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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThis was a magical day of Test cricket – and not in the mere figurative sense of the word. What sorcery was behind South Africa’s amazing, never-ending innings, which kept going and going and going, defying all rational attempts at explanation? And how, from an attack crippled by injury, did South Africa conjure three dangerous fast bowlers by the close of play? Surely the average muggle will never understand the mysteries of day four in Johannesburg.It was a day on which South Africa started with an advantage of 401 and batted on, and on, and on, past a lead of 450, and 500, and 550, and 600. The accepted explanation was that Faf du Plessis would have a limited attack at his disposal: Morne Morkel had a side strain, Kagiso Rabada was suffering from a stiff back, and Vernon Philander had strapping on his leg. By stumps, Morkel had 2 for 18, Rabada had caused new-ball jitters, and a catch had been dropped off Philander’s bowling.Du Plessis had finally declared at tea, setting Australia an ostensible target of 612 for victory. For context, only once in Test history has a team scored more than 500 in the fourth innings: in the famous timeless Durban Test of 1939, England made 654 for 5, a draw declared on day 10 only because England, who were just 42 runs from victory, had to board a train to catch up with their ship home, which had already left Durban without them and was now in Cape Town.Whatever the reason for du Plessis’ conservatism, he knew that only defeat in this Test could prevent South Africa from a historic series win at home against Australia, which they had not achieved since 1970. By the time du Plessis declared, that possibility had not only been killed off, it had been mummified and sealed inside a sarcophagus inside a booby-trapped mausoleum, never again to be seen by human eyes.But if victory seemed a secondary consideration for South Africa for much of the day, by stumps they were nevertheless in a strong position to achieve a 3-1 series result. Australia finished the day on 88 for 3, with Peter Handscomb on 23 and Shaun Marsh on 7. And the most impressive thing was that the retiring Morkel, in his final Test, had insisted on bowling through the pain of his injury to claim two of the three wickets.Australia’s innings had started with what South Africa thought was a wicket – Matt Renshaw was given out caught-behind first ball off Rabada, but had the decision overturned on review. A few overs later, Renshaw was put down at gully by Temba Bavuma off the bowling of Philander, but his luck ran out on 5, when Morkel angled one from around the wicket to strike the pad and trap him lbw.It was inspirational stuff from Morkel, who by stumps, had added a second wicket, that of Joe Burns, who was lbw for 42, walking across his stumps and trying to work a yorker through the leg side. Australia had also lost Usman Khawaja lbw for 7, when he was adjudged not to have played a shot against Keshav Maharaj, and was struck outside the line of off stump. Khawaja’s review was in vain; if he had played a shot it had been a truly woeful one, for he missed the ball by several miles.Batting had looked much easier for the South Africans, and particularly for du Plessis, who scored his first Test century since October 2017, and ended a poor run of form in which he had not passed 20 for the past nine innings. He scored all around the ground, often adventurously, as when he lifted Pat Cummins over cover point for six, and brought up his century from his 163rd delivery with an outside edge for four off Josh Hazlewood.He struck 18 fours and two sixes, and his effort was all the more impressive, given that he had earlier received a painful blow to the finger by a rising ball from Cummins. Eventually, du Plessis was caught at slip off the bowling of Cummins for 120, by which stage, his partnership with Dean Elgar was worth 170 runs.The holding pattern of the game was never more obvious than when Elgar was batting. He did not score a single run until the 65th ball of the day’s play, and by the time he lifted Chadd Sayers over the infield for those two runs, Elgar had seen a full 91 deliveries bowled in the match since his last run on the previous afternoon.Incongruously, he brought up his fifty with a six clubbed over long-on off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh, the landmark coming in 199 deliveries and 305 minutes. Just as incongruously, Elgar later fell to a slog across the line, when he miscued one off Nathan Lyon and was well-caught by Shaun Marsh running back from extra cover. Elgar’s 81 had taken 250 deliveries and 337 minutes.Soon afterwards, Australia claimed another wicket when Quinton de Kock was lbw for 4 to Cummins, who took his tally for the match to nine wickets, to add to the half-century he scored in Australia’s first innings. Still, there was no declaration. At least not until tea, by which time Temba Bavuma had 35, Philander had 33, and South Africa had 344 for 6. The magic of the amazing never-ending innings had finally worn off, but the enchantment of Morkel’s recovery was still to come.

After the discipline of Lord’s, the collective brain-fade at Headingley. If Pakistan were undone by good bowling in the first innings on the first day in Leeds, they were undone by their own urges on the third.At least five of their top eight fell to poor strokeplay, one caught at mid-on, another at mid-off, a third down the leg side, a fourth slogging, yet another playing across the line. It was the result, according to the captain, of a combination of factors.”We lacked discipline in batting in both the innings,” Sarfraz Ahmed said. “I think they also bowled well on the first day, but we had to play well in this innings and unfortunately we didn’t bat well as a unit.”A lead of 180-plus put pressure on us and we committed mistakes. And our batting unit is young so they will learn from the mistakes.”Thus in a rush of poor strokes ended a tour of considerable promise and with some gains for Pakistan. It wasn’t thought implausible before Pakistan arrived here that they might leave without a win.And Sarfraz had insisted all along that this would be a tour where they had everything to learn and nothing to lose. In that sense, the progress made by the likes of Babar Azam, Shadab Khan and Faheem Ashraf will have been especially pleasing.”If you see when we came here people thought that we will not win one game but the way we played at Lord’s everything was perfect, our fast bowling was perfect, our batting and fielding were perfect,” Sarfraz said.”It’s disappointing that we had a chance to win the series but unfortunately we didn’t play well here. I am proud of my young team, the way [Mohammad] Abbas is bowling. Shadab is doing well, Faheem did well so really disappointed that we didn’t win but 1-1 is a good result for us.”The problem, as it has been for several years now is that Pakistan’s Test players – such as Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Mohammad Abbas – will be out of action until October, when they next play the longest format. There are plenty of white-ball commitments until then but developing a Test side that remains in seventh place in that kind of calendar becomes a challenge.”We played our last Test in October so it’s difficult when you play a Test after five or six months,” he said. “Test cricket is a different format, you have to adjust to five-day cricket.”So it’s tough for the Test players, like Abbas who played his last Test in October. It’s tough but as a professional you have to adjust. We didn’t play well in this Test but in the last two Tests we played well. The more you play Test cricket, you get to mature as Test player. Now we have five Tests in UAE [two against Australia and three against NZ], and then we have three in South Africa and that will help us mature.”

Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal will miss the day-night Test against West Indies in Barbados. After a four-hour hearing on Friday, Michael Beloff QC, the ICC-appointed judicial commissioner, dismissed Chandimal’s appeal against his one-match suspension for ball-tampering.According to an ICC release, Beloff will provide a written reasoned decision on Wednesday.The original decision of match referee Javagal Srinath, to award Chandimal two suspension points and fine him 100% of his match fee, will stand. Since two suspension points correspond to four demerit points, those will remain on Chandimal’s disciplinary record.Beloff also set July 10 as the date to hear the code-of-conduct charges against Chandimal, Sri Lanka coach Chandika Hathurusingha and manager Asanka Gurusinha for “conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game”. ICC charged them with the level 3 offence after Sri Lanka refused to take the field on the third morning of the second Test in St Lucia, delaying the start of play by two hours.Hathurusingha and Gurusinha, therefore, will be available to coach and manage Sri Lanka during the third Test at the Kensington Oval.

ScorecardEngland Lions were beaten for the first time in the tri-series after India A, whom they had beaten comfortably at Derby last week, emphatically turned the tables in the wilting heat at Grace Road.Chasing a total that they would have fancied themselves to reach on what was essentially a good batting surface, the Lions made a miserable start by losing their top three batsmen in the first eight overs and never recovered.It means that they must beat West Indies A at Northampton on Thursday if they are to be sure of their place in the final at The Oval on Monday, although they would still qualify even if beaten, having won both their opening two matches, if India beat West Indies on Friday.

‘Enjoying batting here’ – Agarwal

India’s century-maker Mayank Agarwal said he had been troubled by a muscle strain in his lower right side, for which he needed treatment on the field, but did not expect it to rule him out of playing should India qualify for next Monday’s final.
“I had a little issue but it is okay,” he said. “I will be assessed by the team doctor but I don’t expect it to be a problem. I was very pleased with my innings, it’s good to get back-to-back hundreds. That’s three here now – I’ve enjoyed batting here.
“England outplayed us last week but we have been playing good cricket since we have been here, in the warm-up games too, and it is good to be rewarded with back-to-back wins because everybody is putting in the effort, putting in the performances at crucial times.”

Given that this talented India side has been in impressive form these last two days at Leicester, you would expect that to happen. They saw off the West Indians with almost 12 overs to spare here on Monday and defeated England by a comfortable margin, even after leaving out Deepak Chahar, who had taken five wickets in that game.They did not, however, leave out Mayank Agarwal, their other key man on Monday, and how wise they were. Despite needing treatment for a back injury during the innings and subsequently being unable to field, the opener made his second century in consecutive days.It was as impressive a performance by India A as it was a disappointing one by the Lions, who had left the field relatively pleased with themselves at the end of their opponents’ innings.India A had been 100 without loss after 15 overs, and may actually have felt they ought to have built more handsomely on such a start.The precociously talented Shubman Gill contributed 72 in an opening stand of 165 with Agarwal but the Lions fought back well, with Worcestershire’s Ed Barnard impressing on his senior representative debut, Matt Fisher taking his first Lions wickets and the spinners, Liam Dawson and Matt Parkinson, playing a key role in frustrating the India batsmen in the middle phase of the innings, even if neither took a wicket.Parkinson, the 21-year-old Lancashire legspinner, had shown impressive character, taking a mauling in his opening three-over spell, which cost 28 runs after both openers went after him, but conceding only 35 more in seven overs after Steven Mullaney brought him back in the 32nd over and stuck with him.Barnard, who was added to the squad after the opening two matches in the tri-series following an injury to Craig Overton, was the best of the four seamers used, producing probably the delivery of the innings, finding extra bounce to have Gill caught at short third man having shaped to cut.But England’s innings was never able to gather any momentum after a fine opening spell by Shardul Thakur had accounted for both openers and Sam Hain, whose unbeaten 145 at Derby was the foundation of the Lions’ win over West Indies A, was unable to get past 1 before having two stumps uprooted by Chahar’s replacement, Prasidh Krishna.The biggest source of frustration in the England dressing room will be that most of their batsmen played themselves in but that Dawson’s 38 was their highest score, and that the top three apart they were mostly the architects of their own demise.It had been good watching, though, especially for the schoolchildren, mainly wearing India replica shirts, who had a special day out. Gill, aged 18 and the leading batsman in India’s victorious Under-19 World Cup team, is not long out of school himself yet is clearly a top-class player in the making, while Agarwal’s frustrating wait for international recognition at the top level must surely end soon.The 27-year-old ended the Indian domestic season with 2,141 runs, a record aggregate for an individual batsman across all formats. His first-class average was 105.45 and his 723 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy was the most by any Indian player in a List A tournament, topping Sachin Tendulkar’s 673 at the 2003 World Cup.

ScorecardDefending champions Western Storm moved to the top of the Kia Super League table at the halfway stage thanks to a brilliant innings from Smriti Mandhana.The India international, who was already top-scorer in the competition, struck her first T20 century to guide Storm to a routine win over Lancashire Thunder.It was a match defined by two left-hand internationals, as Thunder’s Amy Satterthwaite produced her best-ever score for Lancashire with an unbeaten 85 to guide her side to 153 for 7, but it proved not to be enough.Thunder got off to an ideal start to the defence of their total as Rachel Priest fell to Kate Cross in the first over for just five.But Mandhana took the attack to Lancashire from the off and began to break the back of the chase. In the third over, bowled by Cross, she struck two sweet sixes to take Storm to 29 for 1.Graphic: Smriti Mandhana has raced to the top of the KSL runs charts•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The India international continued to time the ball perfectly, dismissing Thunder’s battery of spinners to the fence with ease. She lost partner Heather Knight for just eight, caught in the deep off Emma Lamb.Mandhana though would march on, supported ably by West Indian Stafanie Taylor. Mandhana’s half-century was reached from just 34 balls and she pressed the accelerator after reaching that landmark.She took 15 from the 12th over, delivered by England international Alex Hartley, to move to 78 from just 45 balls and bring the required equation down to 51 from 48.From there, it was a simple chase as Mandhana and Taylor put on 105. Mandhana fell for 102 from 61 balls, with 12 fours and four sixes in her superb innings. Victory came two balls later, with 10 balls to spare.Earlier, Lancashire’s innings was dominated by Satterthwaite’s brilliant knock. But early on it was Australian Nicole Bolton, fresh from her 87 from 61 balls in the last game against Surrey Stars, who delivered the early fireworks.She hit three glorious boundaries in the third over, bowled by Anya Shrubsole, but perished to the final delivery – edging behind as she attempted a fine cut.Her opening partner Eve Jones was then undone by a fantastic slower ball from Freya Davies, trapping the left-hander lbw for 4.At the end of the powerplay Thunder were 31 for 2, with India Women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur, on her home debut, at the crease. She went without scoring, however, run out by Claire Nicholas attempting a quick single.But Satterthwaite moved through the gears during her innings. The New Zealander struck a six off Heather Knight in the seventh over and also deposited a Stafanie Taylor full-toss into the stands in the 10th.Her fifty arrived from 41 balls and she had soon passed her best for Thunder – made last week against Yorkshire.She shared a half-century stand with Emma Lamb from just 39 balls. A flurry of wickets fell in the late pursuit of runs, but Satterthwaite remained unbeaten at the end on 85 from 57 balls as Thunder posted 153-7.Thanks to Mandhana, it was a total that proved not to be enough. Defeat ends a run of three successive victories for Thunder and extends Storms’ winning run to three.Storm move on to face Yorkshire Diamonds at Scarborough on Sunday while Thunder are back at Old Trafford on Tuesday to face Surrey Stars.

Batsman David Miller has made himself unavailable to play first-class cricket in South Africa, a decision that means he has effectively given up on representing the country in Test cricket.The 29-year-old Miller, who remains available for all forms of limited-overs cricket for South Africa and the Dolphins, said that giving up red-ball cricket was “a tough decision”, but he wanted to concentrate on maximising his chances of international cricket with the white ball, especially with the 2019 World Cup a few months away.”It was a tough decision to make,” Miller said. “I have always loved playing red-ball cricket but I have decided that I would, in future, like to concentrate on white-ball cricket to make sure that I am in a position to give myself the best opportunity to play for the Proteas in the format that I love. This is an important decision for me, especially with the World Cup looming next year. I will also be available to play for the Dolphins in all limited-overs competitions and will give it my all to help them win trophies this season.”Miller has played 109 ODIs and 61 T20Is for South Africa, but hasn’t played any Test cricket. In 63 first-class matches, he has scored 3342 runs at an average of 36.32, with six centuries.A year ago, Miller had made a clear statement of his ambition to play Test cricket when he opted out of the 2017 CPL to play for South Africa A against India A in August 2017. He made scores of 78, 27, 13 and 18 but he was not considered for the Test squad to play against Bangladesh.Cricket South Africa chief executive Thabang Moroe said it was disappointing to lose Miller as a potential Test cricketer, but hoped he would reconsider his decision in the future.”At the age of 29, he still has many years of good cricket left in him in all formats but at the same time, we have to understand that he wants to throw his full weight into helping the Proteas to win the ICC World Cup,” Moroe said. “He has time on his hands to resume his first-class career in due course and I sincerely hope that we have not seen the last of him in red-ball cricket where he has shown his undeniable talents in the past.”Miller has struggled for form in ODIs this year, with only one half-century in nine matches in 2018, and a total of 192 runs at just 21.33. His strike-rate of 89.71 is also much lower than his career figure of 101.21. Overall, Miller has scored 2588 runs in ODIs at an average of 36.97.

Michael Carberry’s stand-off with Leicestershire has come to an end by “mutual consent”, with the former England opener set to leave the club for which he hasn’t played since being axed as captain in May.Carberry, who moved to Grace Road late in the 2017 season, was named as captain last October, but lasted for less than half a season before Paul Nixon, the head coach, replaced him with Paul Horton following an internal review.Explaining his decision at the time, Nixon said that Carberry’s leadership had been “more reactive than proactive”, and that he would be taking a short break from the game.”It was a huge decision, the toughest decision of my career,” Nixon said. “Michael is a fantastic man with great integrity and is a massively valued member of this team and we are desperate to get him back. He’s going to have a little break, get his head clear and round it, and maybe it was us asking too much of him in the first place.”But he’s taken this club forward already with the things he’s done and his attitude and it was a very tough decision to make but we think the right one moving forward.”Carberry’s career had been at a crossroads when he left Hampshire after undergoing treatment for cancer in 2016. He had reportedly been considering legal action against Leicestershire, but that prospect has now been dropped.In a brief statement, the club added: “Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Michael Carberry have agreed to part company by mutual agreement.Leicestershire County Cricket Club would like to wish Michael all the very best for the future. The club will not be making any further comment.”

Associated Press

The New Zealand A lower order and tail piled on plenty of runs against an India A attack that features only two frontline bowlers with international experience under their belt. Soon after losing overnight centurion Hamish Rutherford for 114, New Zealand were reduced to 211 for 5 but the India attack was unable to capitalise on the situation and the hosts declared on 458, only nine behind India’s total.Visiting openers Prithvi Shaw and M Vijay were unbeaten in a quick stand of 35 in eight overs, with the Mumbai batsman scoring 33 off 26 with seven fours.Resuming on 176 for 1, New Zealand lost their early wickets to the pace bowlers when Tim Seifert drove to edge one behind off Mohammed Siraj and Rutherford chopped on against Deepak Chahar. Chahar soon had Rachin Ravindra hole out behind square with a bouncer, and when Glenn Phillips was trapped lbw by Navdeep Saini, India looked set to take a healthy lead with the hosts five down and 256 behind.However, Dane Cleaver (53) stitched crucial stands with Doug Bracewell (48) and Kyle Jamieson (30) to take them towards 350. When Cleaver holed out against Saini off a short ball on the off side, they were 346 for 8, but Seth Rance and Blair Tickner frustrated India further with an unbeaten stand of 83 for the last wicket. Rance was unbeaten on 69 off 57 with four fours and as many sixes, and Tickner was on 30* when they declared. K Gowtham chipped in with three wickets but conceded 107 runs in his 42 overs.

England’s preparations for the Test series against Sri Lanka have been further hit by rain.Plans for a two-day warm-up game against a Sri Lanka Board team starting on Thursday had to be abandoned after storms in Colombo overnight. The teams hope to play a 50-over a side game starting at 9.30am on Friday instead.Even if that game goes ahead – there has been only one day’s play on the entire tour that has been unaffected by rain and the forecast is not encouraging – it seems England will go into the first Test in Galle next week underprepared. In terms of red-ball cricket, they have had just two days’ play so far with several players – notably Keaton Jennings and Joe Denly – missing out on the chance to bat or bowl for a long period of time.Of more concern, perhaps, is the fact that neither Olly Stone or Jack Leach played any part in that first warm-up match. If England are serious about trying a different formula in an attempt to improve their overseas results – they have lost their last three overseas series and 10 of their last 13 Tests with the other three drawn – both men are the sort of cricketers who should be considered. Stone offers the prospect of the pace that England so clearly lacked in the Ashes, while Leach could fulfil the role of third frontline spinner in the England attack.England’s predicament is likely to renew criticism both of the timing of the tour – which is during a period when heavy rain is usual in Sri Lanka – and its schedule. While such itineraries are a feature of most modern tours – India left themselves similarly underprepared heading into the Test series in England earlier in the year – they do nothing to alter the dominance of home teams. Long-term, you wonder if they are helping Test cricket.On a more short-term basis, England might also regret the decision not to field Leach in the first two-day warm-up game. If he is a serious option for the Test series – and he really should be – it would have made sense to take every opportunity to play him. England were not limited to 11 players in the match, after all – 13 of them had a go at one stage or another – and this was a predictable problem. As Joe Root had said the day before the game: “With the weather around, you don’t know when the next opportunity is going to come your way.”But instead of giving him a bowl, they provided game-time to four seamers and then allowed the second new ball to be taken by Denly and Adil Rashid. Root and Denly bowled 14.5 overs between them; overs which could have been bowled by Leach.Leach admitted he had “itchy feet” in his desire to play and replied to a question asking if he could play in Galle without any cricket in the warm-up games by saying he would “give it my best shot”.”If there’s rain about it’s about going to Galle, having two days of prep there and putting your name in the hat through nets,” he told the BBC. “Whatever happens I’ll give it my best shot.”This episode threatens to sustain a long run of poor fortune when it comes to Leach and England. First, he was found to have an illegal bowling action just as he had forced himself to the brink of selection – at the end of 2016 – before Mason Crane was somewhat controversially selected ahead of him for the Ashes tour at the end of the following year. Crane, it is understood, was the choice of the captain and coach while at least some of the selectors wanted Leach. As it was, Moeen Ali was obliged to play for most of the series when not fully fit and suffered as a consequence.Then, after Leach made his Test debut in New Zealand at the start of 2018, it appeared he was on the brink of a run in the side. Instead he suffered a broken thumb and then a concussion injury (he was hit on the head by a short ball from Morne Morkel) and was left out of the team for the Pakistan series as the selectors felt – not unreasonably – that he lacked sufficient bowling.He has, at least, had time to bowl in the nets on this tour. But if he does play in this series, he will have to do so without sufficient game time.

Spin, pace and sagacious batting took Bangladesh to a five-wicket win over West Indies in the first ODI in Dhaka. The only plan the visiting side seemed to have when defending a below-par 195 for 9 was to blow the home batsmen away with pace. But that wasn’t a very useful ploy on a slow and low pitch.After Mashrafe Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman took three wickets each to restrict West Indies, Mushfiqur Rahim’s unbeaten 55 ensured victory with 14.5 overs to spare.Mushfiqur, who came in to bat after two quick wickets, struck five fours in his 70-ball stay. He let Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan dictate their partnerships with him. He relied on reverse sweeps for early boundaries before getting two past both sides of the wicketkeeper and one through the covers.Bangladesh’s reply had started nervously when Liton, batting on five, flicked Kemar Roach right down deep square-leg’s throat in the seventh over. But after several replays, it was ascertained that Roach had overstepped.Liton responded by sweeping Roston Chase for two fours but then saw Tamim Iqbal fall to the same bowler later in the over, caught at cover. Imrul Kayes, whose previous ODI series fetched 349 runs, fell second ball to Oshane Thomas who blazed an inswinger through his bat and pad.Liton took a step back but soon after the first Powerplay, he struck fours with a square-cut, a cover drive and a deliberate outside edge. He added 47 runs for the third wicket with Mushfiqur before missing a hoick off Keemo Paul, throwing away a good start after having worked hard for his 41. He had struck five fours in his 57-ball stay.Mushfiqur then added 57 for the fourth wicket with Shakib, who struck four boundaries in his 26-ball 30. After hammering Paul for a pulled four, Shakib struck the pace bowler for consecutive fours through cover and mid-on with easy drives. However, he was caught behind trying to blast Rovman Powell back over his head.Soumya Sarkar, batting at No. 6 for a change, entertained with two upper-cuts off Thomas for a four and a six, but fell to Chase in the next over with 21 runs needed for victory.West Indies were earlier tied down by Mortaza, who was playing his 200th ODI, and Mustafizur. Mortaza removed Darren Bravo, who made a laboured 19 off 51 balls upon his return to ODIs after more than two years. Bravo had enjoyed reprieves on 13, with substitute Ariful Haque shelling a chance at point, and on 18, with Mushfiqur failing to hold on to one to his left. When he eventually fell, it was to a spectacular catch by Tamim, who dived full-length forward while running in from long-off.Mortaza then had Shai Hope, who top-scored with 43 off 59 balls, caught at point before removing his opposite number Rovman Powell, caught at mid-off.Mustafizur was excellent in the last five overs, breaking a sprightly 51-run stand for the seventh wicket when he had Chase skying to point in the 48th over. Paul, who struck two big sixes and a four in his 28-ball 36, also fell to Mustafizur in the last over, before the seamer had Devendra Bishoo caught and bowled one ball later. The partnership between Chase and Paul was the only time West Indies had a measure of dominance with the bat, and played a role in getting them towards 200.Bangladesh had strangled West Indies initially with spin, when Shakib and Mehidy Hasan Miraz limited the strokeplay of Kieran Powell and Hope. Almost everything worked in Bangladesh’s favour in the game, culminating in one of their easier wins over West Indies.