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ScorecardSam Northeast was phlegmatic about the draw•Getty Images

Brave Sussex batted for their lives while Kent’s bowlers toiled fruitlessly under the sun as the two neighbouring counties fought out a high-scoring Specsavers Championship draw in Tunbridge Wells.Following-on some 242 runs in arrears at the start of the final day, Sussex lost only five wickets in the three sessions and had edged into a 13-run lead courtesy of Ben Brown and Chris Jordan when the sides shook hands on a draw just before 6pm. Kent banking 11pts to Sussex’s 8pts.Though his side failed to hammer home the advantage they held over all four days of the match, Kent’s Sam Northeast remained phlegmatic.”After all that effort and our bowlers sending down well over 200 overs in the past two days you want to win, but they were such tough conditions,” said Northeast.”To bowl them out for 333 was a seriously good effort, but knowing The Nevill Ground as we do it stays pretty true, the top doesn’t break up and it remains a pretty good pitch throughout. We tried different things but they didn’t work out, while Ross Taylor gave a two-day batting exhibition here and made a huge difference to the outcome of the match.”Facing a backs-to-the-wall fourth day after being dismissed for 333 on Tuesday, Sussex suffered only one casualty in the opening session when their former skipper Chris Nash went for 18.From the opening ball of the day Kent applied scoreboard pressure from both ends, sending down nine maidens in the first 16 bowled, before Nash departed in the 28th over of the day after miscuing a drive against left-arm spinner Imran Qayyum to Sam Northeast at short extra-cover.Kent had taken the new ball through Kagiso Rabada whose effortless action generated good pace, but with little or no luck. The South African had two concerted lbw appeals turned aside in another eye catching stint of 6-3-8-0.Left-arm spinner Imran Qayyum and off-spinner James Tredwell bowled in tandem with five close men around the bat, but were denied another breakthrough as Sussex lunched on 62 for 1.Despite the break Kent still found wicket-taking an issue on a slow pitch offering a modicum of slow turn, and were restricted to a further two wickets in the mid-session.Harry Finch (66) posted a 133-ball 50 before he push-drove to short extra cover off Tredwell, then Luke Wells (22) mistimed a drive to give Qayyum a return catch.Taylor, in his final four-day appearance for Sussex and fresh from a first innings 142, counter-attacked realising the importance of his side edging ahead in terms of runs to post 68 either side of tea.Kent pushed to the limits through Mitch Claydon and Rabada for a new-ball breakthrough, but luck was against them. Claydon’s in-duckers beat the inside edge only to miss the stumps on numerous occasions while Rabada’s stint of nought for 33 fail to reflect the numerous times he passed the bat and had lbw shouts turned aside.Taylor rode his luck a little, he was dropped at long off by Qayyum and then Kent’s stand-in keeper Callum Jackson grassed a tricky stumping chance, but otherwise the one-time Blackcaps skipper ensured his side would go home with a draw.With the game almost safe, right-handed Taylor holed out to cow corner to give Tredwell a second wicket, then Luke Wright (38) played back and down the wrong line to go lbw and give the former England spinner figures of three for 76 when stumps were drawn.In praise of his overseas professional, Sussex captain Luke Wright said: “Ross has been awesome the whole way through and we’ve relied on him a hell of a lot. I’m pleased to see him finish with two good scores that got us out of trouble.”He spoke about scoring quickly today because as soon as we went past their total it was the end of the game. He showed his experience here, he told us not to just try and block out but to counter, and it worked for us.”Wright added: “Once we finished on the wrong side of the toss we knew it was always going to be a hard game, particularly going into today following on. We thought it might break up and with Tredwell and Rabada to face we knew it would be tough, but I’m really pleased we saw it out.”It’s been the story of our four-day season that we’ve had to work really hard for our draws, but we can take a lot of positives from this.”We’re in a building stage with this squad, I’m a new captain and in Mark Davis we have a new coach, so we are in transition and we’ll need a bit of time and patience to bed in. The one thing we do want I attitude and fight, and I think we’ve shown that in bucketfuls here.”

ScorecardRikki Clarke helped reduce Worcestershire to 19 for 6 (file photo)•Getty Images

Rikki Clarke’s limited-overs best figures of 5 for 26 set Warwickshire cruising to an eight-wicket Royal London Cup victory over Worcestershire at Edgbaston.Clarke’s first List A five-for, which included three maidens as he bowled his 10-over allocation straight through, reduced the visitors to 19 for 6 – a position from which they could recover only partially to 115 all out. Will Porterfield and Tim Ambrose then shared an unbroken partnership of 79 as the Bears coasted home with more than 27 overs to spare.They now join their neighbours on five points in a group table which remains very tight due to so many early matches having been washed out.Worcestershire chose to bat but had cause to regret that decision when they crashed to 19 for 6 in the ninth over. The havoc was wreaked by a spell of superb, straight seam bowling from Clarke who took wickets with his fifth, 17th, 20th, 27th and 28th balls.Tom Kohler-Cadmore edged the allrounder to first slip and then, after Tom Fell was lbw to Keith Barker, Clarke dismissed four batsmen in 11 balls with a lethal blend of accuracy and pace. Alex Kervezee was bowled and Ross Whiteley, Daryl Mitchell and George Rhodes were pinned lbw, the last two with successive balls.Ben Cox and Joe Leach took the score to 41 to at last force a bowling change but Recordo Gordon came on and struck with his fifth ball, which Cox drove straight to Sam Hain at cover.Leach made a patient 29 from 65 balls with only two fours and Ed Barnard added 38 from 64 deliveries as the pair combined for 60 runs in 18 overs for the eighth over before the former, having batted with impressive restraint, was bowled on the back foot by Oliver Hannon-Dalby.Barnard perished in the next over when he drilled a return catch back to Jeetan Patel and when Jack Shantry lifted Patel to mid-off, where Keith Barker took a sharp head-high catch, the innings ended with 70 balls unused.Warwickshire openers Porterfield and Sam Hain reduced the target by a third before Hain edged Charlie Morris behind for 21. Morris made it two wickets in six balls when he trapped Jonathan Trott lbw but Porterfield finished on 37 not out, playing the perfect anchor role while Ambrose thrashed 54 from 42 balls to inject impetus to the chase.

They have won the series against Sri Lanka at a sprint, wrapped up after barely more than six days of playing time, and should not come unstuck at Lord’s even though the Sri Lankans have been boosted by their improvement in the second innings at Chester-le-Street. And yet, in their last five series – against West Indies, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa – England have been defeated in their final outing.In Barbados and at Headingley last year, their lapses cost them series victories. In Sharjah, the chance to level the scoreline slipped away. On the other two occasions, against Australia and South Africa, the major prize had already been secured so it merely knocked gloss off the end product – although both defeats at The Oval and Centurion were comprehensive enough to raise questions about how far the team’s development had come.Of all the problems to have, and on the list of things Alastair Cook has had to deal with as England captain, it is not the most worrisome. However, this England side are searching for that No. 1 ranking. This summer has been billed as a chance to win all seven Tests – as they did in 2004 – although Pakistan’s stronger attack could well have something to say about that.”We’ve certainly mentioned that in the past, the dead rubbers we’ve not played as well,” Cook said. “We’ve got another opportunity here. Who knows what the wicket will produce – the last [few] games here against Sri Lanka have been draws. So the wicket might not allow it. But we’ve got to make sure that if we want to get to where we want to, which is to be the best side in the world, these are the games we need to play better in.”Alongside the collective ambitions of the team, there are continuing personal subplots to the game, especially for the two men playing on their home ground. Nick Compton is under more immediate pressure than Steven Finn if he wants to continue his role at No. 3 when the Pakistan series starts, but for the longer-term future of English cricket it is the performances of Finn that warrants more attention.Nick Compton needs runs in order to secure his Test berth•Getty Images

In South Africa it appeared things had all clicked for Finn as he strung together a run of three consistent Test performances. Then injury struck, keeping him sidelined, much to his frustration, until the start of the English season. Since his return, that rhythm and threat from the South Africa tour has been difficult to rekindle.Cook is not overly concerned, however, adding that he had first-hand experience of a lively Finn spell in the nets on Wednesday which left him with “a big bruise” on his leg.”Steven, when’s he absolutely on song, is I believe up there in our three best seamers in the country,” Cook said. “We saw that last summer against Australia in particular, when he bowled fantastically well. This winter, when he played, he was absolutely outstanding. It’s not always perfect.”Take James Anderson as a bit of an example. He struggled a little bit, by his own admission, in South Africa, and when he came back he’s bowled as well as he has done in his career. It’s never perfect. We don’t get 11 guys at the top of their game at the same time. But Steven has the ability to take wickets. He’s always done that. When he clicks, he’s a very hard bowler to face. He’s got a big future in the England side.”For Cook, this Test match will allow him to settle back into life without the burden of approaching landmarks after he ticked off the 10,000-run milestone in Durham, although now the talk has shifted to whether he can finish above Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,921 at the top of the pile.”That’s a long way ahead,” Cook said, with the air of a man who would prefer to put the record books back on the shelf for a while. Since Durham, he has spent a week at home on his farm which included a day getting drenched in the rain helping to weigh “some fat lambs”.”At the moment a lot of my goals are immediate ones with this England team – as a captain that takes me away from the milestones as a batsman.”There is no escaping the fact, however, that in spite of Cook’s record, James Anderson’s excellence and England’s dashing lower order, this has been a low-key Test series. Although Lord’s will be close to full this week, that prevailing mood is unlikely to change much even if England do secure their first whitewash in a series longer than two Tests since beating India 4-0 in 2011. The Euros start on Friday, with England playing their first match on Saturday, and win or lose the footballers will dominate the sports pages.

Australia’s interim coach, Justin Langer has forecast the possibility of choosing two spinners on slow Caribbean surfaces in the tri-series with West Indies and South Africa that begins on June 3.Slotted in as Australia’s interim coach while Darren Lehmann takes some time out ahead of future assignments, Langer does not want to tinker too much with a successful limited-overs formula and will also be seeking to get acquainted with a role he may find himself applying for in a full-time capacity in future.Langer said that prevailing conditions in the region, most notably Guyana where Australia play their first two matches of the series, meant both Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa were in the frame to join the allrounder Glenn Maxwell as spin bowling options for the captain Steven Smith.”In Guyana there might be a possibility of two spinners, it comes down to team balance as well,” Langer said. “I know Glenn Maxwell has talked about the importance of him developing his all-round ability, not just his batting, so he can play a role there.”I know Nathan Lyon’s desperate to get back into the one-day side and he’s privately said the same thing. Adam Zampa’s had an excellent start to his international career [and bowls] legspin. We might have a look at how many left-handers and right-handers are in the different opposition combinations and in Guyana we may play more than one of them.”Australia’s players have assembled from a wide assortment of scenarios, whether it was playing in the IPL, recovering from injury or resuming cricket after a post-season break. Langer said it would be a key part of his role to balance the needs of each individual against the team objective to win the series.”It’s a really interesting time for the Australian cricket team,” he said. “There’s a few changes in the coaching personnel for this tour and also with the players. We’ve got some guys coming from the IPL, some guys haven’t played much cricket for a little while now and a few guys coming back from injury, so we’re going to have to manage that well.”Davey Warner has just come off an IPL final so everyone’s different and we’ve got to respect that. Some of the guys have had a short break, which is like gold in this current environment, but also this is the start of a long, 12-18 month journey for the boys. We’ve got to manage that really well, and sometimes that’s hard for the public to understand, but this is the start of a long journey for them and we’ll have to manage everyone a bit differently.”The concern for me is some of our guys haven’t played much cricket at all, and that might be important when we select the first team. Some of the guys who have been playing cricket in the IPL, albeit Twenty20 but they have been playing cricket and you can never underestimate that. So it’s really going to be a challenge how we get the balance right between giving guys match practice without any practice matches and getting the best team on the park as well.”Having finished coaching duties with Western Australia in the summer, Langer had a dramatic start to the trip in New York when he had to undergo surgery for a badly infected tooth and was then informed his credit card had been defrauded. But he has fond memories of the Caribbean region, starting with the famous 1995 tour when he was a reserve batsman watching Australia regain the Frank Worrell Trophy and end West Indies’ 15-year unbeaten run.He also acknowledges it will be a chance to think about the role of coaching Australia, four years after he left the team as assistant coach to work with WA. “I look at it as an experience and a great opportunity,” Langer said. “I say I’m a novice coach even though I feel like I’ve been doing it for a long time now, and hopefully I still say I’m a novice coach in 15 years time, because having that mindset means I’ll always keep learning.”This will be a great experience to be back on the road touring, to see how the Australian cricket team goes about their business. I know they’ve got some great routines that have made them successful and that won’t change over the next few weeks, so I don’t see it as an audition but an experience.”

How the game played outThe dynamic opening duo of Fakhar Zaman and Chris Lynn terrorised a second-string Multan Sultans bowling unit, pummeling 72 runs in the powerplay during a 100-run partnership to mow down a target of 187 as Lahore Qalandars clinched their first-ever playoff berth in the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League with a nine-wicket win. A blazing half-century by Zaman was followed by Lynn’s match-clinching ton, the first-ever by a Qalandars batsman in their five-year history in the tournament.Qalandars were off to a shaky start again early in the tournament this season after losing their first three matches but a stunning resurgence propelled in their fourth match by the ferocious hitting of Ben Dunk dug them out of the cellar. The pyrotechnics of Zaman and Lynn in their season finale against Sultans ensured Dunk’s prior efforts were not in vain. Bouncing back from a 10-wicket drubbing at the hands of Karachi Kings on Thursday, Zaman and Lynn seized on the fact that Sultans could afford to rest several of their frontline bowlers after having clinched first place outright 48 hours earlier.Zaman led the initial onslaught, bringing up a 25-ball half-century during a brutal seventh over assault on Moeen Ali’s offspin. After Zaman was stumped following a charge gone awry to Usman Qadir’s legspin in the 9th, Lynn took centrestage with more belligerent hitting.The Australian brought up a 22-ball half-century in the 10th over swatting Ravi Bopara over cow corner for six. The maximum barrage continued against Khushdil Shah in the 14th, who was carted for back-to-back straight sixes to take Lynn into the 80s. Another heave over cow corner off Bilawal Bhatti took him to 98 before a pair of singles off Junaid Khan brought up the first century by a Qalandars batsman in their five-year history. Lynn then ended the match by heaving Ali Shafiq twice over the leg side rope in the 19th to seal his side’s maiden playoff appearance with seven balls to spare.Turning pointMomentum was with Sultans after a sloppy bowling display in the latter half of the first innings allowed Khushdil to feast his way to an unbeaten 70 off 29 balls. But Zaman and Lynn stole it right back with their thunderous powerplay. A consistent short ball plan to Zaman failed repeatedly as he hooked and pulled for boundaries at will.However, the most savage treatment by Zaman was meted out immediately after the first six when he attacked Ali in the seventh over. He charged Ali’s second ball, driving him hard over mid-off for six. An attempted to bowl fuller, flatter and wider next ball was negated when Zaman swept him through the leg side for four. Two balls later, Zaman was galloping down the wicket again to lift Ali over long-on for another six. At 89 for 0 with the required run rate down to 7.53, Sultans were left completely deflated.Star of the dayLynn has had a monster reputation on the T20 franchise circuit over the last several years, particularly in the Caribbean Premier League and Big Bash. But amazingly, this performance was his first century in T20 franchise cricket outside of Australia. There was a great maturity to the knock as well. With Zaman applying the early pressure, Lynn was content to rotate the strike and only attack when there was a genuine loose ball. Though he had several close shaves early on with a couple of inside edges missing the stumps on the way to the fine leg boundary, Lynn got his eye locked in midway through the chase and from there on showed no mercy.The big missThe arsenal of bowling guns were rested today by Sultans. The first time these two sides played in their opening match of the season, Imran Tahir was named Man of the Match for his two key wickets while Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irfan and Shahid Afridi were no less impactful in a match that was clinched with 29 balls to spare chasing a target of 139. Their collective absence was noticeable in the toothless display produced by much of the Sultans bowling unit that took the field on Sunday afternoon.Where the teams standSultans could afford to rest all of those aforementioned names because they had already clinched first place and the No. 1 seed in the PSL playoffs regardless of today’s result, though the loss kept them on 14 points. Barring a miracle, they will play Peshawar Zalmi in one semi-final unless Quetta Gladiators beat Karachi Kings and erase a monumental net-run-rate deficit in the process to steal fourth place from Zalmi. Qalandars end the league phase in third place on ten points and will meet Karachi Kings in the other semi-final on Tuesday.

India were left hoping for a miracle after Rishabh Pant had to retire hurt and go for scans after a nasty foot injury when on 37 during the first day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.Pant’s foot was swollen and he looked in pain after he inside-edged an attempted reverse sweep off Chris Woakes onto his right (front) foot. He survived the lbw shout and the subsequent review, but the immediate swelling and his inability to put any weight on the foot were worrying signs for India.Pant, India’s wicketkeeper and vice-captain, needed the help of a golf-style buggy to get off the field following on-field medical attention. He was taken to the medical facility at the ground, where captain Shubman Gill went to see him, and then to a hospital for scans.Liam Dawson, the England spinner, said he wished the best for Pant but “can’t see him playing much more part in this game”. B Sai Sudharsan, who was the non-striker at the time, described the pain his partner was in.Before the injury, Rishabh Pant played some incredible shots, including a sweep against Jofra Archer for four•Getty Images

“Oh, he was in a lot of pain definitely,” Sai Sudharsan said. “But they’ve gone for scans. We will get to know [more] overnight.”Sai Sudharsan was asked how much of a loss it would be if the injury turned out to be serious (possibly a fracture). “Obviously, he was batting really well,” Sai Sudharsan said. “We will miss a batter if he doesn’t come back again. So it will definitely have consequences. But, at the same time, the batters we have batting right now and there are a few more allrounders inside, so we will try and give our best and bat long so that we negotiate that loss well.”Pant’s innings of 37 off 48 balls was largely restrained but featured several characteristically outrageous shots, including a slog sweep for four off Jofra Archer, followed by an unsuccessful reverse sweep off the next ball.This is the second injury he has sustained in as many Test matches, following a blow on his left index finger while keeping in England’s first innings at Lord’s. Dhruv Jurel substituted as India’s wicketkeeper for the rest of that Test match. Though Pant was in discomfort while batting, he was cleared to play in Manchester.

Cameron Green hopes that his vital half-century on the third day in Grenada can kick-start his career as a Test No. 3 having battled conditions where he admitted batters were often left “praying” that they weren’t undone by the unpredictable bounce.Having survived the second evening against a fired-up Jayden Seales, Green navigated a ball that was still new on the third morning, largely alongside the faultless Steven Smith in a stand of 93 that provided a cornerstone for Australia’s innings.After an early rain interruption, Green saw a delivery from Anderson Phillip shoot low past his off stump, beat wicketkeeper Shai Hope and run away for four byes. “Praying…that’s all you can really do,” he said. “You just try and forget about it as much as possible.”Related

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Green was able to keep his focus and compile a 122-ball half-century that was brought up with a crunching straight drive, only to under edge his next delivery into the stumps and he tossed his bat to the ground in frustration.Still, this was Green’s most substantial contribution yet since being handed the No.3 role against South Africa in the World Test Championship final last month. It was a much-needed encouraging sign at a time when Australia’s top three remains under significant scrutiny.”You always need innings here and there just to get you back and get you going, hopefully today was certainly one of those,” he said. “A lot of good things I can get out of just spending time in the middle. I think the ball’s faced has been trending up. The runs haven’t been there, but there’s certainly little positives I can take out of it.”Hopefully my output can be a little bit better than it has been, but today was a nice sign that things are hopefully trending well.”Green, who fell four balls after being given a life in the first innings, added he does not take notice of what is being said about his game outside of the changing room, but he isn’t blind to the expectations of an Australia top-order batter.”You all know when you’re playing that there’s runs that need to be made certainly when you’re batting up the order for Australia,” he said. “It’s a tough game, so being able to bounce back from tough times is equally as important.”Unsurprisingly, it was a surface where Green never felt fully ‘in’ given a ball was rarely far away from playing a few tricks although he admitted it may not always have looked that way when Smith was on strike.”Certainly, last night was tricky [and then] with the new ball today you had to start again and there were a few ball changes, so I never really felt at any point it looked that good,” he said. “You’d probably ask a different question to Steve. I think he was batting on a different wicket. He’s clearly a class above and that’s a tough wicket, so to play as well as he did was incredible.”Cameron Green dropped his bat in frustration after being bowled by Shamar Joseph•AFP/Getty Images

Smith was so alert to the challenges of the pitch that after facing an early delivery from Phillip which kept low, he altered his trigger movement to stay stiller at the crease.”This innings, I decided to bat on middle to stay a bit more still [to] try and negate lbw as much as possible with the ball shooting a little bit low,” Smith told the broadcast after play. “Try and use my full face as much as possible. I thought I did that pretty well. Then anything loose, just try and cash in on it. You’ve got to try and put the bad balls away to put the pressure back on the bowler. It was a nice partnership with Greeny. I thought he played really nicely and sort of set us up for the rest of the innings.”Smith termed Australia as being in a “nice spot” with a lead of 254 and three wickets in hand heading into the fourth day although added a target over 300 would be the aim.”I don’t think the wicket is going to get any better to bat,” he said. “They’ll probably be a few more tricks, particularly with the newer ball. I think we saw today when they had that ball change, it started to do a few more things, and it was tricky. I think the new ball is going to be pretty crucial for us when we get that opportunity.”West Indies believe the chase remains within their grasp although allrounder Justin Greaves, who claimed the wickets of Smith and Beau Webster, said they need to take some lessons from how Australia’s middle-order has played.”The new ball does pretty much everything,” he said. “As soon as the ball gets a bit softer, it gets a bit easier for batting. Whatever score we can limit Australia to, possibly under 300, we’ve got to try and believe we can get it.”We just need to be positive when we go to bat. Probably taking some notes from both Travis Head and Beau Webster throughout the series…just having that positive mindset.”

A lot is happening in Bangladesh cricket at the moment, but new head coach Phil Simmons wants the focus to be firmly on the upcoming Test series against South Africa.Things are messy. Simmons took over as Bangladesh’s head coach on Tuesday, replacing Chandika Hathurusinghe, who was sacked earlier this week and has since hit back at the BCB. Shakib Al Hasan, who hasn’t returned to Dhaka because of protests against him (for political reasons), has withdrawn from the Test side.When Simmons attended Bangladesh’s training session at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Saturday, protests for and against Shakib were on. All this, two days out from the first Test.Related

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“[Keeping distractions away from the players] is a big part of our job over the next few days, to make sure the focus is on the cricket, and not on the outside of cricket,” Simmons said. “We can control how we prepare for Monday, that’s how we are trying to get the team to focus.”The good thing is we have a very important Test match to prepare for. We win the next few Tests, and we are in contention for the [WTC] final. My first port of call is cricket and about getting the squad ready for Monday. The last two days [of training] have been brilliant. We have tried to leave out the confusion that’s around the cricket, and concentrate on preparing for Monday.”Simmons comes in with vast coaching experience, having worked with Zimbabwe, Ireland, West Indies, Afghanistan and PNG as well as several T20 franchises in the last 20 years. He was one of the candidates interviewed for the Bangladesh job in 2017 – to fill the role left vacant by Hathurusinghe – but was not selected.”All these experiences [with other teams] will help me in the next few days to get me ready for Monday,” Simmons said. “Afghanistan helped me with the language barrier sometimes. Ireland helped me with developing young players. It all comes in [handy] at the end of the day. I have to use all those experiences in this assignment.”Conversation with the captain [Najmul Hossain Shanto] has been about his thoughts on players and direction he wants to take the team. It was also about what we do before Monday. It is generally about how we go into the first Test match. As we get to know each other, there will be more discussions about ODIs etc. Now it is about Test cricket, and what we are going to do in these two matches.”Shakib Al Hasan’s fans show their support for the cricketer outside the Shere Bangla Stadium•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Simmons said he took more interest in the role after Bangladesh’s 2-0 Test series win against Pakistan and was particularly impressed by the youngsters in the side.”The interest comes from seeing the quality of the young players. They handled themselves well against Pakistan,” he said. “They didn’t do well in the T20Is against India but they played against the best T20 team in the world, so you have things to take out of there. It all added up to an assignment, which I enjoyed. One, [there are] young players to develop. Two, there’s Tests and ODIs involved. It wasn’t a hard decision [to take the job].”He believes Bangladesh have a good chance to beat South Africa, who haven’t won a Test series in the subcontinent in the last ten years, but was wary of taking them lightly.”It is definitely a good opportunity. Bangladesh are usually very strong at home. So it is a very good opportunity for us to win the Test series,” Simmons said. “South Africa has that [record in the subcontinent] hanging over their head but they are a resilient team. They will work hard to change that.”

Northern Superchargers 147 for 3 (Pooran 62) beat Southern Brave 146 for 8 (Pollard 37) by seven wicketsNicholas Pooran smashed 62 from 34 deliveries to power Andrew Flintoff’s Northern Superchargers to their first win in The Hundred this season.Against an attack of Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Rehan Ahmed and Akeal Hosein, Pooran was dominant from the get-go – demonstrating both why he had been first pick in The Hundred Draft and also the power of using your own bat, having been forced to borrow Phil Salt’s on his debut against Trent Rockets.Captain Harry Brook played a support role in a 50-partnership with Pooran, and was there at the end to win it in style and see the team in purple get off the mark in this year’s competition.Southern Brave weren’t quite at their domineering best, as they had been at Utilita Bowl last week, but they didn’t do much wrong other than come up against Pooran with the bat and Adil Rashid with the ball.On a track where spin was always going to be important, Rashid’s 1 for 19 contributed to Brave’s total of 146 for 8 coming up perhaps a touch light – though it did still require Superchargers’ second-highest chase in the competition – but at the interval James Vince and his side would have felt in the game.Archer fired up and touched 93mph but from the 15th ball onwards it was Pooran show, the West Indian hitting five sixes and giving the Leeds crowd their fair share of catching practice on the way to a raucous home win.Meerkat Match Hero Pooran said: “It feels amazing. After that first game we lost, playing back to back games here at home, we wanted the win.”The guys played brilliantly, and I think the bowlers did amazingly.”It’s always beautiful to play here in England. The surface, the atmosphere – it’s lovely.”

Only 60 balls were bowled in England and Scotland’s washed-out match in Barbados but there was more to glean about the defending champions than there was about their opponents, other than that Scotland have aggressive openers who fear neither express pace nor spin, whether it be the off or leg variety.That an experienced and skilful bowling attack created just one chance in half an innings was notable, alongside an appreciation of Michael Jones’ drives and pulls and George Munsey’s bag of sweeps.Scotland were 31 for 0 in the fifth over when Munsey skied a miscue off Mark Wood that eventually landed in Jos Buttler’s gloves, but a no-ball call from the third umpire halted celebrations. It was just the second front-foot no-ball of Wood’s T20I career, prompting an unfamiliar sensation of dismay.”I was panicking,” Wood admitted, speaking the morning after the match. “You just don’t want it on your mind… I bowled 13 balls yesterday, and one of them is a wicket and it’s the one I’ve no-balled. If any of the others was the no-ball, I’m probably sitting here thinking, I’ve got one-for whatever, it’s not a problem, but because I’m getting the wicket off that ball, it hurts the team.”That’s what disappoints me. If [Munsey] goes on … he reverse sweeps Rash and every time that’s happening I’m thinking, ‘oh no, that’s my fault again’. That’s the feeling I don’t like, letting down my team-mates. I’m come in feeling, ‘oh no, I’ve overstepped, I can’t believe I’ve done that’. I very rarely overstep. In practice I’m diligent with it. [Neil Killeen, England’s bowling coach] is going, ‘It’s fine man, move on. You haven’t a problem’. To have 0 for 11 off two overs in T20, you’d think that’s not bad. But if I was a touch more on it, one for 10 looks a lot better. We were just fractions off yesterday.”Wood was selected ahead of Reece Topley and was handed the ball for the first over of the match, with both decisions raising a few eyebrows. It was a rare occurrence; the only previous time he had bowled the opening over for England in a T20I was a week earlier against Pakistan at The Oval.”I was disappointed with the new ball and felt it could hurt the team,” he said. “I will address it in training before the next game. It will be a squad effort, this. Whether we mix and match next game, I will be ready whenever the captain or team needs me.”Related

• Scotland captain admits 'frustration' as rain wrecks finely poised contest

• Scotland's 90 for 0 in vain as match is abandoned

• From punter to protagonist – Phil Salt returns to Kensington Oval

• Scotland openers make the running before rain frustrates in Barbados

• Matthew Cross: 'We've got four games, and we've got to win four games'

Wood doesn’t expect to play every game of England’s campaign, as conditions and match-ups influence selections. He has been working on a slightly-slower-ball variation which he pulled out in his second over against Scotland. Munsey punched the first of these through the covers, the second time the ball hit the splice of his bat off a good length.”That seemed to go okay,” he said. “I thought yesterday’s wicket was going to be different, when you stood on it it was hard but when you bowled the ball stuck in the wicket a bit, quite slow. So it made the cutters more effective, not the slower-ball ones but the fast cutters. Munsey played one off the back foot for two and patted one back to me that gripped a little … so it’s adapting my game a little bit so it’s not just out-and-out quick as I can – I obviously like doing that – but having a bit more skill around it as well.”Wood has yet to unveil the other variation he’s been developing (“You will see it when I bring it in!”) but agrees that cross-seam bowling of the type mastered by Liam Plunkett in the 2019 World Cup could be key on Caribbean pitches.”‘Pudsy’ did that well in most conditions. But not necessarily a slow slower ball, maybe a drop in pace of 6-7 mph where you’re still driving it in [to the pitch] but it spits or holds a little. That’s what I tried yesterday and felt good with it, so maybe do it again and land it in a decent area.”I’ve bowled them before but not to the extent where I am as accurate with it, so I’m working on being more pinpoint, so not just bowling it and expecting something to happen – the best players pick up everything – but you have to land it in a good place as well.”Wood’s only previous experience playing in the Caribbean was England’s tour ahead of the 2019 World Cup, during which he took his first Test five-wicket haul and was player of the match for the third Test in Saint Lucia. Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer have provided him with local knowledge, as has Kieron Pollard, who – along with Andrew Flintoff – has joined England’s coaching staff as a specialist consultant for this tournament.”I think he’s still feeling his way into the group,” Wood said of Pollard. “But the little bits he has spoken about, everyone’s listened. He carries an aura and is very respected in the group because he’s done so much and I think knowing the conditions is going to be vital going forward. He had mentioned about the pitch yesterday about bowling cutters and the fact that, if you just sort of dib it there, it doesn’t react. You need to drive it in. It’s just little things. It might seem so obvious but those little things people say – the one-percenters – can make a big difference.””[Flintoff] comes up to people individually, pulls them aside and keeps things very simple. He mentioned to me that he didn’t have a slower ball. And I was thinking I very rarely bowl slower balls. He told me had three balls – a bouncer, a fast yorker and a hard length. He’s great to have around the group, easy to talk to and carries that natural aura. He’s a big guy, it’s a clash of the titans with him and Pollard together!”Speaking of big clashes, the shared points with Scotland could have huge implications for Group B and Saturday’s match against Australia.”It puts a different spin. If we win that game compared to losing, it has a different look and feel. Lose, and I’m sure for you guys in the media there will be questions asked like the last World Cup in India, so it’ll be an important game for us and one we’ll be desperately trying to win.”