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ScorecardLuke Wright made his first century since 2015 to give Sussex the advantage on the opening day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Hove.Wright, in only his third game since giving up the captaincy, made 118, his best score since he hit a career-best 226 against Worcestershire in September 2015. It was also his first hundred at Hove for two days shy of two years.With his successor as captain, Ben Brown, making 52 and Chris Jordan 50, Sussex recovered from 69 for 3 to post 358 for 9 declared.They then had seven overs in the twilight with the pink ball but Gloucestershire openers Cameron Bancroft and Chris Dent got through unscathed, reaching 31 for 0 at stumps.A crowd of 2,000 was boosted by around 650 local schoolchildren and they enjoyed an entertaining day with Wright leading an aggressive counter-attack by Sussex during the afternoon session when they plundered 173 runs.Wright was in the mood from the very start, lofting his first ball from off-spinner Jack Taylor for one of three sixes. There were also 14 fours including a straight drive to the boundary which brought up the 17th century of his first-class career.The way Wright, and later Brown and Jordan, stroked the pink ball over a fast outfield was in contrast to what happened at the start of the day and again when Gloucestershire took the new ball and immediately claimed three wickets.Fit-again Liam Norwell and David Payne were rewarded with a wicket apiece as Harry Finch and Delray Rawlins, opening after Chris Nash was struck in practice and suffered a concussion, departed cheaply.Luke Wells hit seven fours in his 36 before Taylor had him caught at slip, after the ball had deflected off wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick.Wright then transformed the day, first with Stiaan van Zyl with whom he added 99 in 19 overs before the South African was held at short leg off Taylor, and then alongside his successor as captain.If anything, Wright and Brown increased the tempo. Both attacked anything off line and the ball had to be changed after 54 overs after Wright had clattered it into the protective covers beyond the boundary.His hundred came up off exactly 100 balls while new skipper Brown, returning after six weeks out with a broken finger, matched him shot for shot as they put on 92 in 18 overs. Brown fell two balls after reaching 50 from 60 deliveries with seven fours and a six and Wright departed after tea to a brilliant one-handed catch at midwicket by Phil Mustard, his 118 coming off 129 balls.David Wiese and Chris Jordan took the attack back to Gloucestershire, adding 57 in 13 overs for the seventh wicket but the new ball swung markedly as the floodlights took effect and Gloucestershire picked up three quick wickets, Craig Miles taking two of them in the same over including Jordan for a 78-ball 50 with eight fours.Sussex declared shortly after claiming a fourth bowling point but couldn’t make a breakthrough before the close.

England have set-up a Test shootout for the role of Alastair Cook’s Test opening partner as four batsmen vie for the opportunity in the Lions squad which will face South Africa in Canterbury next week.Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings are the two men in pole position, but they will have to promote their claims alongside the Middlesex batsman Nick Gubbins and Mark Stoneman, who is having a fine inaugural season with Surrey since making the switch from Durham.Jennings is averaging a shade under 40, with only one century, in a Durham side that has been in the doldrums since relegation to Division Two of the Specsavers Championship with a 48-point penalty, but he also had an unproductive Lions tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year as he also came to terms with the responsibilities of captaincy, a role he has retained.Hameed has had a disturbing loss of form, averaging only 19.33 and still to pass fifty in six Championship matches for Lancashire as his inclusion in their 50-over side has coincided with a reduction in the ingrained concentration that won so many plaudits last season.The confidence surrounding England’s one-day side as they have advanced to the semi-final of the Champions Trophy has not been without its own uncertainty about the top of the order with Jonny Bairstow well placed to replace the out-of-form Jason Roy in the semi-final against Pakistan on Wednesday.The questions in the Test side ahead of a four-match series against South Africa, beginning at Lord’s on July 6, are equally pressing, yet with different personnel. Joe Root batted at No. 3 throughout England’s disastrous Test series in India last winter, which if that policy persisted against South Africa, and ahead of this winter’s Ashes series, would leave only a single place available.Somerset’s spin-bowling duo, Jack Leach and Dom Bess, a teenaged offspinner, are both named in the squad. Leach, who played in the Lions’ last four-day game against Sri Lanka A in Dambulla in February, is also joined by another Somerset team-mate in Jamie Overton.Stoneman and Bess, about a decade apart in age, are the only two members of the squad not to have played previously for the Lions. A separate Lions squad will be named next week for a three-day match against the senior South Africa tourists in Worcester starting on June 29.James Whitaker, the national selector, said: “We have had to delay naming that squad because the game clashes with the Royal London One-Day Cup final, and we will not consider players from the counties who qualify for Lord’s.”There were other considerations in selecting this squad – as ever, we were mindful of counties who have important fixtures in the Specsavers County Championship, while four members of the Lions squad who won the Royal London One-Day Series against South Africa A were unavailable after being selected for the full England squad for the NatWest T20 internationals against South Africa.”England Lions squad: Keaton Jennings (Durham, capt), Mark Stoneman (Surrey), Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire), Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Ben Foakes (Surrey, wk), Sam Curran (Surrey), Jamie Overton (Somerset), Tom Helm (Middlesex), Jamie Porter (Essex), George Garton (Sussex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Dominic Bess (Somerset)

ScorecardHampshire are only in Division One because Durham were relegated in their place as punishment for needing a financial bail-out, but such was their composure in outlasting Yorkshire in a four-wicket win at Headingley, they are clearly not suffering from feelings of inadequacy.Even allowing for Yorkshire’s severely weakened attack, Hampshire chased down 320 under blue Headingley skies in unflappable fashion, beginning the day with a dogged 72 from Jimmy Adams and ended it in celebratory mood when Gareth Berg struck Ben Coad for a straight six to bring up a victory which arrived six balls into the extra half-hour.Hampshire were always a little ahead of the game in their pursuit of 320, making light of a surface that still nibbled now and then. They reached the second new ball with 95 needed and six wickets remaining, and although they lost both Rilee Rossouw and Liam Dawson in the counter-punching that followed, an unbroken stand of 58 in 12 overs between Berg and Lewis McManus, built in the mould of gritty wicketkeeper-batsman, saw them home.

Coaches reflect on thrilling chase

Andrew Gale, Yorkshire coach
“It’s disappointing to be on the wrong end of it because I felt we had opportunities to win the game. We could have put the game to bed on Saturday afternoon. I didn’t think it was a 180-odd all out pitch. If we’d have got 220-250 and they’d have been chasing 400, it’s a different game.
“Also, a couple of catches went down, and it’s a different game at 20-2. Fair play to Hampshire, it was a good chase. Not many teams come here and chase over 300 in the fourth innings.”
Craig White, Hampshire coach
“That was a great win. You don’t win many games being 58-5 in the first innings. To claw it back and come out of that situation with a victory is pretty special.
“The character the lads showed fighting back with the ball, and to bowl them out for 180 gave us a real chance of winning. Everyone was so determined. It wasn’t an easy pitch. There was a little bit in it.
“We’ve had a great start, but we know in two weeks when Yorkshire come down to Hampshire, they will be like wounded animals.”

By the time Berg’s straight hit soared into the Trueman Stand, Coad and his new-ball partner Tim Bresnan were as good as spent. They evenly shared 50 overs – 46 of them on the third day. Coad finished with match figures of 8 for 133 and an enhanced reputation as a lithe fast bowler of promise, as well as an insight into the hard work that lies ahead. Bresnan got through a heavy workload like an old trouper but Yorkshire lacked threat elsewhere.For Yorkshire’s new in-charges of captain Gary Ballance and coach Andrew Gale, the season has begun with defeat against a side expected to be at the wrong end of the table. Add the two defeats suffered at the end of last season and they have lost three in a row. With five frontline seamers out injured, their vulnerability was apparent – and Hampshire exposed it methodically – but it is their lack of top-order runs that will most concern them.Hampshire were able to make light of a first-innings deficit of 132 because Kyle Abbott took seven wickets in Yorkshire’s second innings with a grown-up bowling performance that immediately identified him as a key component of their season. Presented with such charity, they needed no second invitation.With such a weakened attack, Yorkshire’s need for new-ball wickets was even more pressing than normal. They had two chances but, crucially, both went astray. Adam Lyth spilled Adams at second slip off Bresnan on 11 and Michael Carberry escaped when Peter Handscomb failed to retrieve a tougher chance in the gully.Instead of two-down for not many, Hampshire assembled an opening stand of 91. It was a stand to soothe nerves and raise expectations, an assertion that Yorkshire’s patched-up attack could be tamed on a gloriously sunny day that made batting a pleasure.The short ball did for Carberry. He was fortunate that one attempted hook against Josh Shaw fell safely and, although he did pull Patterson for six, he top-edged an attempted flip off Coad to Steve Patterson at long leg. He would have hoped to prosper for longer, but 41 was not a bad start after his lengthy illness and it was a pleasure to see him back.Bresnan tried to bore Adams into submission after lunch without success and, as James Vince unveiled attractive drives on both sides of the wicket, as if carefully arranging a vase of flowers at appropriate angles, Hampshire got halfway to their target with only one wicket down.Ballance turned somewhat reluctantly to Azeem Rafiq’s offspin and it brought immediate dividends when he had Adams lbw. Vince’s vase cracked on 44 thanks to an athletic return catch, low in his follow-through, by Coad, who is tall but spritely. Ervine never suggested permanence and he fell by tea, cutting at Bresnan.Hampshire progressed cautiously to the second new ball, taken by two bowlers, Bresnan and Coad, who were already 17 overs into their day. That in itself was an indication that Ballance had been trying to win the match primarily with three bowlers: Rafiq was introduced only in mid-afternoon and Shaw conservatively used.That new ball brought a rush of boundaries before Rossouw fell in identical fashion to Ervine, the only difference being that Rossouw, who looked a bit of a chancer, made 47.The wicket Yorkshire most wanted was Dawson’s and Bresnan snaffled it with a thrilling left-handed catch off his own bowling. Most counties would happily settle for conceding 37 runs to such a doughty cricketer, when defending 320 in a nip-and-tuck finish.To observe Coad, at 23, plunge flexibly in his follow-through had been a reminder of the advantage of youth, but here was Bresnan, thick-set and determined, plunging through the air like Thunderbird 2 to bring up the prize. But any assumptions that Thunderbirds Were Go proved wide of the mark as Hampshire completed a victory that will do wonders for their self-esteem.Hampshire know what it is like fielding a depleted attack – they did it throughout the whole of last season. As for Yorkshire, they will be aching for revenge at the Ageas Bowl before the month is out.

From the moment Javagal Srinath announced his arrival on the international scene, taking 3 for 59 in Australia’s first innings at the Gabba in the 1991-92 tour, the belief was that he would take over from Kapil Dev as India’s strike bowler. It was a huge ask, and while there were periods when performance didn’t quite match expectations, Srinath’s 11-year career had its share of high points.The first of those was at Cape Town in 1992-93, when Srinath tore through the South African top order, dismissing Kepler Wessels, Andrew Hudson, Hansie Cronje and Daryll Cullinan to return magnificent figures of 27-10-33-4. It didn’t quite win India the match, but his hostile spell got him his first Man of the Match award, and more importantly, suggested that India had at last discovered a genuine fast-bowling talent.Srinath didn’t better that effort in his next 11 Tests, though – a period when question marks were raised about his ability to deliver on the early promise. Then came another Test series against South Africa – this time at home – and Srinath’s first matchwinning performance – 6 for 21 on an Ahmedabad dustbowl, which swung a close Test India’s way.In fact, like most of the top fast bowlers from the subcontinent, Srinath revelled more in home conditions, averaging 26.61 in India and 33.76 abroad – a difference of more than seven points. His greatest performance in a Test match came at home too, at Eden Gardens in Calcutta, when he singlehandedly wrecked the Pakistan batting with figures of 5 for 46 and 8 for 86 (match haul of 13 for 132). As was the case so often in Srinath’s career, though, his display wasn’t enough to win India the match. Lack of support from the other end and Saeed Anwar’s classy unbeaten 188 secured Pakistan a famous victory, leaving Srinath with only the joint Man of the Match prize for consolation.That was a story which repeated itself often: of the ten five-wicket hauls he took in 67 Tests, only two translated into Indian wins. Apart from the Ahmedabad triumph, the only other occasion when Srinath’s five-for won India the match was at Delhi against Zimbabwe in 2000-01.The later years hardly suggest it, but in his early days Srinath was extremely handy with the bat too. His average reached a peak of 25 (after his 19th Test) and stayed above 20 till his 21st. On the tour to New Zealand in 1998-99 he notched up a fine 76 at Hamilton, but that remained his highest score, and the last of his four half-centuries. The batting slump began soon after: in 22 Tests starting from the tour to Australia in 1999-2000, Srinath mustered a mere 125 runs, with not a single 20-plus score. The batting form came back in his last Test series, though, with 137 coming from four innings at home against West Indies in 2002-03.Srinath made no bones about his dislike for the ODIs, but given the opportunity to bowl in seamer-friendly conditions in New Zealand (in the five-match series) and South Africa (in the World Cup), he excelled. His last 18 ODIs fetched him 34 wickets at less than 17.By opting to retire just before the Australian tour, though, Srinath has denied himself the opportunity to rectify a huge blot in his resume: in eight Tests in Australia, he has managed 20 wickets at 50.70, figures that hardly do justice to the man.S Rajesh is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

ScorecardSam Curran cleaned up Sri Lanka A’s lower order•Getty Images

The Curran brothers followed their important second-innings runs by sharing six wickets as England Lions completed a comprehensive 195-run victory in the opening four-day match against Sri Lanka A.The contest was over shortly after lunch on the final day as Tom Curran ended with 3 for 35 and Sam Curran 3 for 21. The previous day they had added 62 to stretch the Lions lead. There were also two wickets for Middlesex offspinner Ollie Rayner.Sri Lanka A offered minimal resistance, expect for opener Udara Jayasundera who carried his bat with 64 off 166 deliveries, although a final-wicket stand of 54 delayed the end a little.”Everyone has chipped in,” Keaton Jennings, the England Lions captain, said. “As a whole team performance it was absolutely brilliant. It’s a good bowling attack to captain, with a lot of variety, and a really good bunch of guys to captain as well. Those runs we got lower down the order in the first innings were very important in setting up the game.”When Sri Lanka resumed on 41 for 2, Tom Curran gave the Lions an ideal start to the final day when had Roshen Silva caught behind in the first over. Tom Helm also produced a first-over trick, for the second time in the match, by surprising Charith Asalanka with extra bounce.Rayner removed the key wicket of captain Dhananjaya de Silva and also claimed Dilruwan Perera as the Sri Lanka slide continued before the Currans almost finished things off in double-quick time. Sam Curran was on a hat-trick with the No. 11, Asitha Fernando, on strike but he survived and alongside Jayasundera played out the extra half hour the Lions claimed to try and wrap up the victory before lunch.However, it did not take long after the break until Fernando picked out Nick Gubbins at mid-on to give Sam Curran his third.Despite the convincing margin of victory, Jennings pinpointed the top-order batting as an area for improvement ahead of the second four-day game in Dambulla. In the first innings the Lions’ last two wickets added 106 and in the second the last four provided 130.”We all know our roles and responsibilities, and as a top order batter you want to score runs,” he said. “Not everybody can score runs all the time. But you’ve got to make sure you try and take care of that role, show the grit to get through those tough periods and get runs.”From a bowling point of view as well, there’s a few plans we can come up with now we’ve seen a few of their guys. That’s the exciting thing, the room for improvement in the second game in Dambulla. But this was a very good team performance – very enjoyable.”

Alongside Nathan Lyon’s extraordinary 8 for 50, another figure stood out on a day when Australia took a giant leap towards retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was 18 – the number of boundaries struck by India’s batsmen in their first innings or, more pointedly, the number Australia restricted them to striking.Lyon could certainly see the correlation between his success and the suffocating consistency of the Australian bowling attack, from Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood with the new ball to left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe at the other end, all supported by the nifty fields of the captain Steven Smith.With typical modesty, Lyon summed up his snaffling of the best figures ever by a visiting bowler in India: “I was the lucky one today.”In explaining how he had learned to prosper in Asia, following less productive visits to India, the UAE and Sri Lanka last year, Lyon pointed to the need to bowl as tightly as possible, landing ball after ball in teasing areas and gaining variation from the pitch. His blueprint came in part from conversations with Rangana Herath at the end of the Sri Lanka series, and was solidified in his mind during one-on-one sessions with John Davison and Darren Berry during the Big Bash League in January.”I don’t know if they’re going to spin or go straight, so if I don’t know neither does the batter really,” Lyon said of a day where he divided his wickets almost exactly between balls that turned and others that did not. “I’m about doing the basics really well and just landing on the same spot, that’s a big one for me, if I keep doing that I’m going to be able to create chances.”That’s what you’ve got to do over here, on the subcontinent, is be patient and hit the same spot over and over and hopefully things will start to happen. I think that’s where Steve O’Keefe and myself have been working really well together, I’m able to get a decent amount of turn and SOK’s able to do both. He’s quite talented in the way he releases the ball, go underneath it a little bit and hit those front pads. That’s where I think we’re working really well together.”Steve and the others spinners all said we have to stay patient and build balls. If you look at Rangana Herath, one of the best spinners in the world, what does he do well? He hits the same spot over and over. He said to me after the [Sri Lanka] series I don’t know if they’re going to spin either. So if I’m working off the same plan Rangana’s working off, he’s going alright, and hopefully we’ll be able to keep doing it as an Australian team.”Bengaluru’s pitch differed from Pune in that it offered greater bounce, and also variation by the patchwork of cracks unveiled on the opening day. In keeping with their mantra of adaptability, Lyon and O’Keefe conferred early in the day to realise there would be as much gained from over spin as side spin, something demonstrated by the skidder that fooled Virat Kohli, but also the turn and bounce O’Keefe gained for his lone but vital wicket – the fluent Karun Nair stumped by Matthew Wade.”We had to assess the conditions quickly and adapt, and Steve O’Keefe and I had a conversation out there and saw there were a couple really jumping up,” Lyon said. “So I looked at my bowling to see if I could put some over spin on it and get some balls to jump, and to get some good bounce out there was pleasing. Saying that, there’s a second innings so we need to keep working hard and take another 10 wickets.”As for the wicket of Kohli, snared cheaply now for the third innings in a row, Lyon cribbed from the words of Dale Steyn last summer ahead of South Africa’s victory over Smith’s men: cutting off the head of the snake.”Virat’s one of the best batters in the world I’ve ever come across, so to be able to take his wicket today was exceptional. But we know this is a massive series and a long series. He’s a world-class batter so we expect him to bounce back. He’s the head of the snake, if you want to put it in Dale Steyn’s terms, if you can take that then hopefully the body will fall away is what Dale said.”We came over here to compete hard against India and we’re doing that well at the moment. But cricket’s a funny game, if I come out and say we’re going to keep bowling them out for under 150 it’s going to bite me in the backside real quick. We’ve got the belief in the team, the feeling in that change room is unbelievable at the moment. So if we can keep doing that and have really good days of cricket for Australia, we’re heading in the right direction.”Lyon had struggled for wickets at the start of the Australian summer, when not for the first time his place in the Test team was openly questioned. But as Bengaluru so amply demonstrated, Lyon’s is a considerable talent, now elevated further by a commanding performance in the homeland of spin bowling.”I don’t need to prove to anyone,” he said. “I’ve proved to myself I can compete at this level and I want to keep doing it for Australia. This is where my passion lies and I just want to keep doing what I can for Australia.”

Jimmy Adams, the newly appointed director of cricket for West Indies, wants to create a structure that will feed, sustain and guarantee not just success, but also a certain standard of cricket all through. According to Adams, the former West Indies captain and wicketkeeper, having a competitive domestic structure will not only groom young talent, but also not allow international players to “relax”.Adams said he was in no rush to achieve this. First, he said, he wanted to sit down and discuss his vision with the WICB’s new CEO, John Gray, who takes over from February, as well as the future head coach, a position that has been lying vacant since the board removed Phil Simmons last September.”I don’t want to say anything premature,” Adams told Line and Length Network, a Barbados-based TV station, in Antigua earlier this week. “Ultimately we want success. We want a structure that guarantees a certain standard of cricket even if you are not winning every day. But you know with what we have, from grassroots to youth cricket to first-class structure, you know the standard will be within a certain range. In terms of sustainability, that becomes critical. We want to see the first team, men’s and women’s, winning, but I would also like to underpin that with a structure that would guarantee a certain standard of cricket going forward.”Adams, who joined Kent in 2012 as head coach, left the county last October. He said he saw similarities in the challenges at Kent and in the Caribbean, especially in the lack of resources. “There are certain similarities with cricket in the Caribbean. We have challenges with resources here that tend to affect almost every decision we make, and trying to find the best way to hurdle those challenges and have the mindset that you can make it enough with whatever you have to create a quality cricket team.”Of the many challenges in front of Adams, one of the bigger ones would be sorting out the damaged relations between the WICB and some of the senior West Indies players who do not play in the domestic tournaments. One of the controversial decisions taken by his predecessor, Richard Pybus, was making it mandatory for all players to play in the domestic tournaments in order for them to be selected for West Indies. Many senior players have objected to that measure and have declined WICB contracts.Adams, who is also the outgoing president of the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA), did not reveal whether he subscribed to such a decision, but disagreed with the view that such players had “abandoned” domestic cricket. “I don’t think anybody has abandoned anything. I think everyone’s individual circumstances are different and I respect decisions people make. It’s not an exact formula, but at the end of the day, you want to see the strongest possible competition in terms of players’ development. If you can do that, it is the last building block before we take players to the international level, in terms of the upward movement. For those who are already playing international cricket, a strong domestic structure ensures there is no time to relax, which I think is a good thing.”Adams did point out that at all times he would like to see the best players contest in the regional competitions. “Part of a strong domestic league is having the best players available. However you look at it, you are always looking to get the best players in a competition to guarantee standards. From that point, it’s good to have a regional tournament. A dedicated block of time for a 50-overs tournament is critical, since preparation process can flow into tournament play, which is very important. I wasn’t of a fan of one-day cricket on a Wednesday and four-day cricket on a Friday, but if guys can dedicate a block of time specifically for 50-overs, T20 and four-day cricket, that’s the best approach possible.”Adams said his vision was a shared one: to make West Indies competitive once again. That, he said, was the main reason he returned home from Kent. “I share a common vision, not just with the people I’m employed to but also the people of the Caribbean. We’d like to see West Indies cricket strong again. I know we have been through some lean years. To share the vision – good competitive cricket coming out of West Indies – is something we all want to see and hopefully I can play some role in helping the region to achieve that.”

Khulna Division crushed Barisal Division by 10 wickets at the BKSP-3 ground to bring up the first result in Tier-1 of the 2016-17 National Cricket League. After Tushar Imran hit a record 19th hundred, debutant seamer Ashiquzzaman skittled out Barisal with a match haul of nine wickets.Barisal were bowled out for 171 runs in 60.4 overs in the first innings, with pacers Ziaur Rahman and Ashiquzzaman taking three wickets each. Fazle Mahmud’s 95 represented more than half of Barisal’s total. In reply, Khulna took a lead of exactly 200 runs, courtesy Imran, who went past Alok Kapali and Mohammad Ashraful to possess the most first-class hundreds by a Bangladeshi.He made 108 with a dozen fours and a six, and shared a 117-run third wicket stand with Anamul Haque, who top-scored with 136, his 11th first-class ton. Anamul struck eleven fours and six sixes in his 202-ball knock. Left-arm spinner Monir Hossain took six wickets and later struck a 70-ball 72 as Barisal could only muster 211 runs in the second innings.Ashiquzzaman took 6 for 57 to finish with nine wickets on first-class debut. His player-of-the-match winning efforts left Khulna with just 12 runs to chase on the third afternoon, which they completed in 1.4 overs.Dhaka Division beat Dhaka Metropolis by five wickets in a low-scoring fixture in the other Tier-1 game in Fatullah. This was the first time in five years that no half-century was recorded in a first-class fixture in Bangladesh.Batting first, Dhaka Metro were bowled out for 166 runs with veteran paceman Mohammad Sharif taking four wickets. In reply, Dhaka could manage just a 21-run lead as Mohammad Ashraful starred with his part-time offspin to take three wickets alongside seamer Shahidul Islam.Dhaka Metro, handed a lifeline, had an opportunity to pull away with a better batting effort in the second dig. But that wasn’t to be as Sharif picked up three wickets; Dhaka metro hurtled to 125 all out in 55.5 overs.Dhaka nearly made heavy weather of their 105-run target. They slipped to 63 for 5, thereby raising possibility of an unlikely win for Metro. But Taibur and Zahiduzzaman put on an unbroken 43-run stand for the sixth wicket to complete a nervy win.

ScorecardFile photo – Jhulan Goswami took 2 for 28 in 10 overs to lead India’s bowling charge•Getty Images

A tight bowling effort from India women set up their five-wicket win over West Indies women in the second ODI in Mulapadu. With the win, India took a 2-0 lead and sealed the three-match series, thereby extending the visitors’ wait to secure a direct entry for the 2017 Women’s World Cup.West Indies, asked to make first use of the surface, struggled for momentum and crawled to 153 for 7 in 50 overs. India struggled slightly towards the latter parts of their chase, going from 111 for 2 to 150 for 5, but managed to cross the line in 38 overs with five wickets in hand.West Indies lost their openers Hayley Matthews and Shaquana Quintyne in consecutive overs to be reduced to 20 for 2. Stafanie Taylor, the captain, and Kycia Knight scored 30 runs between them off 98 balls.Deandra Dottin and Merissa Aguilleira got together to repair the damage with a 70-run fifth-wicket stand, and though they used up 110 balls, their stand marked one of the quicker periods of scoring in the West Indies innings. Dottin scored top-scored with 63 and was the last batsman dismissed, bowled by Jhulan Goswami off the last ball of the innings.Goswami and Ekta Bisht, the left-arm spinner, took identical figures of 10-2-28-2, Gayakwad took 1 for 31 in 10 overs, while Deepti Sharma gave away just 19 runs in her quota. Barring Harmanpreet Kaur, who gave away 20 runs in three overs, all of India’s bowlers were economical, with Rajeshwari Gayakwad, the left-arm spinner, recording the worst economy rate (3.10).Thirush Kamini was given out obstructing the field in the fourth over of India’s chase, before Smriti Mandhana and Deepti steadied them with a 63-run second-wicket stand. Mandhana took India to 111 for 2 with Mithali Raj, before she was caught off Matthews’ offspin on 44. Raj took India to the brink with a 51-ball 45, and though she fell with her team four runs away, it was late compensation for West Indies.The final ODI will take place at the same venue on Wednesday.

ScorecardAdam Voges was helped from the field after being struck by a bouncer•Getty Images

Western Australia captain Adam Voges suffered concussion after being struck on the helmet on the first day of the Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania at the WACA. Voges was not taken to hospital but was ruled out of the rest of the match after retiring hurt on 16 when he failed to evade a bouncer from fast bowler Cameron Stevenson and was hit on the helmet.Voges lay on the ground for some time after the blow, and was assisted from the ground by medical staff before being monitored in the change-rooms. Earlier this year, Voges suffered a freak head injury while playing county cricket for Middlesex, when he was fielding at slip and was hit on the back of the head by a ball being thrown back towards the wicketkeeper after a boundary.After his failures in the first two Tests against South Africa, Voges loomed as a likely candidate to be axed for the third Test in Adelaide, and was hoping for a big innings against Tasmania to press his case for retention. At the time when he was struck, Voges was trying to rebuild the Western Australia innings after a shaky start in which they slumped to 3 for 15.Opener Cameron Bancroft, who could have made a strong case for Test selection with a big innings, was caught behind off Simon Milenko for 2, and the prolific Michael Klinger edged Jackson Bird to slip on 5. The loss of Voges left Western Australia effectively at 5 for 59, but a 117-run stand between Ashton Turner and Sam Whiteman provided some respectability.Turner scored his maiden first-class century and finished with 110, and Whiteman managed 54, before the Warriors were bowled out for 262. Tasmania lost both their openers before stumps and finished the day on 2 for 60, with Alex Doolan on 18 and nightwatchman Bird on 6.