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Darren Sammy, the Peshawar Zalmi captain, was one of nine overseas players who travelled to Lahore for the PSL final despite the security threat and his reason for doing so was to “bring back the smiles” on the faces of the fans.Pakistan has hosted only one series of international cricket since the 2009 attacks on the Sri Lanka team and even then there had been the issue of a bombing on the edge of the security perimeter. Moreover, leading up to Sunday’s match, there had been worrisome incidents across the country, including one in Lahore’s own Defence Housing Authority. A blast had killed at least 10 people and left a dozen injured.Pakistan did their best to mitigate the situation. The government’s paramilitary force was deployed at Gaddafi stadium and the Rangers only made up one part of at least 10,000 security personal, which also included the Punjab police.Sammy was one of four first-choice overseas players for Peshawar to still make the trip, along with West Indies team-mate Marlon Samuels and England’s Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan.Quetta, however, lost a major part of the reason they made the final in the first place, when Kevin Pietersen, Tymal Mills, Rilee Rossouw, Luke Wright and Nathan McCullum had pulled out of the match. They had to make do with last-minute changes, bringing in Bangladesh’s Anamul Haque, South Africa’s Morne van Wyk, Zimbabwe’s Sean Ervine and West Indies’ Rayad Emrit.The final was played with more than 22,000 people in attendance, who had assembled outside the ground in the afternoon in order to get through three layers of security before reaching their seats. And with Shahid Afridi out injured, Sammy was the one they cheered for the most.”To me it was more than just a game,” he said after Peshawar won the second edition of the PSL. “It started with the draft. Lala [Afridi] made the big announcement that I would be the captain and one of our mottos was to bring back the smiles so I felt tonight I brought a lot of smiles in Lahore and Peshawar. It is an amazing day and this trophy means a lot.”The Federation of International Cricketers’ Association, in January, had warned that safety for the PSL final in Lahore could not be guaranteed and it wasn’t until 24 hours before the match that the foreign players taking part in it were confirmed.”When you have not been in a place you always have your doubts,” Sammy said. “You get different views, different opinions. But I spoke to Javed [Afridi, the Peshawar team owner] and Shahid Afridi and they influenced my decision to come here. All the boys just made the decision that we are part of something that we are coming down here for a good cause. The fans here deserve to see their players playing as they haven’t seen it for quite a while. I am glad I came here.”I have enjoyed playing a cricket match [in Lahore] and I have even enjoyed being with the security guys as I have never seen something like this before so it was a good experience. It is hopefully a step in the right direction, where things could happen. What I can say is that being here felt like playing in St Lucia, playing in India or anywhere else in the world. And like I said at the toss, today I felt cricket was the winner.”The PCB had invited security advisors from the ICC and its member countries to watch the PSL final. Reports suggest they are keen to invite Bangladesh to tour Pakistan sometime in the future.

When we speak of cricketers putting out fires, it’s usually in the context of a batsman playing a rearguard innings. Not so in the case of the New Zealand fast bowler Seth Rance, who is a literal firefighter.On Monday, Rance, who is a station officer with the Greytown Fire Brigade, helped extinguish a blaze that threatened to engulf the White Swan Hotel, a pub in the rural town of Greytown in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand. Crews from across Wairarapa, with Rance among them, arrived on the scene after the pub’s roof caught fire.”The origin of the fire was in the southern end of the building,” Rance told reporters. “There’s a little bit of structural and water damage but it appears to have been caught in time. It’s fortunate we got the call nice and early.”Rance, who has played two ODIs and four T20Is since his international debut last year, isn’t the first New Zealand quick with a day job in the uniformed services – Shane Bond also had a parallel career as a policeman.

ScorecardSouth Australian left-arm paceman Nick Winter claimed his second five-wicket haul in just his second match to help restrict New South Wales to a modest day-one total at the SCG.Winter, who took 5 for 85 on debut against Victoria last week, ripped the heart out of an experienced Blues middle order, with the home side threatening to build a huge platform.Daniel Hughes and Kurtis Patterson put together a 117-run stand to move the total to 2 for 183 after the Blues had won the toss. But Hughes fell seven short of a century to the part-time spin of Tom Cooper.Winter removed Moises Henriques shortly after, and the Blues lost their last eight wickets for just 73 runs to give the Redbacks the upper hand.

Vernon Philander could find himself in contention to play in the Champions Trophy as South Africa continue to search for a new-ball partner for Kagiso Rabada. They have been trialling Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius and Chris Morris, after Kyle Abbott signed a Kolpak deal and ended his international career, but bowling coach Charl Langeveldt admitted they have not got it quite right at the start of the innings and need a quick fix.”It’s going to be a big concern in England where you need to take wickets up front,” Langeveldt said. “We always say if we get a team three down early, we’ve got a good chance of winning the game so we’re trying a few things but we are still at the stage where we are finding who is going to be the opening partner to ‘KG’. In English conditions, if it’s overcast, Vernon would be the perfect guy to play. He fits our mould if we are looking for a guy with a new ball that can bowl you five overs up front. We are looking at all possibilities.”Philander last played an ODI in August 2015, five months after he was at the centre of an episode that derailed South African cricket for a summer. At the 2015 World Cup, Philander, who had struggled with a hamstring injury for parts of the tournament, was recalled for the semi-final in place of an in-form Abbott after consultations with CSA’s chief executive, Haroon Lorgat. It took months for CSA to admit that the talks took place and Philander’s inclusion came after the selectors were reminded to pick the team with transformation guidelines in mind.Abbott has since revealed he considered quitting South African cricket in the immediate aftermath but gave himself another two years to see if he would find a more regular spot. He had just done that – after injuries to Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel – when it was revealed he had put pen to paper for Hampshire months before. South Africa’s coach Russell Domingo said Abbott’s departure came at a particularly bad time for the team, because Abbott was the leading contender to open the bowling at the Champions Trophy.Now, it seems South Africa may go back to Philander, although not for the upcoming series against New Zealand. Philander is nursing a slight ankle impingement and, having torn ligaments in the same place in November 2015, he has been prescribed some time off in order to be ready for the Test series in New Zealand in March. He will also have a break afterwards before beginning a county stint at Sussex in preparation for the four Tests in England but could be called on for ODI duty as well.South Africa may also consider injured young quick Lungi Ngidi, who will not make the New Zealand series because of a hip problem but should recover in time to play the domestic one-day cup and prove his worth. Langeveldt all but ruled out looking any further as he explained why neither new Test cap Duanne Olivier nor his Knights team-mate Marchant de Lange will be considered at this stage.”Duanne is an excellent bowler,” Langeveldt said. “He swings the ball and gets reward but I looked at his stats and he struggles with the white ball. It’s a concern, especially in the first ten and then at the back end, he is not as good. He bowl quickly but we are looking for a guy that can mix it up, bowl slower balls and stuff like that.”Olivier has played 24 List A matches and taken 29 wickets at 24.86, while de Lange has 97 scalps at 22.91 from 50 appearances but has fallen down the queue.”Marchant has always been a strike bowler but I think he is way down in the pecking order. I don’t think he will be considered for the Champions Trophy,” Langeveldt said.The other option, of course, is to ask the incumbents to step up and there is some evidence that they can. Rabada and Parnell conceded 37 for 2 in the first ten overs of the first ODI against Sri Lanka before Morris and Parnell went for 56 runs and picked up two wickets in the second. Things only became more difficult from the third match when Rabada and Morris opened, with Pretorius at first change, as Sri Lanka put on 54 without loss. Then, in Cape Town, Sri Lanka’s openers raced to 100 without loss as South Africa used six different bowlers in the opening Powerplay. They won all four matches against a struggling opponent but Langeveldt is still looking for improvement.”In the first ten overs, we haven’t been up to standard,” he said. “I am very hard on that. I will give us a five [out of ten]. Coming back, we’ve showed a lot of character, especially Wayne Parnell. He bowled really good areas and he took wickets. I’d give us a seven there. Before you go to a championship, you want to be at eight or nine because the bowlers win you games.”Whether South Africa improve their score or not, they have an excellent chance of reaching the tournament as the top ranked ODI side. They are a win away from overtaking Australia and then take on third-placed New Zealand in a five-match series before three ODIs in England in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy. “We want to go into a big tournament being No. 1 in the world so we are always talking about it. The captain always says if you go in a tournament you want to be No. 1,” Langeveldt said.

Niroshan Dickwella has played more Tests, but during the 121-run stand that turned the match, it was Asela Gunaratne who found himself constantly pestered for advice. Sri Lanka had been five-down and 185 runs short of their target when the two came together. Dickwella played aggressively through the partnership, and helped ensure some of the pressure Zimbabwe had exerted, was reversed.”Since he came to the crease, what Dickwella told me was: ‘Talk to me all the time, and make me score runs.'” Gunaratne said. “I think what he meant was that he hasn’t scored a big Test innings, where I have. He just wanted me to tell him how to handle situations. Sometimes when the game was going a certain way, he wanted me to keep advising him. Occasionally I’d tell him not to go for certain shots. In the end, he stuck around and scored.”Gunaratne’s own hand in the victory had been a little more measured than Dickwella’s. At the crease when the winning runs were hit, Gunaratne compiled a sensible 80, despite having suffered a mild hamstring injury earlier in the match. Captain Dinesh Chandimal revealed he had expected Gunaratne to play a major role, at the start of the day.”I told Asela this morning: ‘You’re going to get a hundred today’.” Chandimal said. “But very confidently, Asela said to me: ‘No Chandi, there won’t be need for me to get a 100. I’ll get 70 and win the game.’ That’s the kind of faith I expect from my players. There’s a chance he might not have been able to do that today, but the way he spoke, even I became confident as a captain that we could win this match. I’m really happy I have players like that.”Though Chandimal himself had been out for 15 on the fourth evening, he said it was important to him that his middle order batted with freedom. Of the three Sri Lanka players to make fifties, two – Dickwella and Kusal Mendis – batted at a strike rate of around 70 for much of their innings (though they would both slow slightly in the approach to their dismissals).”When it came time for us to bat yesterday, most of what we talked about was playing your own game as batsmen,” Chandimal said. “We knew that it was tough for us to bat out the time and draw the match. If we tried that, it was likely we’d lose. So we said: ‘play your own game’.””As a captain I told them that I’d take the responsibility for any mistakes, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Kusal, Dimuth Karunaratne and Upul Tharanga played well. Then at the end, Asela and Dickwella were excellent.”Dickwella and Mendis had also perished playing aggressive strokes: Mendis a sweep and Dickwella a reverse-sweep. Chandimal, however, refused to characterise those dismissals as wasteful.”We’ve played on these kinds of pitches before in Sri Lanka, and in India and Bangladesh. On these pitches, it’s with sweeps and reverse-sweeps that we can score runs. There’s a risk in that, but if we are chasing scores, we have to play those shots. At training we had practiced those things, and they bore results today.”

Bangladesh’s batsmen, led by Mushfiqur Rahim, have had their moments, but the bowlers have underwhelmed. So said stand-in coach Courtney Walsh on the eve of his side’s must-win encounter against Sri Lanka. In their previous match, Bangladesh had conceded 79 runs in a definitive six-over period against India. Even in the game they won, they conceded 214.There has been one bright spark in their attack, however, and this time it is not the young left-armer with the magic wrists. It is Rubel Hossain who has been Bangladesh’s best, maintaining an economy of 8.22 in three matches. Along the way, he has picked up four wickets. One of those was the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, who was bowled by perhaps the ball of the tournament so far: a late-swinging, yorker that zipped past Dhawan’s outside edge and flattened middle stump.”Rubel has been very consistent,” Walsh said. “If the other guys stepped up, it would give us a little more cushion. I would be lying if I said I thought we bowled well. We have bowled okay, but not as well as we can. The improvement is coming, but not as quickly as we would like. If we can put it all together, it will be a big plus for us in Friday’s game.””Spinners also have not been as spot-on as we like them to be. They have had good patches. But if everyone did their bit, it will give us a very good chance.”Among those who have under-performed at the Nidahas Trophy has been Mustafizur Rahman, whose 12 overs have gone at 9.75 runs apiece, though he has also taken four wickets in the competition. His cutters have been only sporadically effective on Khettarama decks that have atypically failed to reward revolutions on the ball.Friday’s virtual semi-final will be played on a fresh pitch, which means that seam and swing may be more reliable fast-bowling weapons than cutters. “Someone like Mustafizur Rahman having a good game will help us tremendously,” Walsh said. “I am hoping he can step up to the plate in this crucial game. I know he can. He had some fantastic games in PSL so it is a case of turning it around here. One game can make a difference. It could be his game, or another bowler’s game, but we’re hoping that he comes good.”The attack would appear to have been bolstered with news that Shakib Al Hasan is joining the team ahead of this game, but Walsh was reluctant to suggest Shakib is a certainty for the playing XI. Though he will be with the team in the approach to the game, Shakib is expected to take a fitness test for his injured finger that has kept him out since mid-January.”He is on his way. Like any other player he will be assessed. If he is fit, someone of his class and calibre will be considered to play.”

Pace bowler Boyd Rankin has been ruled out of Ireland’s two one-day internationals against England next month but Kevin O’Brien and Paul Stirling have recovered from their recent injuries.Rankin, who played one Test, seven ODIs and two T20Is for England between 2013 and 2014 before resuming his career with Ireland, is suffering from a back problem which kept him out of the recent matches against Afghanistan. Ireland will also be missing 21-year-old legspinner Jacob Mulder due to a back problem.

Ireland squad for England ODIs

William Porterfield (capt), Andrew Balbirnie, Peter Chase, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson, Craig Young

Kevin O’Brien injured his hamstring during the one-day series against Afghanistan but is now able to resume his spot in the middle order, while Stirling has recovered from a finger injury which kept him out of the Intercontinental Cup match against the same opponents.The series marks Ireland’s first one-day internationals on English soil, with matches at Bristol and Lord’s, and begins a busy month for Ireland who then take part in a tri-series involving Bangladesh and New Zealand in Dublin.”There’s no doubt that the games against England will be tough but we’ve got some hard cricket under our belts this past few months and that will stand us in good stead for the challenges that await,” Porterfield said. “We’re all determined to do well, and while we’ll certainly respect England, there’s absolutely no fear factor there.”

Prashant Chopra’s 271 not out on the first day equalled the highest individual score for Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy•Shailesh Bhatnagar

Prashant Chopra pummelled Punjab’s attack on the opening day the Group D match in Dharamsala, ending the day unbeaten on 271 off 289 balls in Himachal Pradesh’s 459 for 2.Chopra’s knock is second on the list of most runs scored by a batsman in a single day in the tournament’s history, after Bhausaheb Nimbalkar’s tally of 277 (he went from 24 not out to 301 not out), in his famous knock of 443 not out. Chopra’s double-hundred also equalled Himachal Pradesh’s highest scorer in the Ranji Trophy, a record previously held by Rajeev Nayyar, against Jammu & Kashmir in 1999.Chopra surpassed his previous first-class best of 237 on Friday, hitting 37 fours and one six in his innings. The Himachal opener was involved in two large stands: 187 for the second wicket with Sumeet Verma and an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 264 with Paras Dogra (99 not out). Sandeep Sharma, who took the first wicket for Punjab in the third over of the day after Himachal opted to bat, was the most economical bowler with returns of 1 for 76 in 18 overs.Bengal’s top order, led by No. 3 Sudip Chatterjee, set up a strong base against Services in Delhi, ending the first day at 341 for 3. Chatterjee was unbeaten on 114 – his ninth first-class century – having helped Bengal capitalize on a solid start after being put in to bat.The Bengal openers, Abhishek Raman and Abhimanyu Easwaran, put on a stand of 97, with Easwaran going on to make 65 before he became the second batsman to be dismissed. Chatterjee and Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary then utilized that base and added 153 runs for the third wicket, before Tiwary fell for 69.Wriddhiman Saha and Chatterjee saw the side until close of play with 63-run partnership. Chatterjee struck 11 fours in his 182-ball stay at the crease.
Mohammad Kaif’s unbeaten 49 helped Chhattisgarh arrest a minor slump and reach 189 for 5 against Goa in Porvorim. Chhattisgarh lost a wicket in the first over after choosing to bat first, but stabilized through a 72-run second-wicket partnership between Rishabh Tiwari and Abhimanyu Chauhan. However, the side then went on to lose four wickets for 51 runs, and were floundering at 123 for 5 before Kaif and wicketkeeper Manoj Singh took them closer to 200. The pair added 66 runs for the sixth wicket in a little over 28 overs before bad light forced an early end to the day. Goa left-arm spinner Darshan Misal took two wickets, and also ran out Chauhan for 37.

Sri Lanka have finally confirmed their interest in having Chandika Hathurusingha as head coach, with the president of the SLC Thilanga Sumathipala saying he would be “a great fit for us”.The position had fallen vacant in June earlier this year when Graham Ford resigned after a second stint that lasted a mere 15 months. The SLC elevated Nic Pothas as interim coach as it began to look for a suitable candidate.Hathurusingha has previously admitted to a desire to give back to Sri Lankan cricket but was contracted with the Bangladesh Cricket Board as their head coach. He might have occupied the post until the end of the 2019 World Cup, but in October, as Bangladesh were touring South Africa, Hathurusingha sent in his resignation to the BCB and cut all ties with the board.The SLC release states it is currently in discussion with Hathurusingha’s lawyers and is ready to “offer him the position” of head coach if he has been released from his contract with the BCB. To that end, Sumathipala has written to his counterpart Nazmul Hassan for further information.”There’s no doubt that Hathuru would be a great fit for us with the direction of both our short and long terms goals,” Sumathipala said. “I have written personally to the BCB President – Mr. Nazmul Hassan informing him of our intentions. The Executive Committee is both convinced & confident that he is the right man for the job, and we would like to bring him on board in a professional and transparent manner”If Hathurusingha is appointed Sri Lanka’s coach, his first assignment may well be against Bangladesh, whom they play in a tri-series also featuring with Zimbabwe in January 2018.

When most Bangladesh players got away from the game after the BPL in December, Mominul Haque sought technical corrections from his mentor Mohammad Salahuddin. The small change has made a big difference in Mominul’s approach against spinners, as he can now move forward and back more swiftly without being too predictable to the bowlers.The change in technique has so far contributed to three first-class centuries in the last three weeks, including the 176 against Sri Lanka. Salahuddin, who was Bangladesh’s assistant coach under Jamie Siddons, now coaches two top domestic teams but is better known as mentor to many Bangladesh players including Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mominul. His connection with Shakib, Mominul, Abdur Razzak and Nasir Hossain goes back to his days as BKSP’s chief cricket coach.Salahuddin said that Mominul’s change in technique was about the initial step he took against spinners which limited his options against the fuller deliveries. Seven of his last 10 dismissals before the ongoing Chittagong Test were to offspinners like R Ashwin, Dilruwan Perera, Nathan Lyon and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj. On many occasions, he was either rooted to the back foot with no room to maneuver or confused whether to go front or back.The dismissal to Rangana Herath on the second morning was more Kusal Mendis’ credit as he took a reflex catch at short leg. Otherwise, Mominul batted at an impressive strike rate of 93.23 against Herath, Dilruwan and Lakshan Sandakan, scoring off more than 50% of their 149 deliveries.”Mominul was always fluent against spin but in recent times, I had seen something wrong with his initial foot movement,” Salahuddin told . “He was taking a step while playing the shot. Spinners usually bowl a fuller length so that step was restricting his options. Spin bowlers understood this problem and trapped him. I worked on his initial movement, which he practiced.”He was happy that it worked in the first BCL match. He kept working at it and got results. You saw him on the first day how he played in front, back, stepped out and used the entire crease. He used his feet to thwart the spinners who couldn’t guess what he was doing.”Salahuddin said that Mominul’s problem against spin should have been eliminated long ago by the Bangladesh coaching staff, instead the problem was identified and used against him by the opposition. “I was surprised when someone said that he was weak against the short ball. I was shocked when I heard that he was weak against spin,” he said. “There aren’t many in Bangladesh who play spin better than Mominul.”Mominul’s issue was technical. It isn’t that he never scored runs. A batsman can have a problem. They sometimes can’t catch it quickly since they are always playing matches. So it is the coach’s responsibility to identify and rectify the problem. It is easy to cast him aside but that’s not the solution.”Salahuddin also felt that being kept away from ODIs also hurt Mominul’s batting rhythm. He has been picked only for Tests since the 2015 World Cup, giving him long breaks when the senior side is playing other formats.”You will notice that Mominul hadn’t made a century after getting dropped from the ODI squad,” Salahuddin explained. “The reality, at least in Bangladesh, is that it is hard to keep form by only playing Tests. We play fewer Tests. It is hard to only work on your own, away from the team. I am sure that given the opportunity, he could play such innings in ODIs too.”This is not an excuse though. It is not just working on your batting but such long breaks also has an effect on a cricketer’s mentality. It is tough to motivate oneself. Mominul has been able to remain strong, but anyone else would have been dropped by now. Bangladesh cricket has many such examples.”Correcting Mominul was yet another example of how Salahuddin has been helpful to a Bangladesh player. From his days as Bangladesh’s assistant coach, he has always been critical to their success. The first time he was in the limelight was by helping Razzak return to international cricket after the ICC suspended him for an illegal bowling action. Even when Salahuddin worked in Malaysia, he would be sought out by many players like Shakib to help in technical matters.In 2011, Shakib returned to Dhaka from the IPL for a few days to work on his batting with Salahuddin. There are numerous such incidents and while some at the BCB recognise to use him in an official capacity again, they turned their backs to him after approving his appointment as a batting consultant last August.