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Match facts

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Start time 10.00 (local), 04:30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

This is the fourth time in as many Asia Cups that India and Sri Lanka are going to meet in the final. India has won each of the previous three matches and Sri Lanka will hope that playing this edition at home will help them reverse the trend.India, though, have been by far the best of the subcontinent sides and haven’t dropped a single game since the tournament began in 2004. This year they have continued to win convincingly – twice by more than 180 runs and twice by five or more wickets. They beat Sri Lanka by 29 runs and by eight wickets in the league stage. Their top order is brimming with runs and three Indians lead the wicket-taking list.

Asia Cup form guide

India – WWWWWW
Sri Lanka – WLWWLW

Watch out for …

ScorecardJacques Rudolph still hopes to catch a fifth successive win [file picture]•Gallo Images

Glamorgan’s push for what would be a record-breaking victory was held up by a combination of determined batting and rain on the third day of the Division Two match against Derbyshire at Chesterfield.When the weather closed in with 23 overs still to bowl, Derbyshire were 37 without loss following-on, still 121 runs away from avoiding an innings defeat and with a lot of batting ahead of them to deny Glamorgan five consecutive championship victories for the first time in their history.The home side fell nine short of the follow-on target when they were bowled out for 252 with opener Billy Godleman the only batsmen to pass 50 while seamer Ruaidhri Smith returned career-best figures of three for 23 in 11 overs.The leaden skies at the start of play made conditions good for bowling and Derbyshire were soon in trouble as the ball swung for Graham Wagg and Michael Hogan.Derbyshire needed a substantial stand between Godleman and skipper Wayne Madsen but that was ended in the fourth over of the morning when Hogan found some late movement to have Madsen caught at third slip for 24.Godleman’s resistance ended when Wagg swung one back in and when Wes Durston was squared up in the former Derbyshire all-rounder’s next over, the home side had lost three wickets for seven runs in 17 balls.Shiv Thakor and Alex Hughes added 44 in 17 overs but David Lloyd had Hughes taken at second slip and Thakor should have gone on 17 in the next over from Craig Meschede but Hogan spilled a low chance at third slip.Smith accounted for Harvey Hosein and Tony Palladino and when Thakor skied a sweep at Andrew Salter, Tom Taylor tore into Hogan, pulling and driving him for three sixes before the Australian bowled him on the stroke of tea.With conditions unsettled and still favourable for bowling, Glamorgan immediately enforced the follow on but Godleman and Hamish Rutherford were largely untroubled in the 18 overs before bad light resulted in the sixth and final stoppage of the day.It was a frustrating end for Glamorgan, but skipper Jacques Rudolph said: “I thought the way we bowled in those last 17 overs we deserved one or two wickets. They played really well but I still think the game is wide open and if we start well in the morning we can put them under some real pressure.”Madsen said: “I think with the forecast being fair tomorrow we are going to have to bat most of the day which is possible. We batted for 80 odd overs in the first innings and we will probably have to bat for over 110 and get ahead so the realistic objective for us is to try and bat through the day.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:06

Arnold: NZ quicks’ variety was the clincher

In conditions where the old ball did nothing and New Zealand’s three first-choice quicks produced innocuous medium-pace, Neil Wagner ran in relentlessly with tremendous stamina, sending down a barrage of short deliveries, harrying the batsmen at around 140 kph and broke Sri Lanka’s resistance. Until Wagner came on, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews had been untroubled and scored freely, but once he broke through his one wicket quickly led to many, and New Zealand completed a 122-run victory after lunch on the final day in Dunedin.Before Brendon McCullum turned to Wagner, Sri Lanka made 45 runs in 15.5 overs, and Mitchell Santner and Doug Bracewell had just begun to control a previously brisk run rate. Wagner immediately resorted to a short-pitched attack from over the wicket – like he had done on the third day – targeting the right-hand batsman’s ribs with men catching close on the leg side.Chandimal had been cover-driving and cutting Trent Boult and Tim Southee, his fierce punishment of anything loose taking him swiftly to a half-century. Mathews had played with softer hands and a straighter bat, batting with calm. Wagner gave them no width, no opportunity to get on the front foot, hustling them with pace, forcing hurried evasive actions and awkward fends off the body.Wagner’s method of attack had become so ingrained in the batsman’s psyche that they expected little else from him. And so Mathews, after moving hurriedly towards the off side to let two consecutive short balls whizz past his ribs, began to play the third delivery in a similar manner. Except that this time Wagner bowled a full length. The ball crashed into the inside of his front pad, shot between his legs and flattened middle stump. Mathews had not even played a shot, and was the first Sri Lankan batsman to not be caught in this Test.Chandimal had to shelve his cavalier approach against Wagner. He had got to 50 off 90 balls – scoring 19 off 26 this morning – but made only eight off his next 41 deliveries. Subdued into a defensive mind-set, he padded up to a ball from the left-arm spinner Santner that went on with the arm, and was adjudged lbw not offering a shot. After a partnership of 56, Mathews and Chandimal had fallen with the score on 165.Wagner now went around the wicket to aim at the ribs of the two left-handers – Kithuruwan Vithanage and Milinda Siriwardana. He pinned them to the crease with his length, and then bowled a fast full-toss at Siriwardana, who was hit on the back pad as he squared up in his crease. The umpire Nigel Llong gave him lbw but Siriwardana successfully reviewed the decision, replays surprisingly suggesting the ball would have missed off stump, perhaps because Wagner had delivered from extremely wide of the crease.Wagner was given the second new ball for the last delivery of his first spell, which comprised eight overs at speeds that did not ebb.Southee took two deliveries to strike with the new ball, swinging it back into Vithanage from over the wicket, hitting the left-hander’s pads. Vithanage had played an enterprising innings, a run-a-ball 38 full of shots.The slide was swift after lunch. Boult struck in the third and fifth over of the second session – drawing an edge from Rangana Herath and having Siriwardana caught at short cover, both batsmen not bothering with defence.Sri Lanka went down swinging, and were bowled out for 282. However, the fact that an inexperienced batting line-up had lasted 95.2 overs after playing 117.1 in the first innings will be some consolation for a team rebuilding from the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Usman Khawaja believes his hamstrings are stronger than they have been for three years, after he spent a month on the sidelines recovering from a strain to his left hamstring. Khawaja suffered the injury in the second Test against New Zealand in Perth and is set to return for the Boxing Day Test against West Indies, after proving his fitness with a BBL hundred at the MCG on Sunday night.Khawaja batted through the Sydney Thunder innings and showed his remarkable form had not diminished despite missing Australia’s last two Tests. He has been working with staff at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane since sustaining the injury and was able to bat in the nets for most of that time. On Monday, he said he had recovered well after his unbeaten 109 of the previous evening.”I’m stoked I got some batting time,” he said. “To score a hundred in a T20 game is not an easy thing to do, so I’m just very happy with how things are working out. But there’s still a lot of work to do so I’m trying to keep my head down. I feel really good, just normal, general soreness … I pushed myself pretty hard, in terms of my hammy rehab, in terms of my running, in terms of my conditioning work.”My hamstrings are definitely stronger than they have been in the last three years. The last testing I had to do on Friday was a hamstring strength test and my hamstrings came up stronger than they have been in the last three years. I did a lot of hard work in the last four weeks. The trainers up at the NCC pushed me pretty hard. That’s what I needed to do. That’s all I can control.”Khawaja has now scored centuries in his last three games – the Brisbane and Perth Tests against New Zealand, and the T20 match on Sunday. He appears a certain inclusion against West Indies for his first appearance in a Boxing Day Test, which will leave Australia’s selectors with the difficult decision of whether to drop Shaun Marsh after his 182 in the Hobart Test, or opener Joe Burns.Burns scored a century against New Zealand at the Gabba and while he made starts in all three Tests since then, he has not passed fifty since that innings. That means there is a strong chance that Khawaja will be asked to open with David Warner on Boxing Day. Khawaja said coach Darren Lehmann had wanted him to push himself to his limits in the BBL game to replicate as best as possible the wear and tear he would face in a Test.”I just needed to go out there and play as I would any other game,” he said. “I couldn’t go out there and try to nurse it or not go 100% because I know that’s not what Boof wants. I knew I’d done all the hard work so I was always going to go hard no matter what.”In Twenty20, you’re sprinting every ball. In Test match cricket, you’re not sprinting every ball so it’s a little bit different. Five-day cricket is a different type of fatigue. I’m really glad with the way I’ve pulled up after this game. It’s a good indicator of how I would pull up after a five-day game.”Australia’s squad gathers in Melbourne on Tuesday and will have their first training session on Wednesday ahead of the Test, which starts on Saturday. Some of Australia’s squad members have played BBL matches over the past week, while West Indies spent the weekend playing against an under-strength Victoria XI in a two-day match in Geelong.

England Under-19 fast bowlers Sam Curran and Saqib Mahmood took two and four wickets respectively to help dismiss West Indies Under-19 for 221 and complete a 61-run victory in Chittagong. Curran began the defence of 282 in splendid fashion, dismissing Tevin Imlach and no. 3 Shimron Hetmyer for ducks in the first over of the West Indies chase. The other opener Gidron Pope made 60 out of the team’s first 84 runs at a run a ball before he was dismissed in the 18th over. The only other innings of substance came from the no. 7 Keemo Paul, who made 65 off 58 deliveries. Mahmood ran through the lower order and West Indies were all out in 43.4 overs.England had relied on a collective performance to post 282 for 7 after winning the toss, their second successive imposing total of the tournament. Opener Dan Lawrence was impressive again, making 55, while Callum Taylor top scored with 59. Jack Burnham made 44 and George Bartlett 48, and Curran also contributed 39 off 36 balls at no. 6 before wrecking the start of the chase.Fiji Under-19 suffered another massive defeat in their second match of the World Cup, losing by seven wickets to Zimbabwe Under-19 in Chittagong, two days after a 299-run thrashing against England. This time Fiji batted first and were shot out for 81 in 27.4 overs, with only three batsmen making double-figure scores and no one getting past 20. Offspinner Wesley Madhevere began his tournament with figures of 5 for 24, while legspinner Blessing Mavuta claimed 3 for 13 in Zimbabwe’s victory.Zimbabwe made short work of the chase, getting to 84 in 18.5 overs but lost three wickets in doing so. They were 27 for 2 at one stage. However, opener Brendan Sly made an unbeaten 29, while Jeremy Ives scored 23 off 26 balls, to seal victory. Medium-pacer Josaia Baleicikoibia took 2 for 19 for Fiji.The Namibia Under-19 bowlers dismissed Scotland Under-19 for 159 in Cox’s Bazar after which their top-order batsmen polished off the chase in 26 overs with nine wickets in hand. After winning the toss, Scotland lost their opener Jack Waller to Fritz Coetzee off the first legal ball of the game and never really recovered. They slumped from 59 for 2 to 97 for 8, before their last two wickets propped them up to 159 before they were all out in 36.3 overs. Owais Shah’s 39 at No.3 was Scotland’s top score, while Michael van Lingen took 3 for Namibia.Unlike Scotland, Namibia had a strong start to their chase, with their openers adding 95 in 15.3 overs. Niko Davin fell for 52 off 37 balls, while SJ Loftie-Eaton was unbeaten on 67 when the winning runs were hit with 144 balls to spare. He had added 67 for the second wicket with his captain Zane Green, who was unbeaten on 39 off 42 balls.

Ben Hilfenhaus finished with career-best T20 figures of 5 for 23, complementing the 109-run partnership between Peter Fulton and Henry Nicholls, to secure Canterbury’s seven-run win over Otago at Hagley Oval.After choosing to bat, Canterbury’s Fulton and Nicholls each struck half-centuries in their 71-ball third-wicket stand, which rescued Canterbury from 8 for 2 in the third over. Fulton, who scored 64 off 43 deliveries, reached his half-century off 36 balls, while Nicholls took one ball more to the landmark, eventually falling for 52 off 40 balls. Nicholls’ fifty was his third in five Super Smash matches. Their partnership came at close to 10 an over and had set Canterbury up for a strong total, before they lost 5 for 35 to close their innings. Fulton’s wicket, taken by Christi Viljoen, stemmed Canterbury’s scoring rate as they could add only 40 more in their last six overs and finished their innings on 157.Like Canterbury, Otago lost two early wickets – Anaru Kitchen and Neil Broom were caught behind off Matt Henry and Hilfenhaus respectively – before a third-wicket partnership of 60 between Michael Bracewell (38) and opener Hamish Rutherford (38) steered their chase. However, following Bracewell’s run-out, Otago fell swiftly from 70 for 2 in the 12th over to 94 for 5 by the 15th.Hilfenhaus took two of those wickets and followed it up with two more scalps in the 19th over to finish with a five-for. Needing 18 off the last over, Otago managed only 10 runs and finished seven runs short of Canterbury’s total. The win took Canterbury to fourth, tied on 12 points with Otago.Mitchell Santner followed up a 21-ball 45 with three economical overs to help Northern Districts defeat Central Districts by ten runs at Seddon Park.Having been put into bat, the Northern Districts scored 57 before the opening stand was broken off the last ball of the fielding restrictions when Dean Brownlie (36) was dismissed. Contributions from BJ Watling (35) and Corey Anderson (28) carried Northern Districts along at a fast lick before Santner and Scott Kuggelijn (23 off 10) provided a late surge to lift them to 197 for 5.Central Districts’ reply was led by Mahela Jayawardene, who had earlier bowled for the first time since March 2010 and gone for 15 runs in his solitary over. He followed up his century in the previous game with 64 off 36 deliveries in an opening partnership of 84 that took just 8.2 overs. He was dismissed by Santner, who then put the brakes on the Central Districts, conceding only 12 runs off his three overs. Central Districts managed only 58 runs in the 7.5 overs after their opening stand, and even an unbeaten 16-ball 37 from Josh Clarkson wasn’t enough as they fell short by ten runs. The win, Northern’s second in the series meant they remained on fifth while Central were on second place.

With the highest run-scorer, Alex Hales, and the highest wicket-taker, Reece Topley, in the ODI series against South Africa – roles-reversed from the Test series where South Africa lost despite leading both tallies – England’s coach Trevor Bayliss identified fielding as main difference between the two sides.”The batting and bowling was fairly even – both teams relied on about three of their batters and bowling was similar,” Bayliss said. “But they’re a better fielding team than us at the moment.”Although England did not put down any catches in the decider in Cape Town, they dropped several in the preceding games, including three at the Wanderers that could have sealed the series. JP Duminy was let off when he was on 1, AB de Villiers on 9 and Chris Morris on 14. The last of those cost England the most. Morris took South Africa to within one run of a series-levelling victory and, not for the first time on this tour, Bayliss has stressed the need for England to work on their fielding.”We’ve got a number of guys that are not the quickest in the field but I also think it’s an attitude thing,” Bayliss said. “You want the ball coming at you; you want to prove to people that you can field. At times, some of us don’t want the ball to come anywhere near us. When we are good, we’ve very, very good but it’s something we’ve got to continue to work at.”Progress is something England have done a lot of since their disappointing 2015 World Cup campaign and their new attitude has already brought them some success. They won series against New Zealand and Pakistan and came from 2-0 down to take Australia to a decider.Despite losing three in a row to squander the advantage in South Africa, Bayliss believed they remain on the right track. “I don’t think we are far off. We’ve played some pretty good cricket,” he said. “It’s a fine line. Had we taken some catches, we could be sitting here having won 3-2. We’re disappointed to lose the series having played some very good cricket.”He said that translating that good cricket into good results more often will come as players mature and become more consistent. “We’ve got some work to do there and that will come with experience. At some point that experience has got to pay dividends.”An example of how that is already working is Hales. After struggling through the Tests, in which he scored one fifty and did not get past 26 in his other seven innings, Hales finished on top of the run charts with four fifties, including a 99, and a century in the final match to prove his quality.”He was disappointed with the number of runs he scored in the Test arena but the way he has played here is top class,” Bayliss said. “I think he is more comfortable will his role in the team and the way he goes about playing the one-day game. Now he’s got to take that into Test arena. The way he has played here, there is no reason why he can’t do the same in Test cricket.”Hales, and the rest of the England line-up, have been asked to look at someone like AB de Villiers for further instruction on how to develop as batsmen. De Villiers took control of the chase and guided South Africa from 22 for 3 to victory.”We’ve got to take a leaf out of AB’s book. The way he paced his innings and the way he went about it, it was top class. The best batter in the series did his job today and he showed everyone else how to do it,” Bayliss said. “Hopefully the guys will learn from it.”

ScorecardIan Bell made another half-century before England’s early declaration•Getty Images

Paul Collingwood enlivened an insufferably dull day of cricket withthree wickets in five overs, before Andrew Strauss scalped thefirst-innings centurion, Michael Hill, for 4 with his rarely seenleft-arm chinaman bowling, as England’s pace bowlers aborted theirattempts to impress the selectors ahead of the Perth Test, and leftMonty Panesar and the declaration bowlers to get through their day’swork on a dreadfully slow pitch.By the close, Victoria had reached 2 for 278 in their second innings,a lead of 310 following England’s lunchtime declaration on 2 for 184.With Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan thwarted by theconditions, the only wicket to fall in the afternoon session was AaronFinch, who set Victoria’s tempo with 45 from 74 balls, before miscuinga lofted drive at Panesar and holing out to mid-off.Thereafter, England were held up by a pair of debutants, the20-year-old Ryan Carters, who made 68, and the 18-year-old Alex Keath, who turned his back on an AFL contract with Gold Coast to concentrate on a career in cricket. He started uncertainly as Bresnan and Shahzad probed his defenceswith a hint of reverse swing, but grew in confidence as the afternoonwore on and the sting went out of England’s efforts.It was left to Collingwood’s offcutters to make England’s long-awaitedbreakthrough, as Carters stepped across his stumps to be bowled behindhis legs, and two overs later he added a second courtesy of a smartone-handed catch by Alastair Cook at silly mid-off, as Matthew Wadedrove airily back down the ground. Cook had been off the fieldapparently nursing a sore back, but his mobility seemed not in theslightest bit impaired.Panesar, who had bowled tidily but without assistance from the pitch,then added a second as John Hastings swung across the line andtop-edged a sweep to Collingwood, running round from slip, who then denied Keath a fifty on debut with a slow, ballooning bouncer that was scuffed through to the keeper. Thesession then degenerated into farce with the introduction of Strauss andEoin Morgan, who has yet to bat on this tour, but has now bowled threeovers for 37.The highlight of England’s day, however, was Strauss’s thirdfirst-class victim, as Hill was adjudged lbw, a touch unluckily itappeared, to a back-of-the-hand delivery that appeared to pitchoutside the line of leg stump. Either way, he joined elite company,with Kevin Pietersen and Stephen Fleming the only two other batsmen tosuccumb to his assortment of long-hops. It was left to Jayde Herrickand Clint McKay to climb into the offerings, with Strauss conceding 51runs in four overs, and McKay posting 58 not out, his highestfirst-class score.”We want to make a competitive game tomorrow, so in order for that to happen we had to allow Victoria to get enough runs to make it competitive tomorrow,” explained Ian Bell at the close of play. “That was really the idea behind it.”In the morning session, England’s batsmen continued where they hadleft off in the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests, with Strauss making aboundary-laden 66, and Bell unbeaten at lunch on 60, his fifthconsecutive fifty-plus score of the tour.Strauss, who resumed on 17 not out, offered a chance on 40 when hesnicked Herrick to Cameron White at first slip, who shelled aregulation catch, but was otherwise watertight as he brought up hisfifty from 79 balls with a sweep off the left-arm spinner Jon Holland.It was Holland who ended his stay via a chip to midwicket.By that stage, however, Bell was fully into his stride, and he postedhis fifty with a sweetly timed cover drive off Hastings. Collingwood,whose opportunities on the tour to date have been limited, crackedHolland for a big six into the Members’ stand to go to the interval on29 not out, as England moved to within 32 runs of Victoria’sfirst-innings 2 for 216 before declaring.Despite the unhelpful nature of the wicket, Bell reckoned that England would be more than content with the work-out that their bowlers had got, especially with the prospect of a livelier surface at the WACA next week.”It’s always nice to get a couple of wickets, but I think it’s been a hard wicket for the bowlers,” said Bell. “Let’s be fair, it’s so slow out there, but they’ve toiled away and it’s reverse swung, which is good to see because those sorts of skills which might come in at some point at the WACA.”They’ve worked hard, and to be honest with you, it’s great going into Perth that all three of them had a good work-out in batting friendly conditions. It’s much better that than a green seamer where they’ve all taken five-for and bowled a couple of good balls but a couple of bad balls as well. They’ve generally gone at two an over all game and that’s exactly what we want going into a Test match.”

Bangladesh’s captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, has backed his decision to bowl against New Zealand despite every previous T20I played at Pallekele having been won by the side batting first. There was thick cloud cover over the ground at the time of the toss and Brendon McCullum said the possibility of rain and Duckworth-Lewis could have figured in Bangladesh’s calculations. All that ceased to matter soon as McCullum cracked his second T20I century to set up New Zealand’s 59-run win.”We were uncertain ourselves about what to do at the toss with rain about,” McCullum said. “It may have arrived at some point. It’s a well-known fact that Duckworth-Lewis favours the team which is going to bat second, especially this form of the game. It [Bangladesh’s decision] didn’t surprise me a great deal. When they bowled in the first over or so the ball was kissing off quite nicely so they would have been reasonably pleased with that decision.”Mushfiqur, too, pointed to the way his bowlers had started off as vindication for his decision but said McCullum’s innings had taken everything else out of the equation. “We wanted to chase,” he said. “You see the way our bowlers bowled in the first two overs… they started well. Thereafter Brendon batted superbly and showed why he is the No. 1-ranked batter in T20 cricket.”Our quicks and spinners did not bowl to the field. Also our fielding let us down. If we had restricted them to around 160 then it would have been a different ball game. While chasing 192, it was always going to be hard once we lost a couple of wickets. It was really difficult.”We were not going to have a lot of turn in the second half, so we wanted to use whatever grip we got for the spinners. I wouldn’t say the decision was wrong, but what we did afterwards was wrong.”New Zealand were expected to be tested by Bangladesh’s trio of left-arm spinners but McCullum’s assault left them with combined figures of 2 for 104 in 11 overs. “Two of them were left-arm spinners,” Mushfiqur said. “Shakib [Al Hasan] is more of a batting all-rounder. I don’t think our left-arm spinners had too much help from the pitch. Credit should go to Brendon for the way he batted. No one really played well apart from him.”Bangladesh have three days before their must-win game against Pakistan on Tuesday, and Mushfiqur said they would learn from this loss and work on their weaknesses. “The bigger teams are doing well on the particular day and winning games, as I’ve seen so far in the tournament. The match-winners have been contributing. Definitely we will look at our game. Pakistan are dangerous in this format. We will have to think really hard, have a look at our strategy and give 100 per cent.”

ScorecardNick Compton made his first significant score of the tour•Getty Images

As is the case with most three-day first-class games in India, there wasn’t much at stake in terms of the result between the visiting England XI and Mumbai A at the Dr DY Patil Sports Stadium. But winning or losing was the last thing on everyone’s mind in the England camp, for this game anyway, and they made full use of their last day in Mumbai on all counts.After Graham Onions – just like James Anderson the previous evening – struck in his first over with the second new ball, the left-arm spin duo of Monty Panesar and Samit Patel didn’t take long to dislodge the lower order; opener Nick Compton finally managed to occupy the crease for well over three ours – albeit against mediocre bowling; and, most importantly, Stuart Broad, who needed a scan on his heel on Sunday, was not just back on the field in the morning but also was cleared of a serious injury.So, as the England camp wrapped up the first of their three Mumbai legs on the India tour, they would have been feeling slightly better than they were coming in to the game. Compton, who remained unbeaten on 64 when the teams shook hands, said there had been “a number of good performances” over the last week.”[Alastair] Cook has got a hundred, [Jonny] Bairstow has got a hundred, Samit has batted consistently well,” he said. “Panesar’s bowling was accurate, exceptional. I do feel that some batsmen have played well and that does bode well.”After dismissing the remaining six Mumbai batsmen for 46 runs, England scored 149 for 2 in 52 overs – 22 of which were bowled by part-time bowlers. Compton, who was dismissed for 0 and 1 in his first two innings on tour, finally managed to get it right and helped raise England’s highest opening partnership so far. Joe Root, who started off as impressively as in the first innings, fell shouldering arms to a Shardul Thakur delivery that came in and rapped him on the pads with the score on 38 but Compton carried on to get a more substantial feel of batting in Indian conditions.And he was candid in admitting how difficult it is to concentrate on a day when there’s nothing much at stake.”Mentally it’s quite challenging. It was a bit of a challenge when they brought on a couple of spinners who probably don’t bowl that much in first-class cricket,” Compton said. “But it’s about having the right attitude in these situations, every single ball, every single minute is important. Especially for me, having missed out in the first game. It’s more of a mental battle, getting back to run-scoring mode. The opposition wasn’t brilliant at the end, but they bowled quite accurately in the first hour.”In the morning, Mumbai A’s Hiken Shah, who started the day 16 runs shy of a deserved century, started off with two well-timed boundaries off Onions. However, the left-hander was then caught in two minds about whether to play at a ball that was going down leg and edged it to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. Naturally, he was disappointed to have missed out on a hundred and stood his ground in disbelief before taking the long walk back. Panesar and Patel then made short work of the tail, picking off the last five Mumbai A wickets for 22 runs off 41 balls.