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Kevin Pietersen looked to play down the significance of his side’s loss in their second and final warm-up match in Mumbai, insisting his players were “all right” after the 124-run defeat.”I think the guys are all right, we just need to turn our heads on now and make sure we start on Friday,” he said. “Today and what happened the other day doesn’t really count in the grand scheme of things. What counts is the internationals.”This really doesn’t matter, but it has taught us a few quick lessons.”England, chasing 233, lost five wickets inside 12 overs, a performance in marked contrast to their impressive display in the first warm-up match on Sunday. Graeme Swann top-scored with 24 in today’s 124-run defeat, while James Anderson cracked 20, but none of their top-order reached double figures.”The opposition wasn’t spectacular the other day and it was better today so we’ve just got to turn our games on and get our heads right,” Pietersen said. “The boys had a long journey to India and we’ve settled in nicely now so it’s just a case of getting our heads on.”I’m not sure if we were fully focused but this is a really good lesson, I don’t see this is a bad thing at all.”It’s just a case of learning from today and at the end of the tour no one really remembers what happened today or the other day, what counts is what happens on Friday.”England travel to Rajkot tomorrow evening and have a day of practice before the series-opener on Friday. A set of mixed results in the two games so far has left them with more room for improvement. There are already some injury concerns especially to their fast bowlers, with Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad both unavailable for today’s game.”We will come back hard on Friday,” Pietersen said. “There is no doubt about that.”

John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach, has hailed the team’s three-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the first Test in Chittagong as “one of the great character wins”. New Zealand chased down a target of 317, their second-highest fourth-innings pursuit and the biggest away from home, but they were almost embarrassed by the lowest-ranked Test team.”Given the position we were in, it’s one of the great character wins,” he said. “The way the guys assessed the run-chase and applied themselves, the way they changed their technique, which was foreign to them, I couldn’t heap enough praise on them.”Bracewell said the heat had affected the players, some more than others, but he was impressed with the professional attitude they had displayed. “If we’re going to be living in the subcontinent in the next few years, we’ve got to face reality and learn to adapt and pace ourselves in the right way,” he said. “It was a dramatic turnaround [from] the first to the second innings. Now we need to make sure that character turns into consistency.”He said the team was inexperienced, but he was pleased with the contributions of Aaron Redmond, the debutant Jesse Ryder and Daniel Flynn with the bat. “It’s a very young batting line-up and the more we can squeeze into them, the better,” he said. “We’ve been working on how to play over here but it’s seldom in your Test career out of New Zealand that you’re facing spin within the first ten overs of a Test match.”That took its toll but the players’ ability to adapt and change in a quick turnaround is testament to their commitment and their ability. The way the two of them [Redmond and Flynn] showed great adaptability to the conditions, that’s not always the case with New Zealanders [in the subcontinent].”They stubbornly go with what they know, but they put away some of their shots and reapplied their strategies to get through this game. And once Jesse got through the shock of facing spin in his first Test, he too looked comfortable in the environment.”Bracewell was all praise for Daniel Vettori but was not sure if the captain could repeatedly come up a performance like in Chittagong – he scored 55 and 76 and finished with nine wickets to win the Man-of-the-Match award. “He needs more support and it’s something we’re working through, getting experience into the other bowlers, trying to build their skills.”Bracewell was unsure of how the defeat in the first Test might affect Bangladesh spirits. “They may have seen it as an opportunity lost, not an opportunity that’s going to destroy them. They may say ‘we’re getting close’ and take the optimistic line.”New Zealand head to Dhaka for the second Test, which begins on Saturday, with a 1-0 lead.

Jason Gillespie has said that he has no regrets about retiring from first-class cricket following his final match for Glamorgan last week. Gillespie had already stood down from South Australia during 2007-08 and his only future involvement on the field is likely to be in amateur club games and in the ICL.”I can’t imagine playing any more – I’m done,” Gillespie told the . “The time is right, so I am feeling comfortable with it. To know I won’t be walking out with my team and bowling with the red ball again, yeah, there is a tinge of sadness, but I know it is the right time. I’m happy how it has ended, there’s no point having any regrets.”Gillespie finished with 189 first-class appearances during which he collected 613 wickets at 26.98 and he also scored 3742 runs at 19.59. He said there were several highlights during his 14-year first-class career, not all of which came during his 71 Tests.”I was lucky enough to be involved in winning Ashes squads a few times, which was great,” he said. “Winning in India for the first time in 35 years was a big thrill and beating Sri Lanka 3-0 over there was a massive series.”Winning Test matches generally is always a highlight and I enjoyed winning the Sheffield Shield with South Australia in 1995-96 because that was a big thing for our state. Ultimately, winning cricket matches is what we play the game for.”Gillespie, 33, said he was keen to spend more time with his wife, his 13-year-old daughter and two sons. He will have to wait for that opportunity as he is set to line up for the Ahmedabad Rockets when the ICL kicks off next week.

Matthew Mott, the New South Wales coach, has made the initial cut for John Bracewell’s New Zealand job and will be interviewed over the next couple of weeks. Mott was asked to apply for the post, which becomes available in April, and has made a list that is believed to include Graham Ford, formerly of South Africa but now at Kent.”I was flattered to get asked and the thought of an international job is very exciting,” Mott said. “There’s a fair bit to think about before the job becomes available. I’ve got to fulfil a contract here at New South Wales – it ends at the end of the season – and that’s my first priority.”The whittling down of a group Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, said included up to 20 serious candidates has only just began, but if they were to go with Mott it would result in a significantly different outlook to the 50-year-old Bracewell. Currently 34, Mott would be the same age as some of the players.The issue has not created concerns at New South Wales and he steered the side to the Pura Cup in his first season in the head job. “I’ve found it a good thing,” he said. “At New South Wales I hadn’t played with the guys so it was a new playing group. Being around their age I could relate to them and understand how things worked with the contract system and the structures.” Despite his empathy, he maintains he is capable of making unpopular decisions.Mott was appointed to the Blues in 2007 when Trevor Bayliss left to take up the Sri Lanka position and he was due to be an assistant with the Australia team on their tours to Pakistan earlier this year. When the trip was cancelled he joined John Buchanan, a former mentor at Queensland, at the Kolkata Knight Riders, where he linked up with the New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum.”It’s an exciting time for New Zealand,” Mott said. “They’ve got a good bunch of senior players as well as younger guys coming through.”A steady top-order batsman, Mott started his career in Queensland before switching to Victoria, playing a total of 66 first-class games and scoring 3723 runs. He retired early and one of his first coaching jobs was as an assistant with the Australia Under-19 World Cup squad. He also spent a season as player-coach of the New South Wales 2nd XI under the eye of Bayliss.Another of Mott’s former bosses is Ford and the pair worked together when Mott travelled to Kent for an off-season. Now the men are expected to be pushing for the same role. “Graham was an outstanding operator,” Mott said, “and a fantastic coach.” Bracewell will return to Gloucestershire, the team he left in 2003 to take up the New Zealand role, when his contract expires.

The waiting for an official word on whether to tour Pakistan for the Champions Trophy next month is nagging at Stuart Clark, the Australia fast bowler. David Richardson, the ICC general manager of cricket, will lead a delegation in Australia on Friday that will try to convince the players and officials to take part in the tournament. A similar exercise was completed in New Zealand on Thursday.However, Clark said he wished a decision had been made two weeks ago. “At least there would be closure,” he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. “You hear about Australia closing its embassies in Pakistan, what are you supposed to think? And the back-up country has its own problems.”If the Champions Trophy, which is due to start on September 12, is not held in Pakistan it could be staged in Sri Lanka, which is also a place of risk for travellers, according to the Australian government’s advice. There have been bomb blasts in Pakistan this week and the Herald Sun reported warnings of more suicide attacks in the cities of Lahore and Karachi, which will host all the Champions Trophy matches.Clark says he can’t make a decision until he hears from Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association. “Once again I’m going to have to look at that report and see what it says,” he told AAP. “I can’t commit either way at the moment.”If we do go it’ll be on the basis of that all has been taken care of and that unease factor will hopefully be removed. There’s obviously something going on although I’m only hearing it second hand.”Clark, who visited the country on Australia A duty in 2005, said if the tournament was cancelled he hoped it would not mean a long break for tours to Pakistan. “It’s very important that that part of the world keeps playing cricket,” he said.”Obviously those countries are struggling, but if it doesn’t happen I hope they do whatever they need to rectify the situation.” Australia have not visited Pakistan since 1998, playing the 2002-03 series in Sharjah and Sri Lanka, and postponing the Test and one-day contests which were due to occur last March and April.

On a night where most batters struggled on a much slower and trickier wicket in Abu Dhabi, Johnson Charles and Hazratullah Zazai of the Bangla Tigers made it look like they were playing on a different surface to the rest.Tasked with chasing 91 to beat Chennai Braves, Charles, promoted to open after struggling lower down the order, blasted 36 off 12 balls including five sixes, alongside Zazai who smashed 34 not out off the nine deliveries he faced, in a quite brutal display of T10 hitting.The batting blitzkrieg from the pair ensured that they made light work of the challenge in front of them, before Will Jacks carried on from where he left off on Sunday night to finish the job. It took the Tigers just 26 balls to reach their target.Related

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It was an emphatic hammering that leaves Braves rooted at the bottom of the table of the Abu Dhabi T10, alongside Northern Warriors, as the two teams who are yet to win a game.After Deccan Gladiators had earlier got off to a nervy start in their chase of just 71 against Northern Warriors, before David Wiese rescued them with 27 off nine, Tigers might have gone in at the interval with an element of doubt.That was despite an exceptional effort with the ball and in the field as they restricted Braves to a meagre total of 90 for 6 off their ten overs.Any such doubt was thrashed away as the man from St Lucia hit Munaf Patel for three huge sixes in the first over of the run chase and when Zazai thumped Curtis Campher for 26 off the second over, the game was as good as done. At 46 without loss after two overs, it was a matter of time.Young Welshman Roman Walker, a former England Under-19s seamer, was welcomed into the attack by getting sent over deep midwicket by Charles and despite the West Indian being dismissed by his countryman, Mark Deyal, the Tigers rampaged on.Jacks, fresh from his stunning unbeaten 57 not out against Northern Warriors, got going with consecutive boundaries off Deyal, before dancing down the pitch to tonk the offspinner over long-on.And it was left for Zazai to seal Tigers’ second victory, after starting their campaign with two defeats, by heaving Tion Webster over long-on for six more.Remarkably, 82 of the 91 runs came via boundaries and that clear focus was something that Charles elaborated on.”If it’s raining sixes, you don’t need to run… I was feeling great actually,” he said. “With these small totals, you really don’t want to mess around. You just want to get on with it and get it out of the way as soon as possible. In T10, there’s really no time to pick which bowler you’re going to go after, so you’ve gotta go.”He joked after that much of his conversation with Zazai was a fairly simple one: “You stay over there and I’ll stay over here. Let’s just keep hitting them.”For skipper Faf du Plessis, a man renowned for sending the ball to all parts, it was pleasing to know that he wasn’t required with the bat.”When the guys are striking the ball like that, it’s very nice to be on the side,” du Plessis said.For Tigers, the arrival of Mohammed Amir after recovering from Covid-19 will add another left-armer to their pace attack, alongside James Faulkner, Isuru Udana and Luke Wood, and there is little doubt that the quality and experience of Amir will have an important role to play over the coming week if they are to progress to the play-offs.Another left-armer, Tymal Mills is also back and firing after suffering a tournament-ending injury at the T20 World Cup. Mills stayed on in the UAE to support the England side and do his rehab with the England setup to get himself fit and ready for the Abu Dhabi T10.On his return to action, he picked up the prized scalp of his England captain Eoin Morgan and here he dismissed the Warriors skipper and top-scorer of the competition thus far, Rovman Powell.”It wasn’t a bad injury, I knew it would just be a couple of weeks but it was very frustrating to miss the back end of the World Cup,” Mills said. “I’m still easing my way into it, getting the confidence back and it’s nice to be able to contribute to a few wins.”

Oman captain Zeeshan Maqsood said that had Jatinder Singh’s sweep shot, at the end of the 13th over, gone to a slightly different direction, they were genuine contenders to upset Bangladesh. Instead Liton Das took the easy catch, giving Bangladesh the advantage of having two new batters at the crease.Bangladesh bowled better in the last seven overs, rounding up the game by 26 runs, and keeping themselves alive in the T20 World Cup. Oman, too, are in contention for a Super 12s spot, but their last match against Scotland on Thursday is now a knockout game (if Bangladesh beat Papua New Guinea in the earlier match).”We were in the game till the 14th over,” Maqsood said. “I am happy the way we put up a fight. Bangladesh were under pressure. They knew if we had one or two 15-plus overs, the game was ours. But we didn’t bat well in the last five or six overs. We lost a lot of wickets. I am happy with the way the bowlers did. We restricted them to 153. We have to improve [our] fielding. We didn’t field well in the first ten overs, for the second time in a row.”Jatinder, who made 40 to follow up his half-century against PNG, kept Oman in the hunt chasing 154. He struck the ball sweetly, especially against pace, but was equally adept against spin. Maqsood rued his dismissal, but said that he can’t be blamed for the shot.”Jatinder was batting very well against the likes of Shakib. He found the fielder in the deep unfortunately. It happens. We can’t say anything to the players. They are trying their best for the team,” he said.Maqsood said that Jatinder got into great form in the last 18 months, although he is the sort of character who doesn’t get fussed by low scores as well. “Jatinder is in good nick. He batted very well in the last game (against PNG) also. We fully back him to play the way he is playing right now. We are happy to see how he is batting against a Test side.”He is a very positive player. He improved in the last one and a half year. Credit goes to him and the coaches. He is getting the reward of his hard work. Jatin is a naughty person. Always happy. Even when he doesn’t get runs, he is not too worried. We help each other in the team,” he said.Maqsood was hopeful that they can overcome Scotland on Thursday, especially after running Bangladesh close in their second game.”It is a do-or-die game. We have a bit of an advantage on home soil. The way we played today as well, we are fully confident. We have to play positive cricket to beat Scotland, but it won’t be easy. They are playing well also.”Qualifying (to the Super 12s) will be a huge achievement for Oman. The group is open, but the net run rate margin is very little between the three sides. We will go through if we win the game,” he said.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched its own investigation into the corruption allegations emanating from the 2017 PSL. The country’s interior ministry also put four players provisionally suspended by the PCB in relation to the case – Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan and Shahzaib Hasan – on an exit control list, preventing them from leaving Pakistan.Nasir Jamshed, the fifth provisionally suspended player, is based in England and his lawyer informed the PCB of Jamshed’s inability to travel to Lahore. Jamshed had been arrested in the UK as part of the PSL corruption case but was released on bail. The FIA has no treaty with England that allows it to bring Jamshed back to Pakistan for investigation.Latif and Irfan had appeared at the Lahore office of the FIA on Monday in response to a summons from the agency, which said a “enquiry has been registered on the complaint of Subhan Ahmed, Chief Operating Officer PCB” and their presence was required.The PCB, however, distanced themselves from the FIA’s inquiry and ESPNcricinfo understands the board had only written to the FIA requesting assistance in obtaining forensic information from mobile phones in connection to the PSL case.”No complaint has been made by PCB to FIA to launch an investigation into players’ conduct”, Ahmed told ESPNcricinfo. “We have simply asked FIA to certify the authenticity of the data in players’ mobile phones in PCB’s possession for submission to anti-corruption tribunal as evidence”.The PCB had formed a three-member tribunal headed by justice Asghar Haider (retired), and including former PCB chairman Tauqir Zia and former wicketkeeper Wasim Bari to hear the cases of Sharjeel and Latif, who had contested some of the charges against them. The hearing was set for March 24. Irfan and Shahzaib had not yet responded to the charge sheet.

Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Perera said that a renewed determination to bat through the innings enabled him return to form with a match-winning 77 from 53 balls in his side’s six-wicket win over Bangladesh on Tuesday at Khettarama.Having suffered a lean run of scores on the tour of Zimbabwe last year, and then having failed somewhat spectacularly in the Boxing Day Test in Port Elizabeth, Kusal was dropped from all of Sri Lanka’s squads. Kusal had also managed only 30 runs from six first-class innings upon his return to Sri Lanka.He found his feet again in the Sri Lanka A team, playing unofficial one-dayers against the touring England Lions. In that series he hit 59 and an unbeaten 70, scoring at well below a run-a-ball in both instances. His 77 at Khettarama was also as notable for his restraint as it was for his hitting. He took four overs to work himself into the innings, and at first, attacked only the deliveries in his strongest hitting zones.”I failed in the four-day matches after I came back, and I wasn’t prepared for them also,” Kusal said. “Sometimes you have to be prepared to fail. I realised I got a lot of starts but wasn’t finishing things off. Getting those 20s and 30s are of no use either to me, or the team. So I strove to bat till the end. When the loose ball comes I am anyway waiting to hit it, but recently I tried to bat long, and that’s what’s helped me.”An injury to Niroshan Dickwella, and Dinesh Chandimal’s continued absence in the T20 squads had meant that Kusal was virtually guaranteed to play this match. However, he did have to beat out competition for the opening position – there are four career openers in this squad. As it turned out, Kusal opened the batting with Upul Tharanga, but said a stable place in the XI was not among his motivations during this innings.”I don’t want to think about holding on to my place while I play,” Kusal said. “Any player can be dropped at any time, and that’s part of the game. If you’re constantly thinking about that possibility, you won’t be able to get far. What’s important is making the most of the opportunity you get, to do something for the team.”

New Zealand’s bruised top order will welcome back Martin Guptill for their must-win fourth ODI in Hamilton and are set to hand Luke Ronchi the wicketkeeping duties ahead of Tom Latham.The coach Mike Hesson did not confirm whether Latham would retain a spot as a batsman, but the hints were that he could be dropped after a run of six single-figure scores in a row including three ducks. Dean Brownlie, who was Guptill’s replacement, has retained his place in the squad which is just for the Hamilton match.”We talked at the start of the series about giving both keepers an opportunity. Tom has had the first three, so Luke is likely to have an opportunity there,” Hesson said. “We are delighted to have Martin back and that allows us to do that a lot easier.”Hesson indicated that a decision over Latham would not purely be taken with the thought of giving him a short break before the Test series even though he is a key plank of that top order.

New Zealand squad for fourth ODI

Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Neil Broom, Dean Brownlie, Lockie Ferguson , Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, James Neesham, Jeetan Patel, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor

“I don’t think anything is more important than anything else, the ODI series is huge for us,” he said in reference to whether the Tests were a priority. “Tom has struggled the last little while, he came off a great series in India, and has come home and hasn’t quite reached those heights yet.”Guptill has recovered from his dual hamstring injuries and his is a timely return after New Zealand were skittled for 112 in Wellington. Hesson called the performance “out of the box” and said the team had to readjust quickly to stay in the series.Guptill averages 42.52 from 141 ODIs and though he hasn’t batted in the middle for almost a month, he has been able to net regularly during his recovery.”He’s been batting all the way through, it was more about strength in the hamstring when running at top speed,” Hesson said. “Sure, you haven’t played in the middle so it will be challenging but he’s a world-class player and pleased to have him back.”A return for Ronchi will mean juggling elsewhere with him needing to fit into the middle order which could make Neil Broom vulnerable unless New Zealand ditch one of their allrounders.The offspinner Jeetan Patel has also been added to the squad after the considerable assistance that was on offer in the opening game of the series. Kane Williamson expects a different surface this time, with better weather in the build-up but Patel, who played his first ODI in seven years against Bangladesh in Nelson on New Years Eve, provides a specialist bowler who can spin the ball away from the left handers.However, it could be that Williamson is entrusted with a greater bowler role in the fourth ODI. “With Kane bowling, depending on conditions, he’s very much a sixth option and Hamilton is probably those conditions,” Hesson said. “Whether we go with the two allrounders, or slot Luke in a little higher we have options.”Hesson termed the challenge of winning back-to-back games against the world’s No. 1 team “exciting, really exciting” as they look to maintain an unbeaten home record in ODI series which dates back eight bilateral contests to January 2015. The last side to beat them on their own patch was South Africa in late 2014.