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Although Sri Lanka Cricket had already named a T20 squad ahead of the ODI series, two days out from the one-off match against India, the board has released a new squad, this one featuring legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay and seam-bowling allrounder Dasun Shanaka.

Sri Lanka’s revised T20 squad

Upul Tharanga (capt), Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella, Dilshan Munaweera, Dasun Shanaka, Milinda Siriwardana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Isuru Udana, Seekkuge Prasanna, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga, Suranga Lakmal, Vikum Sanjaya

Also in this side are spinner Akila Dananjaya, who was Sri Lanka’s most penetrative bowler in the ODIs, seamer Suranga Lakmal, who has recovered from a back complaint, and allrounders Wanindu Hasaranga, Thisara Perera and Milinda Siriwardana. Seam bowler Isuru Udana has also been named, while Dushmantha Chameera and Vishwa Fernando have been omitted.Kusal Mendis, whom the management feels is suffering from mental fatigue, has been rested as well.Vandersay has not played a T20 for Sri Lanka since the World T20 last year, which is perhaps surprising, as he had been one of the team’s standout players in that tournament. His return was complicated by injury, but the selectors have tried other spinners ahead of him as well. Notably absent from this 15 is left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan – a more aggressive but expensive option.*On the seam-bowling front Sri Lanka have Lasith Malinga, in addition to Lakmal and Vikum Sanjaya. The most senior batsman is Angelo Mathews, and this will also be Upul Tharanga’s first match as full-time T20 captain.T20s are the one format in which Sri Lanka have a creditable record in 2017. They won both the three-match series against Australia and South Africa, and drew the two-match series against Bangladesh to keep a 5-3 win-loss record. The victories over Australia and South Africa, however, were against substantially depleted teams.The match is scheduled to be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 6.*The story had earlier stated Seekkuge Prasanna had been ommittted. However, he is in the squad.

Sana Mir, recently axed from captaincy, has found herself back in the spotlight as the former women’s general manger Shamsa Hashmi said that she had been trying to control Mir’s ‘manoeuvring and hegemony by counselling’. She criticised Mir’s captaincy over the years, saying she had been discouraging players, and had taken shocking on-field decisions. Mir will be replaced by Bismah Maroof as captain, a decision that is part of the PCB’s revamp of its women’s cricket set-up following the team’s poor performance at the World Cup in June. Shamsa was herself dismissed as general manager.”I never spoke earlier in public about what Sana had been saying, because I was part of the PCB, and I do like to follow the organisation’s obligations,” Shamsa told reporters in a rare media appearance at her home. “I heard she didn’t want to work with the management of the women’s wings, but still she had been working with us for the last two-and-a-half years. Now I don’t know what suddenly went wrong. There may be a lot of factors behind it but she never conveyed those to me, except one. She wanted to have her former fellow players appointed to the selection committee, and one of them she wanted to have as women’s team trainer. I didn’t want to be a part of it, and I told her that I would have to think about it. So if that was the problem, then I can’t do anything about it.”Mir, the team manager, and a couple of senior players had been singled out for blame for Pakistan’s winless World Cup campaign. In a damning report, coach Sabih Azhar accused Mir of adopting a “negative approach” and of being completely self-obsessed. He also complained that Ayesha Ashar – who has been sacked from the managerial post and made interim general manager women wings – paid most of her attention to some senior players and was “cold” towards the younger players.”If we recall our World Cup performance this year, it wasn’t bad at all,” Shamsa said. “But the way players are being used, with rapid batting order changes and unorthodox changes in bowling – these are the things that let us down. I want to recall the England match in which Heather Knight and (Natalie) Sciver scored hundreds, and most of their runs were on the leg, but the field wasn’t adjusted accordingly.”Against South Africa, for example, we lost by [a small margin]. We actually lost the game by conceding 16 runs in the second-last over. Scoring 16 runs in last two overs while chasing is always difficult and I believe that over should have been given to your best bowler which the captain didn’t do. Against Sri Lanka, we lost only because we didn’t take the Powerplay and that was the responsibility of the captain in the middle. So these are the critical things to notice.”Mir, 31, had, before the World Cup, hinted at retiring from the game. The PCB top brass then came up with the suggestion of giving Mir a graceful exit, but later decided to retain her for a few series and assess her individual performance. Mir had also stepped down as captain of the T20 side after 2016 Women’s World T20. “I do respect Sana as a player and since she is captain, I wanted to give her a graceful exit,” Shamsa said. “But as far as her manipulation and hegemony is concerned, I told her we should abide only by merit.”

After the second ODI, in which Colin Munro was bowled by a Bhuvneshwar Kumar slower ball, Munro was a little lost.Munro had been part of an experiment New Zealand cricket had undertaken to find a way to beat India with the limited experience they had of playing high-quality spin. They took one of their best batsmen of spin in recent times, Tom Latham, and put him in the middle order. Jack in the box, switch-hit expert, Munro was asked to open to make use of Powerplay overs and hurt India before they get into their favourite part of the game: when the ball is old and the field spread. This was Munro’s chance to find himself a more permanent place in the ODIs and also bring back some of the x-factor that left New Zealand’s ODI cricket with Brendon McCullum’s retirement.Incidentally, McCullum was one of the bigger fans of the move to have Munro open the innings with Martin Guptill. He tweeted: “Massive fan of @manuz05 batting at the top with one of our best ODI players ever @Martyguptill. Ride the ups and downs, gun combo!” Not just for Munro and Latham, if it worked, this move could do wonders for Guptill by relieving him of the pressure of forcing the pace early so he can set himself up for the long innings that he loves.Two innings into the experiment, Munro didn’t feel that good. His early hitting had surprised India in Mumbai, but two slower balls later, Munro had just 38 runs from 52 balls over two innings. He then texted the man who had tweeted his support earlier.”It’s a funny one actually,” Munro said if he had had any interaction with McCullum. “After the second game I was… I wouldn’t call it ‘down’, but I hadn’t got off to the start I wanted to in terms of opening the batting. So I sent him a few text messages just asking his thoughts and let him know what I was thinking.”He again came out and said, ‘No, you’ve sort of got a good record in T20 the way you play at the top of the order, so you can try and commit that same thing in the one-day game. Go out there and express yourself. Give yourself however long it takes, whether it is one ball, two balls or sometimes it could be three or four, if the bowlers are bowling well.’ So funny that you bring that up. Just before that last game I had a good conversation with him.”It is not a surprise that this almost pinch-hitting strategy was not a runaway success. There is much two-way feedback between coaches and bowlers nowadays than in the 1990s. Bowlers are smarter; they watch a lot more footage than they did earlier. India quickly found out a way to bowl after Munro’s quick start in Mumbai: bowl short, bowl slow. To figure out how hard to go when the bowlers were not reacting to early pressure was the challenge for Munro.”The big challenge for me was just finding a good tempo to bat at,” Munro said. “I like to say that I want to go in and try and blast off in the first ten but it’s not always going to be the case, especially when you’re playing against Bhuvi and [Jasprit] Bumrah. They’re probably the best opening bowlers in these conditions going around the world. It’s always a bit hard to start off. I thought I did okay in the first game. Second game, not so well but you got to take those.”The chat with seniors reinforced the need to bat the way he usually did. He did exactly that at the start of the third ODI, chasing 338. He shimmied across to the first ball he faced and played a pick-up for a six. He ended up with 75 off 62, New Zealand nearly pulled off an incredible chase, and the experiment can be termed a success now, especially given Latham’s utility down the order.”And then obviously just having a chat with the senior players in the team who said, ‘Just go out and take your Twenty20 game and see how it goes.’ Luckily, for me it came off,” Munro said. “Like I said earlier, there’s going to be sometimes pressure at the top of the order where you get good balls or sometimes just myself, by throwing my wicket away given the way that I play. For me it’s more a mental shift in terms of taking the good with the bad, especially in this game where you fail a lot more than you succeed. That’s the going to be the biggest change in mindset.”Munro will like to carry on with that slot, hopefully in more batting-friendly conditions. “I hope so,” Munro said when asked if he is looking at a longer run at that slot, “because if I come out and not be so successful it won’t be good for the team. So whatever is good for the team. If that means me batting at the top of the order and bowling a few overs or working more on my bowling and coming through that middle stage, it doesn’t bother me. Whatever is good for the team. Might be different conditions here in India. Could get off to a good start, especially with the spinners in the middle.”For the moment, though, Kane Williamson might split Guptill and Munro, who might follow at No. 3 in the T20Is. Yet, he will now get to do what they have all been asking him to do: bring your T20 game.

Mitchell Starc revealed that Australia’s captain Steven Smith did not consult with his pace bowlers before deciding not to enforce the follow-on ahead of the night session on the third day of the Adelaide Ashes Test.With a 215-run lead, Smith could have sent Joe Root’s Englishmen back in to bat a second time in the evening, but instead chose to bat again and extend the lead. James Anderson and Chris Woakes then moved the pink ball around under lights to claim four wickets, including those of Smith and David Warner, before the close.”We didn’t [get asked] tonight. He’s the captain, he makes the decisions,” Starc said when asked whether the bowlers were consulted about their willingness to bowl again. “There’s two full night sessions to go – we had a tough session with the bat but there’s a lot of cricket to go and a lot of batting in the sheds with Shaun and Tim. But in terms of the follow-on it’s all up to Smithy.”We know the night sessions are the toughest, but to be four down, we still know we’ve got a good lead and there’s two night sessions to go. Once the sun comes out tomorrow it’s the easiest time to bat through the day so we’ll get some runs there and build on our lead and then some exciting cricket to come.”[There are] pros and cons to both decisions I’m sure and we’ll look to build on our lead, give the bowlers a bit of extra time to come out fit and firing for that second innings and hopefully knock them over.”Starc pointed out that rain on the second evening had reduced the amount of time England needed to bat against the pink ball on a pitch juiced up by evening moisture. Equally he said Australia, who bowled a decidedly full length when they got their chance with the ball, had noted how the visitors had missed the chance to take wickets earlier in the game by bowling too short.”England have only had to [bat at night] for 10 overs so far and if they really want to win this Test match they’re going to have to go through two night sessions, so great signs for us with the ball if you look at that session we just saw with the bat,” Starc said. “With a lead of 260 going into a day session, we’re still very much in the driver’s seat.”We did mention watching from the change rooms they did bowl a lot shorter than they would’ve liked and we saw after that first session they made an effort to bowl fuller and brought dismissals into the game. That’s something we spoke about as a bowling group, making sure we bowled a fuller length throughout the whole innings. They’ve got their length sorted now but that’s also something we can take on for our stuff as the game goes on as well.”

Yorkshire, often regarded as the staunchest defenders of the County Championship, have put forward proposals for a conference-style format intended to “reinvigorate” the competition and ensure unity among the 18 professional clubs.Mark Arthur, Yorkshire’s chief executive, and Martyn Moxon, director of cricket, have stressed the conference plan is their own brainchild, and not the official policy of the club. But both Arthur and Moxon are Board members, the plan is lavishly publicised on Yorkshire’s own website and details have already been outlined to the ECB.Official or unofficial? Such political niceties might be necessary – especially when the chairman of the ECB, Colin Graves, has such close links with Yorkshire – but they will be lost on most cricket supporters as they pore over arguably the most comprehensive proposal yet revealed.The Arthur-Moxon plan would see three parallel conferences of six begin the season, and another three conferences of six – divided on merit – conclude it, with prize money for the winner almost doubling to £1m.

How the plan would work

• – Counties would be divided in six bands of three based on placings in the previous season

• – One county from each band would go into three Conferences of equal status

• – Each Conference would have home and away matches: 10 games

• – The top two in each Conference would then qualify for Division One, the next two for Division Two, the bottom two for Division Three

• – Each team would then play a further five games in three Divisions

• – Points from the first stage would be carried forward and the top side in each Conference would also be rewarded with three home games

One bugbear for some influential figures within the ECB will be that the plan gives each county a total of 15 matches – one more than at present – in a fixture list that is about to become more crowded than ever.Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, is known to favour a fall to as low as 10 games. Even the former England captain Michael Vaughan, who briefly served on the Yorkshire board, tempered his initial show of approval by suggesting that a couple of early-season matches would be best played overseas.Arthur believes the structure could be introduced in the summer of 2020, alongside the much-hyped new T20 competition, which has left the smaller counties that are not involved in the city-based tournament insecure about their long-term future.”We feel that it would keep everybody engaged in the game because there are certain counties that feel threatened – wrongly, in my opinion – by the new T20 city competition,” Arthur said on Yorkshire’s website. “We believe in 18 first-class counties, and this would keep everybody together.”Martyn Moxon and I put it forward to the ECB a couple of months ago. We put it forward purely from a personal point of view, not from a Yorkshire point of view.”Yorkshire’s senior administrators have taken heart from reports that six of the smaller counties are in favour of some style of conference system, led by the Sussex chief executive Rob Andrew.It is likely that they have revealed their own plans to catch the mood, as well as guard against less palatable versions gaining ground.Andrew believes that the advent of more TV money from the new T20 competition will enable counties to compete on more equal terms – especially if a salary cap is retained – and will give them a better chance of retaining their top players.Increasingly, in a two-divisional structure, players are more receptive to transfers to a bigger county and compensation levels are poor, perhaps undermining a commitment to developing players.Arthur also feels that a conference system will protect more powerful counties like Yorkshire from the risk of relegation because they are providing so many players for England internationals.”From our experience, we provided five or six players to the England set-up once again in 2017, yet we were nearly relegated,” he said. “We’re very happy to provide those players, but to do that we have to be playing in the first division and not the second.Yorkshire have always prized a Championship trophy•Getty Images

“We’ve also seen in the last few years that some teams in the second division have given up red-ball cricket with an eye on the white ball. If they are going to truly be centres of excellence for cricket, they need to have some sort of aspiration for the Championship game.”Arthur argues that the Conference plan will give the Championship season “a real climax” and that even in Divisions Two and Three, there will be prize money and the following season’s placings to play for.”It would mean one more game, greater interest from the public and will provide the 18 counties with genuine competition,” he said.Fifteen matches in a calendar awash with two T20 competitions might well prove ambitious, however. A similar alternative – two equal Conferences of nine, selected by the same method, followed by three Divisions of six – would bring a reduction to 13 matches and might gain more favour within the ECB.On the back of a 4-0 Ashes series defeat, though, the most pressing question should be whether this proposal would raise standards and contribute to the smallest possible leap between the best county sides and England’s Test side.Unless some of the sides who habitually spend life at the bottom of Division Two seriously raise their game under such a proposal, mismatches could abound in the first stage of the season.The prospect of more money into county cricket via T20 is not about to change that, unless it led to a transformed commitment to player development from all 18 counties at a time when the game is unhealthily reliant on the production line from private schools, the club game is under strain because of changing cultural behaviour, and efforts to rebuild cricket’s popularity among young people with such schemes as All Stars Cricket remain in their infancy.And there is always the warning of what happened the last time Conferences were debated with any real intent. Twenty years have passed since Lord MacLaurin, as chairman of the ECB (and like Graves with a background in supermarket retail), championed a similar cause. went full-on tabloid with its one-word headline on the front cover. “Barmy!” was the verdict, with the added thought: “If it goes ahead, England will never beat Australia”. But the county game is in such flux, the mood this time is harder to gauge.

There were a few catches put down during the record-breaking T20 at Eden Park, but one very valuable one was taken.Mitchell Grimstone, a 20-year-old student, earned himself NZD50,000 courtesy of a local drinks sponsor when he leaned over the railing at deep midwicket to pluck Ross Taylor’s penultimate-ball six out of the air with his left hand.His reaction was priceless (or, well, worth 50K) as he was mobbed by those next to him in the stands.”I’m not left-handed,” he said. “But somehow I put it there and it stuck, and then everyone was jumping over me.”After the match, Taylor also presented him with his gloves and the match ball while offering congratulations.Having had a major boost to his bank balance, it’s probably a good thing Grimstone is studying accounting at university.

Mohammad Nabi hits over the top•AFP

Mohammad Nabi’s 27-ball 40 made quick work of the 121 target set by Zimbabwe, helping Afghanistan take a 1-0 lead in the two-match T20I series in Sharjah. Five Afghanistan bowlers were among the wickets, with legspinner Rashid Khan collecting three as Zimbabwe fell away after a rollicking start in the Powerplay to end their 20 overs with a below-par total. Despite the humid conditions, Afghanistan’s batsmen were not made to break a sweat – the chase was completed with 32 balls to spare.Rashid leads from the back
At first, Afghanistan’s decision to field looked like it would come back to bite them. Solomon Mire and Hamilton Masakadza were batting like they’d help Zimbabwe to a big total as 16-year-old Mujeeb Zadran and pacer Sharafuddin Ashraf took some early blows. Yet the captain Asghar Stanikzai held his trump card back.As Zimbabwe’s middle order crumbled in the space of seven balls – falling from 65 for 1 after 8.5 overs to 68 for 4 at the end of the 10th – Stanikzai introduced Rashid in the 12th over. With the lower-middle order exposed, Rashid’s rippers and wrong ‘uns proved too much for Ryan Burl, and then Kyle Jarvis and Tendai Chatara; he eventually finished with 3 for 19.With the other bowlers collecting five wickets among them, Afghanistan’s bowling, after a long time, wasn’t just a one- or two-man show.Mire, Waller save face
If one removes Mire’s 21-ball 34 and Malcolm Waller’s unbeaten 27, then Zimbabwe’s batting paints a sorry picture. From 52 for 0 in 5.4 overs, they finished at 120 for 9 after 20, adding only 68 runs in the final 86 balls.That they even made 120 was courtesy’s Mire’s blitz at the top, which included a 23-run fourth over – that is, three sixes and a four off right-arm pacer Sharafuddin Ashraf. But Mire fell just before the Powerplay ended, and with that Zimbabwe’s flow of runs screeched to a halt.Six wickets and 53 balls later, Waller came to the crease with Zimbabwe reeling at 81 for 7 after 15 overs. He saw the first few balls off by nudging them around for ones and twos, doing enough to ensure the team’s total went past 100. With six balls of Zimbabwe’s innings left, Waller took strike and extracted 17 off the final over – including two fours, and a six muscled over point – to set Afghanistan a target of 121.Afghanistan stumble, but do not crumble
Hard-hitting wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad, who returned after serving a ban for a doping code violation, gave Afghanistan’s chase a flying start after his partner Karim Sadiq perished for five.Shahzad top edged a four and smacked two big sixes in his 11-ball stay of 20 before bottom edging one to the keeper. Stanikzai and Sharafuddin then fell victim to Chatara and Burl respectively as Afghanistan went into the 12th over at 85 for 5, but an unbeaten 36-run sixth-wicket partnership between Mohammad Nabi (40*) and Shafiqullah (14*) ensured Afghanistan chased the target down with more than five overs to spare.Nabi hit four fours and three sixes in his 27-ball innings while Shafiqullah hit one apiece as Afghanistan took a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club rose to the second position in the Dhaka Premier League after their three-run win over Abahani Limited at the Shere Bangla National Stadium. With Abahani needing 10 runs from the last over, Ariful Islam Sobuj offered them some hope with a four and two but off the fifth ball, Arafat Sunny had him caught behind to bowl them out for 229 runs.It was Mohammad Mithun who took Abahani close to Doleshwar’s score, with his 61-ball 60 that had four boundaries and a six. But there were no big partnerships as Abahani lost wickets regularly, until Ariful struck 21 off 15 balls, with two sixes and a four, in the last five overs. Sunny and Farhad Reza took three wickets each.Doleshwar were put in a strong position by a 132-run fourth wicket stand between Fazle Mahmud and Farhad Hossain, both getting out in the sixties. But from 171 for 3, they slipped to 187 for 7, and were later restricted to 232 for 9 in 50 overs. Manan Sharma took four for 44.Solid contributions from the top-order and Mohammad Azim’s four-wicket haul powered Mohammedan Sporting Club to a 38-run win over Shinepukur Cricket Club.Batting first, Mohammedan posted 306 for 6 in 50 overs with Rony adding 95 for the first wicket (regular opener Irfan Shukkur was out injured in the seventh over) Jony Talukdar, his younger brothers. Rony struck five fours and four sixes in his 73-ball 77. Shamsur, who made 60 off 65 balls, then added 88 runs for the third wicket with Raqibul, who chipped in with a 52-ball 55.Saeed added the main fireworks, striking five sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 58 off 25 balls, all of which came in the last 6.2 overs. Mohammad Saifuddin finished with 3 for 55.Shinepukur slipped to 95 for five before Saifuddin and Shuvagata Hom added 74 runs for the sixth wicket. Both made fifties but it wasn’t enough as they were bowled out for 268 in 48.1 overs. Apart from Azim’s four-wicket haul, Taijul took three for 64.Jahurul Islam’s century helped Gazi Group Cricketers beat Prime Bank Cricket Club by seven wickets. More importantly, the win at the BKSP-3 ground took Gazi Group out of the relegation zone. They are now currently in ninth position with eight points.Batting first, Prime Bank posted 257-9 in 50 overs with Yusuf Pathan top scoring with 72. He struck four sixes and as many fours in his 60-ball knock. Offspinner Nayeem Hasan took 4-53.In reply, Jahurul and Asif Ahmed added 121 runs for the third wicket before Jahurul, having made 103 off 113 balls with eight fours and three sixes, retired hurt with cramps. Asif remained unbeaten on 91 off 105 balls with six fours and a six.