group that we are working towards the same vision. Along the line, there are ups and downs, and we understand that as cricketers and sportspeople in general.”It is never a thing that you say that I am absolutely okay or happy about being told that the combination doesn’t allow me to play. That is the dynamic of team sport, and we prioritise the team first, and making sure we take care of individuals along the way. That’s something we have done consistently as a Test team.”We have backed the set of players that have done the job for the Indian team the last five-six years. We maintain and continue to maintain they are the integral part of the larger scheme of things, of the core group of the Indian Test team. They have always been players we have relied upon on many occasions. And they have done the job. It is upon realising and being aware of what’s happening, and then we find the right space and the right way to approach people. Obviously with the management, the coaching staff, discussions happen in a rounded manner.”

Players lose 100% of their match fees for falling five overs short; Travis Head fined 15% of his match fee for use of an audible obscenity

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Dec-2021The England players have been fined 100% of their match fees, and team has also been docked five World Test Championship (WTC) points for maintaining slow over rates in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, which Australia won by nine wickets on Saturday. Travis Head, Player of the Match for his 152 in Australia’s first innings, has also been fined 15% of his match fees for the use of an audible obscenity during the gameThe WTC playing conditions state that teams would be docked one point – and each player 20% of their match fees – for each over they fall short of after adjusting for time allowances, and David Boon, the match referee for the game, adjudicated that England had been short by five overs at the end of the match. That added up to the five points and the team’s entire match fees.Related

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Head was deemed to have used inappropriate language while batting, when he was beaten by a Ben Stokes delivery, which led to the fine and one demerit point, for Head’s first offence in a 24-month period.Head had not been part of the playing XI after the second Test against India at the start of the year, but came back strongly, hitting an aggressive 152 in Australia’s first innings, after England had been bowled out for just 147.England were better in their second innings, putting up a total of 297 built around a third-wicket partnership of 162 between Dawid Malan (82) and Joe Root (89), but another collapse left Australia with just 20 to win the Test, which they did for the loss of Alex Carey, who was opening in place of the injured David Warner.Australia now go into the second Test, scheduled to start in Adelaide on December 16, with a 1-0 lead.

Tourists ‘disappointed that we are sat here when there should be three days of cricket left’

Andrew Miller26-Feb-2021England are considering making a formal complaint to the ICC following their two-day defeat in this week’s third Test in Ahmedabad – an experience that Chris Silverwood, England’s head coach, says he hopes will galvanise his young batsmen to fully cash in when the going is good in the future.England were routed by ten wickets in the day-night Test at the newly opened Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera, after collapsing to scores of 112 and 81 in their two innings – making for an aggregate of 193 that is their lowest in India, and their second-lowest anywhere in the world since 1904.India’s own batting scarcely fared any better in their first innings, as Joe Root returned the extraordinary figures of 5 for 8 with his part-time offbreaks. And while the skiddiness of the pink ball was cited as one factor, with 20 of the 30 wickets falling either lbw or bowled in the course of the contest, the lavish turn that all the spinners extracted in between whiles made survival extremely tricky for even the best on show.”We will be talking about certain things behind the scenes,” Silverwood said. “At the same time, we are disappointed that we are sat here when there should be three days of cricket left. I am sure a few spectators are as well. We’ve spoken to [match referee] Javagal Srinath but not about the pitch. Joe and I have to have a sit-down, have a conversation and see where we go with it.”Opinion has been sharply divided about the merits of the Motera pitch. Virat Kohli, India’s captain, blamed “below-par batting on both sides”, while his counterpart Root said the stadium’s 40,000 fans had been “robbed” of the chance to witness a proper battle between bat and ball. “People had to watch me get wickets on there which shouldn’t be the case,” he said.Axar Patel celebrates after dismissing Jonny Bairstow•BCCI

However, Silverwood also acknowledged that England had been complicit in their downfall, particularly after winning an important toss and reaching 74 for 2 in their first innings. Had they gone on to post even a score of 200, they might have been in a position to control the contest. Instead they lost their last eight wickets for 38, and allowed India to reach 99 for 3 by stumps on the first day.”We do have to get better on these pitches and we do have to accept there’s places where we could have improved,” Silverwood said. “Look at the first innings. We had an opportunity there to score more runs and next time we’ll pounce on that. And whatever the pitch did or didn’t do, India ultimately played better than us on that surface. But it probably pushed us to the extremes of what most of our players, if any, have experienced.”With that in mind, Silverwood is adamant that his team will be stronger for the experience – particularly the contingent of young batsmen in England’s ranks, many of whom have been experiencing Test cricket in spinning conditions for the first time.It hasn’t been a tour of unmitigated failure for England’s rookies. Dom Sibley made back-to-back fifties in England’s victories in Galle and Chennai; Zak Crawley’s first-innings 53 was one of only two scores above 27 for either team in Ahmedabad, while Dan Lawrence, who did not feature in the third Test, showed his potential with a hard-fought 73 in his maiden Test innings against Sri Lanka.However, England have not passed 178 in five attempts since posting 578 in their maiden innings of the series, and all the players’ techniques have all been exposed in the prevailing conditions – not least that of Ollie Pope, who was beaten in flight rather than off the pitch by R Ashwin, and bowled in both innings in Ahmedabad.Pope at least fared better than Jonny Bairstow, who bagged a pair from No.3 on his return to the team following his mid-tour break, and it is a telling statistic of the winter so far that, while Root has made scores of 228, 186 and 218 in three individual innings, Sibley’s tally of 191 in five Tests is the next best return by any batsman.And yet, having been credited with reappraising England’s approach to Test-match batting since his appointment as head coach in 2019, Silverwood is sure that the struggles of recent weeks will harden his team’s resolve to make their starts count – not just in India, but on into next winter’s Ashes tour too.Related

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“You look at the guys we’ve got in there, your Popes, Crawleys, Sibleys, all these guys coming through this experience,” Silverwood said. “As tough as it is at the moment, it will hopefully galvanise them. When they do get in on flat surfaces, better surfaces, it will make them even more hungry and desperate to make sure they get the runs on those surfaces.”When we travel to other countries such as Australia, hopefully if they’ll get themselves in, they’ll get greedy and go big. And that’s where it comes back into our gameplan of making big individual scores, big first-innings scores, which until recently we’ve been very good at, and creating big partnerships.”Hopefully this experience will just harden them towards that and make them potentially just appreciate the flatter wickets a little bit more, and make them more greedy for it.”But equally, hopefully they do take a lot from it, and next time they come onto a surface or experience a situation like this, it won’t be as much of a shock to them and hopefully they will have had a think about how they use their skills to combat what’s in front of them.”As tough as it is and as painful as it is at this moment, hopefully we can take some good lessons.”

Though his reputation may be that of a dasher, there have been few batsmen in the history of the game as adept as Virender Sehwag when it comes to building on a start

Cricinfo staff24-Nov-2009There are few batsmen who possess the extra gear that Virender Sehwag does. On the first morning at Green Park, he was initially circumspect, having been dropped off the third ball he faced. There was some early swing for Chanaka Welegedara and there were no wildly adventurous swipes against Angelo Mathews either. Off the first 20 balls that he faced, Sehwag made just four, leaving Gautam Gambhir to keep the scorers busy. From the first 11 overs, India made 31. Hardly slothful, but no run-riot either.In a trice though, the mood changed. A cover drive and a crunching shot through midwicket off Mathews were a warning sign, and Sri Lankan heads would surely have dropped when he drove the same bowler down the ground twice in his next over. Eye in and feet moving, by Sehwag standards, the spinners then had no chance. In the next 30 overs, 201 runs came in a near-cascade.Ajantha Mendis, scourge of India in a Test series last year, was thrashed for 35 from 19 balls. Muttiah Muralitharan and Rangana Herath fared little better. If not for a fine catch from Tillakaratne Dilshan, the damage would have been far greater than 417 runs. Having scored 233 from the 41.2 overs that Sehwag spent at the crease, India then managed only another 184 from 48.4 overs. Still great going by Test-match standards, but a near-crawl compared to Sehwag’s pace.It obviously helped to have Gambhir at the other end, enjoying the sort of purple patch that batsmen experience only once or twice in the careers. For most of the morning and afternoon, he matched Sehwag stroke for stroke, throttling back only once the run-rate climbed near to a run a ball.As with most Sehwag innings, there was no dearth of the audacious. Herath was clubbed to the midwicket boundary even when he pitched well outside off stump, and Mendis found one sailing well over the man at long-on. The old cliches about giving the first hour to the bowler and battening down the hatches when in sight of an interval are all humbug as far as he’s concerned.By Sehwag’s standards, the past 18 months had been lean ones. Though he never struggled to the extent that his place in the side was questioned, the big booming centuries that had marked him out as a new-ball bowler’s worst nightmare were conspicuous by their absence. This was his first three-figure knock after that dazzling unbeaten 201 in Galle, though it would be foolish in the extreme to judge him by weight of hundreds alone.There would have no dramatic final-day victory for a grieving nation to celebrate in Chennai last December if not for his breathtaking 68-ball 83 on the penultimate evening. He also contributed 90s to both Indian victories over Australia. But the defining innings, the full-day flail that had so enervated the South Africans [Chennai] and the Pakistanis [Multan and Lahore, to pick out just two] was missing.That came as a surprise to many. Though his reputation may be that of a dasher, there have been few batsmen in the history of the game as adept as Sehwag when it comes to building on a start. Before his dismissal for 131 today, his previous 11 centuries had all been scores in excess of 150. And while the impetuous swipe at the MCG in 2003 when on 195 is still remembered by many, he plays according to the situation far more often than people give him credit for.In that context, his match-saving innings in Adelaide just under two years ago probably has pride of place. Having just negotiated a path back into the XI, it was a big match for Sehwag. And after scoring big in the first innings, India were in real danger of defeat on the final day. But Sehwag knuckled down to play what was, for him, a sedate innings. By the time he departed, after 151 from 236 balls, the game was safe.His strike-rate that day was 63.98, and no other figure tells you as much about the man. Consider the other aggressive opening batsmen of the age. Chris Gayle scores his runs at 57.46 per hundred balls, Andrew Strauss at 49.49. For Matthew Hayden, who loved nothing more than to dominate the bowlers, the figure was 60.10. For Graeme Smith, the number is 61.2. Sanath Jayasuriya’s was 65. And Sehwag? A staggering 79.26.To put that into perspective, just compare him to Adam Gilchrist, widely accepted as the most destructive batsman of this era. Gilchrist never had to confront early swing or seam movement, and he could often take toll of attacks demoralised by those that had gone before. Yet, his strike-rate (81.95) is only marginally better than Sehwag’s.It’s too early to pass judgement on this pitch, but Sri Lanka will rue that Prasanna Jayawardene dive across first slip in the day’s opening over, and also the lack of discipline from the bowlers, who bowled far too many deliveries on the batsmen’s pads and wide of off stump. The gains of the Motera have been wiped out in the space of three sessions and the next four days could be one long haul to safety. They can console themselves only with the thought that they aren’t the first team to suffer so at Sehwag’s hands. And they certainly won’t be the last.

Virat Kohli’s fourth century of the season and Chris Gayle’s 73 powered Royal Challengers Bangalore to the second place after their 82-run win via D/L method against Kings XI Punjab

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu18-May-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsVirat Kohli hit 12 fours and eight sixes during his fourth and fastest T20 century•BCCI

Virat Kohli has been vaulting the standard for T20 batting this season. He was twitchy, though, after heavy rain delayed the start of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s final league fixture at home against Kings XI Punjab by nearly two hours. The match was reduced to a and Kohli had to bat with nine stitches on his left hand because of a split webbing, but nothing could stop him from scoring his fourth and fastest T20 century. He also topped the IPL run charts during his 50-ball 113 that powered Royal Challengers to an 82-run victory via D/L method. Royal Challengers’ seventh win lifted them from fifth to second on the points table.Chris Gayle was in his groove too, bashing 73 off 32 balls in a 147-run opening stand that floored Kings XI, who conceded 211 for 3 after opting to bowl. Kohli was the first to reach his half-century, off 28 balls, when he flicked Axar Patel to long-on. Four legitimate balls later, Gayle swiped the left-arm spinner over midwicket for six and raced to his own half-century off 29 balls. The two then got together and unfurled the jig.Kings XI could have snapped that had Axar nailed a direct hit from backward point to run Kohli out on 10. The batsman prospered and middled everything: whether it was lofting a full ball inside-out over cover or jabbing a wide yorker in the gap between backward point and short third man. Kohli got to his hundred off 47 balls when he whiplashed Sandeep Sharma for four between deep midwicket and long-on.Kohli celebrated the landmark by pointing to his injured left hand repeatedly before pumping his fists. The only occasion he showed apparent discomfort was when he ran in from long-off and caught Axar for 13 in the eighth over of Kings XI’s stumbling chase.Kohli began Royal Challengers’ run-fest with slapped fours off Sandeep before Gayle went 6,6,4 against fast bowler Kyle Abbott in the fourth over. KC Cariappa’s assortment of legbreaks, offbreaks, sliders and even a seam-up that clocked 134kph, proved ineffective. Kohli and Gayle flayed him for 55 runs in three overs and left captain M Vijay searching for answers.Axar wasn’t spared either, Gayle taking him for three leg-side sixes in four balls before holing out to the same bowler at the end of the 11th over. Four balls later, Abbott had AB de Villiers dragging on for a duck. KL Rahul applied the finishing touches with a cameo, which was studded by a reverse-scooped four, after Kohli’s dismissal in the penultimate over.The pressure of a rapidly rising asking rate was too much for Kings XI. Left-arm seamer S Aravind removed Vijay and Hashim Amla early before legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal made light work of the middle order with career-best T20 figures of 4 for 25. Kings XI limped past 100 in the 12th over before rain returned at the end of the 14th to force an end to a lop-sided contest.Royal Challengers were one of three teams in the playoffs race to have a positive net rate (+0.93), and a win in their final match against Delhi Daredevils in Raipur on Sunday could confirm their place in the final four.

Zimbabwe Cricket has admitted its annual audit, which was required to be submitted to the ICC within six months of the financial year-end, is yet to be finalised more than three months after it was due

Enock Muchinjo and Tristan Holme06-Oct-2016Zimbabwe Cricket has admitted its annual audit, which was required to be submitted to the ICC within six months of the financial year-end, is yet to be finalised more than three months after it was due.”The audit is going on. It will be premature for us to comment on it at this stage,” Tavenga Mukuhlani, ZC’s chairman, told ESPNcricinfo. “We have a road map in place to finalise the audit and when we are done we will be able to respond to your questions.”In February the ICC amended its rules to require Full Members to submit an unqualified audit within six months of their financial year-end. ZC’s financial year runs from January to December and so an audit should have been submitted by the end of June.It is understood that ZC has remained in regular communication with the ICC about the delays to allay any concerns thus far, and the ICC is expecting an audit soon. In the event that ZC is unable to deliver the audit to the ICC, or end up producing a qualified audit, the ICC can raise questions.Concerns around ZC’s accounts started to emerge when board members were sent a document that was supposedly an audit of the 2015 accounts ahead of the Annual General Meeting on September 14. As was initially reported in the , the document raised eyebrows among members of the board for the way figures were thrown around without sufficient explanation for how the money had been spent.The document, which ESPNcricinfo has a copy of, lists tour expenses of US$5.2 million despite the fact that a majority of Zimbabwe’s series during the year were bankrolled by other parties. Zimbabwe’s main visitors in 2015 were New Zealand and Pakistan, but Total Sports Marketing, a Bangladesh sports marketing agency, held the marketing and broadcast rights for the tours and was responsible for the expenses. Ireland and Afghanistan also toured, but Afghanistan paid their own way.Members of the ZC board, which underwent something of an overhaul in August 2015, questioned how the tour expenses figure was so high. “Most tours in 2015 were fully funded,” an insider told ESPNcricinfo. “From our investigations, it will take great extravagance for the total cost of all tours in 2015 to reach a million dollars.”These and other issues were raised at the AGM, which was unable to continue after the accounts were rejected, creating the need for a Special General Meeting. The day before the AGM, the auditing firm responsible for compiling ZC’s financial statements dissociated itself from the document presented to board members, saying that it was yet to complete the audit. The firm, HLB Zimbabwe, had begun the audit process but became hamstrung when it requested additional information from ZC that was not forthcoming.In a letter to ZC dated September 13, HLB representative Clement Ruzengwe wrote: “We have been waiting for outstanding information in order to complete the audit, which has not been forthcoming from Zimbabwe Cricket. We are thus surprised that the audit report for that year (2015) has been circulated to the Board.”If indeed an audit report has been circulated to the Board, this has been done without our knowledge or authorisation. We disassociate ourselves from that report, and we request an explanation from your good offices as to how that report, purported to have come from us, has ended up in your board papers.”Following the AGM a ZC board memo, which ESPNcricinfo has seen, was circulated with an engagement plan between ZC and the auditor. Yet it is understood that no engagement has taken place, and that the Special General Meeting set for last Friday was cancelled. Asked why the SGM had been cancelled, a ZC spokesman did not respond.ZC has endured financial difficulty for more than a decade, and Mukuhlani recently admitted in an interview that the organisation was $19m in debt. As a result, Zimbabwe’s players have often waited months for match fees, and most recently went on strike on the day of the AGM. Some players had not been paid match fees dating back to July last year, while there was also frustration at delays in handing out contracts.The players returned to training five days later after being given an assurance by Wilfred Mukondiwa, ZC’s managing director, that the backlog of payments would be cleared. Central contracts have subsequently been awarded, although the list has not been officially released.