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England captain Eoin Morgan lauded Chris Woakes’ “brilliant” comeback in the last over in which the seamer sealed their five-run win in Kolkata to narrow the series margin to 2-1. India needed 16 runs off the last over then Kedar Jadhav swung for a six and a four on the first two balls of the over before Woakes came back with four dot balls, including Jadhav’s wicket on the penultimate ball of the over.”It was brilliant, even with the pressure when the first two balls went for boundaries,” Morgan said. “He managed to get the bloke out and we’re right back into the game. They still needed six off four balls. So a couple of good yorkers, a couple of singles, we were still favourites to win. Thankfully, the man at the boundary [Sam Billings] managed to get rid of him and I thought it was going to take something special to get them across the line with two new batsmen. Credit to Woakes he was there till the end.”Woakes had started the series with a stifling spell of 5-0-12-0 in Pune before shining as England’s best bowler during the second ODI in Cuttack, reducing India to 25 for 3. On Sunday, he did not impress as much in the first few overs, taken for 11 in the first over, but his second spell lifted India’s asking rate before he finished things off in the last over. Morgan said Woakes was not appreciated as much as he deserved to be.”He’s been incredible in all forms for the last two years, probably not so much in T20 but in 50 overs and Tests he has had an incredible two years,” Morgan said. “People could be giving him a stick for not bowling fast enough, saying he can’t bowl in Test matches because he’s not fast enough, but he has been relentless. How he has worked and the results that have shown through have been outstanding. People say he doesn’t get much acknowledgement but he certainly does in our group because we appreciate him for what he is.”England’s first win of the tour was set up by a number of other players too. Jason Roy hit his third straight half-century, the recalled Jonny Bairstow made 56, and Ben Stokes produced an all-round show with an unbeaten 57 off 39 balls and the three wickets of Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and R Ashwin. Morgan said not giving Stokes the last over had nothing to do with him conceding four straight sixes to Carlos Brathwaite in the World T20 final last year at the same venue.”I was actually thinking of bowling him two in a row and bowling him out because he bowled a great over and got the wicket of Pandya. Some days they work, some days they don’t. The bowlers made everything we did today look really good, which they do all the time. It’s great to see them bowl today and, compared to the first two games, there was lot of improvement which is very important. On top of a win, particularly given how damp it was, how wet the ball was, and playing against a strong side, I think it holds a lot of weight.”Stokes was pleased with playing a pivotal role in the result, confirming that winning at Eden Gardens had cleared “bad memories” of the World T20 final loss.”This is just a win on its own terms, that was nine months ago, the memories of that have gone,” Stokes said. “But, yeah, it’s nice to come back here and get rid of bad memories of that game. As I said, it was another game of cricket to focus on and nice to get a win here.”Morgan also applauded the start the top order had been giving them in conditions that provided the seam bowlers with the most help of the series. Roy and Sam Billings, the latter who replaced the injured Alex Hales, added 98 for the first wicket and denied India early breakthroughs.”For a bunch of sloggers we did well,” Morgan said. “The guys at the top of the order, Roy and Sam, they were beaten a lot in the first ten overs, and we weren’t sure what a good score would be, but I think after ten overs down we were 47 or 57 [43]. It was a great start, they held their nerve, backed their strengths, things that we do as a batting unit, and it set up the innings really well for us.”

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur was given a rough reminder of how quickly fortunes can change in Pakistan cricket after seeing his side slump to a 5-0 ODI series defeat in New Zealand. The whitewash was just the third 5-0 loss in Pakistan’s history, and the first since 2010. Speaking after the game, he said he refused to use the conditions as an excuse, instead laying the responsibility at the feet of the top order.”They’ve got the ability and without wanting to look for excuses, they need to get better in these conditions,” Arthur said. “Our guys need to step up, that’s the bottom line. Our top order haven’t done a job for us in the series and that’s a pity. Haris Sohail coming in gave us some stability, and he showed us how to apply oneself in these conditions.”Pakistan’s struggles against the new ball in seaming conditions have been brutally exposed this series, with Trent Boult and Tim Southee running riot in the first Powerplay. Pakistan lost their first two wickets for under 20 runs in all five matches. They found themselves reduced to 54 for 5, 39 for 3, 32 for 8, 11 for 2, and 57 for 5 at the starts of the five matches, meaning they found themselves playing catch-up for the best part of their innings all series. With the World Cup now less than 18 months away, Arthur said the side may need to reevaluate their approach.”With the World Cup coming up in a year’s time, it’s important now that the next one-day team we play is a team that we really believe can shake the World Cup up. It’s not discrediting to the players in the dressing room because they have tried exceptionally hard, but we do need to reassess where we go to make sure we get it right next time when we come out, particularly in foreign conditions.”At the same time, he defended the players that were part of the tour, lauding the way young players had stood up whenever given the chance, and warning against writing off players who, just six months ago, won the Champions Trophy.”Every time we bring young boys in, they stand up. They have done it, they have done it under pressure. They did it at the Champions Trophy for us. When Fakhar Zaman walked in, he changed the tempo in the Champions Trophy, playing fearless cricket. Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, these are the guys who’d do anything for you. When we play in our own conditions, we dominate because our guys are comfortable and they play very well there. This is like playing on the north pole for them. It’s so different but we got to be better at that.”But our blue print that we had was good enough to win us the Champions Trophy, it was good enough to win nine ODIs in a row. But we haven’t played well enough here, and that’s a fact. Our guys have come out of playing a lot of T20 leagues. I am not making excuses, that’s just the way it is. We haven’t adapted well and haven’t played well enough. But the blue print for us still remains the same, but obviously personnel changes could happen.”Arthur also said New Zealand deserved credit for the way they had played, and that playing against them would be difficult in any conditions. Kane Williamson’s men have enjoyed a purple patch of late, impressing in a series defeat in India last year, before going on a run at home that has seen them notch up a record number of consecutive wins. They currently have a 100 per cent winning record this home season, winning two Tests, three ODIs and two T20Is against the West Indies before the 5-0 against Pakistan.”They are very good team. I am incredibly impressed with how they are playing and I have watched them over the period of time. Every team right now in their conditions is a very good team. But you are judged how you play away from home, and I watched them in India, and New Zealand played exceptionally well outside. They seem to have covered all the bases.”

Ramith Rambukwella is back playing domestic cricket after being released on bail on Saturday, with SLC yet to make a decision on what disciplinary measures – if any – will be imposed.Arrested on Friday night for assault and drunk driving, Rambukwella has since had the assault charges dropped, having come to a settlement with the complainants. The drunk driving charge remains however; he is due in court on Tuesday.Although initially an SLC official told ESPNcricinfo that the board had only found out about the incident “through the media” and that it had “not had any official reports of the incident”, Rambukwella’s behaviour is set to be discussed at a manager’s committee meeting on Tuesday. As such his contract with SLC may be under review. His ongoing participation in domestic cricket – he played a one-day match for Tamil Union on Monday – is less likely to be affected, but may also be under scrutiny.Of particular concern to the board will be Rambukwella’s history of disciplinary issues. He was arrested in 2016 under another drunk driving charge after he crashed his car into a wall. In 2013, he had also caused mild panic onboard a flight, when he attempted to open a cabin door at 35,000 feet while returning from a tour with the Sri Lanka A side.A tall offspinning allrounder, Rambukwella played two T20 internationals for Sri Lanka, the most recent of which was in July 2016.

Theunis de Bruyn, a top-order batsman and current captain of the Knights franchise, was named as the only new cap in South Africa’s 13-man squad for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka, which start on Boxing Day. De Bruyn was added as the reserve batsman in place of Rilee Rossouw, who traveled with the squad to Australia but is nursing a foot injury.

South Africa Test squad changes

In: Theunis de Bruyn, Wayne Parnell
Out: Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Rilee Rossouw (all injured), Tabraiz Shamsi

South Africa could also not consider Morne Morkel – yet to recover from a back injury that has kept him out for all but one first-class match since the CPL – Dale Steyn or AB de Villiers in their squad. Left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell has recovered from a rib injury sustained during the one-day series against Australia in October to return to the squad but there is no room for reserve wicketkeeper Dane Vilas or left-arm wristspinner Tabraiz Shamsi. Keshav Maharaj has been included as the lone specialist spinner. Dwaine Pretorius, who was called up when Steyn was injured in Australia, is also not part of the squad.Stephen Cook, who scored a century in the Adelaide Test after a poor tour of Australia, has been retained to open the batting with Dean Elgar and the rest of South Africa’s line-up takes on familiar look. Batting coach Neil McKenzie has tipped the out-of-form Hashim Amla to turn things around in this series while JP Duminy and Temba Bavuma will make up a top six headlined by new Test captain Faf du Plessis.Should de Bruyn be needed, he brings fine form with him. The right-hander, who played for South Africa at the 2012 Under-19 World Cup and began his career with Titans, was eighth on last season’s first-class run charts and is third this season, with 423 runs at 60.42. He was preferred over Colin Ackermann – who has signed as a non-overseas player for Leicestershire from next season – and Khaya Zondo, who sits second on the run charts.Parnell’s inclusion is more curious. He has not played a first-class match this season but has turned out for the Cobras in their last seven T20 matches. Parnell last played a Test for South Africa in February 2014, against Australia, but was included in the squad that played New Zealand in August. He did not play either of the two Tests and is likely to act as back-up to a pace attack that will comprise Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott.South Africa’s pace pack takes on a new look from the three prongs of old – Steyn, Morkel and Philander – and this squad will doubtless raise questions about Morkel’s future. He suffered a bulging disc in his back earlier in the year and has been struggling to return to full fitness since then. Morkel played one first-class match for his franchise, Titans, and in all three of South Africa’s practice matches in Australia but was not cleared to play a Test. After the first Test in Perth, South African team management said Morkel was “90-95% fit.”Since the end of that series, Morkel was due to play for Titans in the T20 competition but has been unavailable for selection while his injury continues to be monitored. Unlike de Villiers, who hopes to be fit for the ODIs against Sri Lanka mid-January and Steyn, who is targeting June 2017 for a comeback, there is no word on when Morkel may take the field again.South Africa Test squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Stephen Cook, Theunis de Bruyn, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada.

England, according to their slogan, are striving to ‘go boldly’ in this World Cup campaign. It isn’t hard to see that disposition reflected in their words as well as their play: expansive and forthright. Liberated of major host-nation expectations, a process that was actually helped along their opening-round loss to India, Heather Knight’s side are as healthy as they are happy.In turn, there couldn’t be a better time for them to cop Australia in the group stage of this tournament, and they know it. The world champions, of course, have done little wrong to date, reflected in a faultless win-loss ledger after four starts. But, as a result of captain Meg Lanning’s shoulder injury – it was still unclear on match eve whether she will take her place at No.3 in Bristol – they strike the more discombobulated figure of the two. Unavoidably so: all the depth in the world cannot replace the best player on the planet.”It’s still attached last time I looked,” Joe Dawes, Australia’s bowling coach, said. “That’s for the medical people to work out, I’m not sure. We’re preparing for her to play tomorrow, as far as I know, and see how she wakes up in the morning, I guess.”England are too, Knight confident that, no matter what, the utterly dominant batsman will be ready to roll when the team sheets are being inked. “We’re fully preparing for Meg,” she said.England have long been gearing up for this blockbuster. No moment was more significant to coach Mark Robinson’s wholesale reform of the side than their loss on the previous occasion the two teams met, in last year’s World T20 semi-final. It’s a constant point of reference any time he’s drawn on the post-Charlotte Edwards era.”We were different on the day when we played that semi-final,” he recalled. “We couldn’t do some of the basics – the non-skill things – in that semi-final. So, that’s just non-negotiable – an England coach should never have to talk about fitness.”In Robinson’s New England, his side also cannot allow themselves to be intimidated by the Australian machine. “We respect Australia but we have to respect ourselves and what have done as a coaching staff, and Heather as captain, is try and give the girls belief in themselves,” he said. “So for me, it is not about winning or losing, it’s about making sure we all turn up.”For Knight’s part, she sees the squad as being “in a really good place” – radically different to when they capitulated in that 2016 clash. “We function as a team a lot better,” she said. “We don’t rely on a few players; we have got a lot more leaders.”Meg Lanning’s shoulder injury has come at an inopportune moment for the world champions•Getty Images/ICC

Helping with the psychology of preparing for an Australian clash is familiarity, with so many of the frontliners facing off regularly on the semi-professional T20 circuit. So now is as good a time as any, she thinks, to break England’s 24-year World Cup hoodoo against them.”It is the big games that we have been preparing for, and a lot of the work we have done is towards these big games and standing up,” she said. “There is always going to be that added pressure with the old enemy but hopefully we can, as a group, rise to that.”The precondition for an upset is England’s record-breaking batting continuing apace. They now boast four World Cup century-makers: Knight and Nat Sciver clocking their maiden ODI tons against Pakistan, then Tammy Beaumont and Sarah Taylor combining for an outrageous 275-run tryst against a full-strength South Africa on Wednesday.”It is as good as it gets,” Robinson said of the stand – the highest for England in ODIs. “Both of them got into that lovely place where they were just playing with absolute freedom, on auto-pilot, in the zone, that magical place. And the joy they had with each other. They hopefully express that as a team; they play best when they are playing with a smile.”It capped Taylor’s return to the game in emphatic style, her 147 from 104 balls a galaxy away from when she walked away from it all following the aforementioned World T20 nadir due to crippling anxiety. “She never really expected to be in this position,” Robinson said. “The thing we talk about with Sarah is the bonus of her being here. Everything she achieves is extra.”Her year-long omission, according to the coach, did have unexpected benefits as the side quickly found its way under Knight’s leadership. “We played a lot without her which was probably quite good for us as a team (with) other players coming to the fore,” he said. “The team now know that they don’t have to rely on anybody.”Australia are less interested in words. They just want to do what they’re good at. “Win,” Dawes said of their plan against England. “We don’t worry too much about the opposition.” Simple as that. “We’re pretty happy coming into the business end and peaking nicely.”The surface, a fresh pitch, is expected to be hard and fast – just the way Robinson likes it. “Gloucestershire have been outstanding with the wickets they have produced so far,” he said. “With the way (women) play nowadays, hitting and manipulating the ball the way they can, they need the surfaces to do their skills justice.”For how that effects selection, Knight said it is “unlikely” a trio of tweakers will be used. But that has been the status quo for Australia’s side so far in this tournament, three of Australia’s four spinners rotated through the XI in each fixture. Dawes hinted that it will be the same again, regardless of the pitch, due to the tap seamers have been taking across the board.Robinson’s relaxed final thoughts are that they have earned this chance to knock off the champions. “Australia are an outstanding team,” he said. “We have got a great opportunity to see how far we have come, win or lose. We’ll have a yard stick to see exactly where we are at the moment.” Not at all a bad place to be.

Australia’s vice-captain David Warner is one demerit point away from a ban after he accepted a level two charge from the ICC for his part in the stairwell confrontation with Quinton de Kock in Durban.De Kock, however, has contested the level one charge against him and will attend a hearing – along with South Africa captain Faf du Plessis and manager Mohammed Moosajee – in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday evening. Match Referee Jeff Crowe will adjudicate on the matter.Warner was hit with three demerit points for the offence and also fined 75% of his match fee, about A$13,500, after meetings between the match referee Jeff Crowe and Australian team management on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Warner joined Kagiso Rabada and Faf du Plessis on the South African side in this series, as players who will be suspended if they are found guilty of one more disciplinary infraction.CCTV footage from the fourth day of the Durban Test showed Warner walking up the stairs to the players’ dressing room, engaged in heated conversation with someone else. As the clip rolled on, it emerged that he was talking to de Kock, and at several points had to be restrained by his team-mates until the Australia captain Steven Smith came out to pull his vice-captain away from the scene.

The job of the crowd at a sporting event is to create the best possible atmosphere for their team. They need to be noisy in their support of the home team, nicely nasty when the opposition are around and never short of a contribution to the sporting spectacle in front of them. Dunedin’s university crowd got that exactly right, especially when it came to Morne Morkel, who had a cunning plan to win them over.”The best way to get them on your side for the rest of the day is to do something funny and I thought I will join the crowd and have a down-down,” Morkel said, referring to his antics on the third afternoon when the students were sculling their beers on the embankment and a thirsty Morkel suspected if he wanted to quench his thirst, he would have to copy their methods.”I knew if I went to the cooler box, they were going to shout ‘down down’. It has happened to me before, in Australia,” Morkel said. “After that Faf came to me and he wanted me to bowl another over but I was too bloated. So I said, ‘Faf, you need to give me half an hour here.'”Luckily for Morkel, a full stomach – and not his bad back – was the only thing that kept him from bowling at that point as he confirmed his return to the Test cricket, after 14 months out of the side. Morkel had not been part of the Test XI since January 2016, had not played an international match since June last year and had been nursing a bulging disc in his back since. During his rehabilitation, he had played just one full first-class game and coming into this Test series, the only game time he had was two List A matches.”I was more nervous that I don’t pull up [a back strain]. That’s the last thing you want, especially when you are playing three seam bowlers. I was a little bit nervous because I hadn’t been in the field for longer than 50 overs. In the back of my mind it was going to be a real test going for more 20 overs with the ball and 100 overs in the field,” Morkel said. “One of my biggest worries was that in Dunedin I knew it was going to be cold, so I was wondering if my muscles would recover. There were a lot of ifs and buts.”In total, Morkel spent 102 overs in the field and bowled 24 overs. Results aside, just to have put in that amount of time is reason enough for Morkel to declare his comeback a success. “For me to break that mental barrier was quite pleasing.and now I can put those things to rest and just focus on cricket,” he said. “All those demons that were on my mind, I managed to control it and get through it. I have that peace of mind that I can play Test matches again.”Over the last few months, Morkel has received some medical opinion that his injury would end his career. “In the back of my mind, I didn’t believe it,” he said.But he knew that in order to return, he would have to do extensive strengthening work. “The main issue was that my lower core was weak and in a way I needed to rewire my body,” he explained. “I had so many bad movements, mechanically with my body that created tension and inflammation. I had a massive bulge in the top of the core which caused spasms and all those sorts of things.”With an important tour of England coming up, Morkel has decided to skip the 2017 IPL•BCCI

Part of Morkel’s recovery has included the use of Pilates, some of it has concentrated on his action and a lot of it has been in his mind. “I’ve had a lot of work in getting certain muscles to switch on and switch off at certain times,” he said. “I needed to find a way to relax my upper core so my lower core could work.”Getting that right took time, which is why Morkel’s return was postponed several times. He was originally due to play Tests in Australia in November last year and went on the tour but only took part in the warm-up matches, he was then ruled out of the Sri Lanka series at home with a view to playing in the ODIs but a recurrence of symptoms meant he could only return for these Tests. And still, he cannot be absolutely certain the issue has disappeared.”I don’t think I have solved it. I need to take a lot of responsibility now, to look after my body. I can’t take any shortcuts with my training and my gym work. I need to manage my load with cricket outside the South African season and just be clever with that,” Morkel said.He is already doing that. Morkel opted out of this year’s IPL auction with a view to prolonging his international career as long as possible. “Because I haven’t played any cricket for South Africa for so long, if I put my name in the auction, it will be frowned upon, plus we have some big cricket coming in England. I thought if I go well in this New Zealand series, then I’ve got four weeks at home to really get strong. For me that was the important thing: to get myself fit for South Africa and to play well for South Africa,” Morkel said.He has not put a timeframe on how much longer he is looking to play at the highest level beyond “as long as possible”. But he is expecting to take his place in the team later this week at the Basin Reserve, where he took career-best figures of 6 for 23 the last time South Africa were in New Zealand, five years ago. He hopes he can draw on his experience to enjoy similar success this time.”I bowled quite well in that [2011-12] series and for some reason my length was a touch fuller. Depending on the sort of surfaces they are going to prepare – and it looks like they are going to go with slow, turning wickets – it’s going to be crucial for me to play with my lengths. Even though It looks pretty and you can control the right with back of a length, I reckon if you want to strike and you want to get wickets you have to go a touch fuller. It worked for me last time,” Morkel said. “Then again, I also need to play to my strengths. If I just bowl full, its going to be easy for the batsmen so I need to bowl that intimidating length and get the guys on the back foot and try and strike from there. It’s about the intensity that I bowl with and to have body language. It’s about reading the situation and knowing when to go fuller.”And about reading the crowd and when to join in the fun. Now that Morkel is in the twilight years of his career, he wants to do that as much as possible.

Luis Reece carried Derbyshire Falcons to the brink of the NatWest T20 Blast quarter-finals with 66 from 49 balls that sealed a three wicket win over the Durham Jets at Derby.Reece scored his fourth T20 fifty as the Falcons survived a late wobble inspired by Durham skipper Paul Coughlin to chase down 162 with three balls to spare. Derbyshire go second in the North Group with two matches to play.Stuart Poynter had made a competition best unbeaten 61 from 32 balls as the Jets recovered to 161 for 7 but Reece again played a decisive hand to turn the game.Durham’s innings began badly with Keaton Jennings run out by a direct hit from midwicket in the first over and Graham Clarke lbw going back to Wayne Madsen in the third.Michael Richardson went for a duck in the fourth when Hardus Viljoen side-footed the ball into the stumps in his follow through and although Tom Latham twice pulled the South African for four, the Jets hopes of a substantial total were dented when he swung Matt Henry into the hands of deep midwicket in the last over of the powerplay.Jack Burnham and Paul Coughlin added 38 before the Jets skipper was caught behind trying to pull Ben Cotton and the Falcons looked in control when Burnham was caught at third man in the 17th over.Luis Reece has had a fine NatWest Blast tournament•Getty Images

But Poynter had already lofted Imran Tahir for six and he drove and pulled two more from Cotton in the 19th over to reach 50 from 28 balls.A full toss from Henry was dispatched over deep point for his fourth six and when he late cut the last ball for four, 35 had come from the final two overs.The Falcons lost Billy Godleman in the second over despite replays showing James Weighell was perilously close to a no ball and after Matt Critchley pulled Chris Rushworth for six, he miscued to midwicket to reduce the home side to 33 for 2 in the 5th over.As one of the leading batsmen in the competition, Madsen’s wicket was key and he moved smoothly to 24 but then swung Ryan Pringle to wide long on.Reece, badly dropped at deep cover on 21, pulled Jennings for six but the Jets were building pressure which told when Alex Hughes top edged a pull in the 15th over.Reece took two fours from Weighell as 16 came from the 16th over, Henry pulled Usman Arshad for six, and although wickets fell in the closing overs, they had done enough.

Colin Munro may not have been the most confident player in the New Zealand camp when the ongoing tour of India started last month. He had just returned to the ODI side, he was being asked to open for the first time in his international career and he didn’t have the best technique to combat spin on the slow Indian surfaces. The troubles swelled when his opening partner Martin Guptill was unable to get strong starts, and Munro fell victim to slower balls for two straight matches at the beginning of the series.After Munro’s blistering half-century in the third ODI in Kanpur, the Indian bowlers thought of deceiving him with some slower ones again in the second T20 on Saturday. Munro didn’t have to face many in the Powerplay, until debutant Mohammed Siraj sent down a few in his second over. That eighth over had two slower deliveries dispatched by Munro over his favoured leg side for sixes.Munro showed his issues with slower balls was not a weakness, but only a brief trend based on a small sample size, something he overcame pretty soon, especially once the formats changed.”To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too many slower balls in the first couple of ODIs,” Munro said on Saturday. “Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] and [Jasprit] Bumrah just bowled back of a length, trying to nick you out, get lbws. And the way I came out was aggressive and that made them change a bit. They bowled really well in terms of that. Bumrah’s slower ball… he has made a name of himself with that slower ball and Bhuvi’s knuckle ball is very good with the new ball.”[Now] it’s Twenty20 and you’ve got to be aggressive. Tonight it came off, another night it might not.”India’s best fast bowler against Munro on Saturday was Bumrah but he said changing his plans on the field was not easy and does not always work when a batsman like Munro is in that mood.”You can’t have a fixed plan,” Bumrah explained of bowling to Munro. “Over here if you had a fixed plan that you bowl slower balls, he was hitting them really well.”As compared to the hitches at the beginning of the tour, Munro looks a different player now. Twenty20 is the format he is more suited to as he gets to express himself “more freely” without the pressure of building a long innings. Munro is a specialised T20 player who struck his first T20I century earlier this year against Bangladesh. He may have been dropped from the ODI side then, but he followed it by racking up 366 runs for Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL, with three half-centuries, at a strike rate of 135. Munro had even considered turning into a freelance T20 player as he was not a regular in the ODI side and has played only one Test so far.”I enjoy Twenty20,” Munro said. “It’s a game where you know it’s a short game and you go out there to express yourself and when it comes off, it comes off. Sometimes you put too much pressure on yourself in the longer form where you’ve got to score runs all the time. In Twenty20, you just got to go out there and express yourself and take the good with the bad. Sometimes it comes off like it did tonight and the other night it didn’t come off. You just got to go with the flow.”I think I’ve always felt good in this format. It was just a matter of it hasn’t quite clicked. It’s one of those games where when you’re going well, you’re going really well. And when you’re not, you’re not. For me it’s a mindset thing. I’ve tried not to expect too much from myself playing at this level or at Twenty20. It’s just about trying to keep as even as you can and I think I’ve done that over the last two years.”Switching formats requires both technical as well as mental changes. To combat the challenges posed by India’s quick bowlers, Munro batted with a slightly more open stance on Saturday that helped him clear his front foot and hammer four sixes over his preferred long-on arc, an area that fetched him 30% of his runs. The key is not only to score runs though. Munro is frank about why things have not worked for him in the past when he put too much pressure on himself.”For me, the biggest part of being successful at this level is the mental side,” Munro said. “I’ve scored runs for Auckland for a long time, it’s just trying to get the same mental aptitude at this level. I think in the past I’ve probably put too much pressure on myself and haven’t always cemented my spot in the team. So it’s always what can I do to make the team rather than what I do now – which is what can I do to win a game. Or what I can do to contribute to the game. And that’s what makes a difference. Even if it’s 20 off 10, that’s a contribution, whereas in the past I’ve been not good enough to stay in the team. But now it’s more of a mental mindshift.”Munro’s innings had the elements a T20 century usually has – he attacked from the very first ball he faced, he survived at least two chances – put down by the Indian fielders – and he collected a lot of runs off edges. Not just the innings on Saturday, his scores in T20 internationals this year also reflect the ups and downs of a T20 game: 0, 101, 0, 0, 7 and 109*.No matter how the third T20 goes for Munro, he would be fairly pleased with the performances on the India tour so far. He now says he “loves” batting at the top of the order and scoring a hundred through the innings in India “means a heck of a lot”.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAdelaide Strikers belied expectations after holding their nerve against Sydney Sixers at the SCG.The Strikers were in control after high-quality innings from Alex Carey and Jonathan Wells and excellent Power-play bowling upfront left the Sixers needing 61 from 30 balls will no recognised batsmen left. But Steve O’Keefe, Johan Botha and Ben Dwarshuis found a way to reduce the equation to 22 off seven before O’Keefe and Dwarshuis hit consecutive sixes off Ben Laughlin and Michael Neser. Another well-run two made it eight runs off three balls but Neser responded with three pinpoint yorkers to secure the Strikers second straight win.Conversely, the talent-laden Sixers slumped to their third straight loss after their batting line-up failed to fire again.Lefties galore
The Strikers’ new-look top four is made up exclusively of left-handers. It allowed the Sixers to set up their attack specifically to counter them. The Sixers made several changes to the side that lost their first two matches. Moises Henriques was ill, with Botha standing-in as captain. Dwarshuis came in for Doug Bollinger as a like-for-like but the Sixers picked the extra right-arm off-spinner in Will Somerville specifically to counter the left-handers. Jake Weatherald has a poor record against left-arm quicks in the BBL and the trend continued after he skied a Dwarshuis short ball in the first over. Botha and Somerville were able to bowl six of the first 12 overs at Carey and Travis Head, conceding 40 runs between them and picking up Head. By the time Colin Ingram fell to Dwarshuis for a run-a-ball 15 the Strikers had only managed to score 7.23 per over through 13 overs and were headed towards a below-par total at the SCG.O’Keefe not used, Carey and Wells cash in
According to , Steve O’Keefe has the third-best economy rate at the SCG in the last three BBL seasons. Botha, understandably, did not use the left-arm spinner in the first 13 overs against the four left-handers. But when the right-handed Wells walked out, with one boundary significantly larger than the other, it seemed a perfect time to bring O’Keefe on. Instead, Botha opted for Somerville again. Wells nailed a sweep, with the turn, for four to get himself going. Wells and Carey put together an unbroken 74-run stand in the last seven overs to get the total up to 167 without facing a single delivery from O’Keefe.Carey displayed power and placement early to get to his maiden BBL half-century. But despite losing his timing late in the innings, his supreme fitness saw him sprint four twos and one three. He finished with an unbeaten 83 from 59 balls. Wells’ cameo was outstanding too. He hit two fours and a massive 104m six onto the roof of the Bill O’Reilly stand in the last four balls of the innings to finish with 33 not out from 19 balls.Strikers strike early again
Taking early wickets in the Powerplay has been Perth Scorchers’ modus operandi for years when defending totals. The Strikers look to have copied the blueprint, attacking with their seamers upfront. Billy Stanlake conceded just two runs in the first over. Jason Roy flicked him for a huge six in the third over, but Stanlake set the trap for Daniel Hughes tucking him up with two men back and Hughes picked out one of them on the boundary. Neser had Nic Maddinson nicking off with Carey completing an outstanding one-handed catch. Roy, who looked to be fighting his way out of a form slump, did not do his homework on Ben Laughlin, lofting a predictable slower ball first-up high to mid-off. The Sixers were 3 for 42 at the end of the Powerplay before spin was needed.Silk road too long
Jordan Silk did his best to make the chase interesting. In his first appearance for the season as a replacement for Henriques, he struck ball as sweetly as any batsman all night. He raced to 50 off 31 balls with seven classy boundaries. But when he chopped Rashid Khan onto his stumps all hope seemed lost.Rashid had earlier bowled the Sixers’ last recognised batsman in Sam Billings. Botha and O’Keefe kept hopes alive with a 17-run over off Neser. O’Keefe and Dwarshuis then raised heart-rates with two massive blows inside the last seven deliveries after Laughlin and Neser missed their lengths. But Neser found the mark with his last three to wrap up the Strikers’ win.