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Scorecard3:57

Does pink-ball cricket have a future in England?

It took 252 years to build York Minster, 400 years to build Angkor Wat and up to 2000 years to carve the citadel at Petra out of rock, so perhaps, in context, Andrew Umeed’s innings here wasn’t so slow after all. Just one of the slowest in Championship history.According to Robert Brooke, the cricket statistician, in terms of minutes, Umeed’s century exceeded the 420-minute hundred by WH Denton for Northants against Derbyshire in 1914, although at exactly seven hours that calculation sounds suspiciously like an approximation. Umeed’s hundred was raised in 429 minutes, although it is a safe guess he faced fewer balls. Only Jason Gallian, who made a 453-minute hundred for Lancashire against Derbyshire in Blackpool in 1994 has scored a slower Championship century.There was a moment – and by a moment, think a couple of hours – when it seemed Umeed might also register the slowest half-century (this time in terms of balls received) in the history of the County Championship. As it was, he edged one through the hands of Alex Davies to reach the landmark in the 71st over of the Warwickshire innings having faced 220 balls. Billy Godleman’s record – he faced 244 balls on the way to a half-century against Middlesex at Lord’s in 2013 – remains unbeaten.Umeed’s innings was, in its way, a masterful demonstration of patience and restraint. He knows where his off stump is and is clearly perfectly happy to leave and defend all day. Of the two boundaries in his first 50, only one – an off drive against Tom Bailey – was hit in front of square. It kept Warwickshire’s heads above water in this game and annoyed James Anderson enormously. At one stage, a pigeon circled and considered landing on his left shoulder. It could have nested quite comfortably without fear of disturbance. While long-form cricket is played, there will still be value – and an entertainment of sorts – in such batting.But it suggested, not for the first time, that there are limitations to the pink ball. It suggests, as was the case when the ball was trailed in a 2nd XI game here last year, that once it goes soft, the game can become terribly, mind-numbingly, counter-productively, stultifying attritional.There’s a place for attrition, of course. But the purpose of the pink ball is, in part at least, to attract a new audience to the game. And if that new audience – and at present, 45% of ticket sales to the Test here in August against West Indies are customers who have never bought Test tickets to this ground before – is presented with a spectacle like this, it’s a fair bet that few of them will be back.Perhaps, on a different type of surface, those factors might have been mitigated. This pitch, used previously for the Champions Trophy semi-final, was unusually slow and probably exaggerated the pink ball’s limitations. Warwickshire, understandably, were reluctant to risk a grassy pitch against an opposition with Anderson in their line-up but may well have learned from this experience and provide bowlers a bit more assistance for the Test. They certainly won’t utilise a used pitch for that Test and this whole game might reasonably be thought of as an experiment.From what we’ve seen in the pink-ball games so far, it seems safe to make a couple of guarded conclusions. For the first 15 overs or so, the ball appears to swing pretty much the same way as a red ball. It also retains its proud seam position for the full 80 overs, which ensures bowlers have at least something with which to work.But it seems impossible to buff, apparently due to a lack of grease in the leather (more grease would darken it), which limits the opportunities for swing – either conventional or reverse (though there was a little reverse in both innings). Combined with its propensity to lose hardness quite quickly, it means bowlers are pretty much reduced to bowling line and length and batsmen, with little pace with which to work, must wait for the poor ball. Which means, when patient batsmen and disciplined bowlers collide, you have something approaching stalemate.Andrew Umeed scored his second first-class hundred•Getty Images

That’s pretty much what we saw on day two at Edgbaston. Once Jonathan Trott had departed, attempting to force across the line having made a half-century, and Ian Bell had nibbled just a little tentatively at a fine ball that left him off the seam, the day became a battle for survival between Umeed and the Lancashire bowlers.The seamers gave him almost nothing to hit. But their attempts to lure him into a rash shot – or even any sort of shot – came to very little. He steered one past point and another just past gully – the uncharitable would call it an edge – but generally was happy to accumulate with a push here and a nudge there. There were no pulls and few drives but, for a man playing for his future and his team’s Division One survival, it was an admirable effort. He produced something similar – a 158-ball innings of 45 – in the pink-ball 2nd XI match here last year.He did give a couple of chances. The first, on 19, looked tough – Davies was unable to cling on to one far to his right off Clark – while the second, on 49, was similar and off Anderson. Anderson left Umeed in no doubt as to how he felt about such an innings.While Tim Ambrose, who reached his 10,000th first-class run when he got off the mark, wafted at a wide one, Sam Hain was brilliantly caught by Anderson – left-handed and ankle height – in his follow through. When Rikki Clarke and Keith Barker were dismissed by successive deliveries, victims of the swing of the second new ball, Umeed sped up. His second fifty took a relatively brisk 111 balls with his century brought up with a delightful back-foot force that would have delighted Joe Root. In all, having resumed on 8 overnight, he scored 95 in 96 overs and goes into day three with power to add. Lancashire, you can be quite sure, are sick of the sight of him.With Jeetan Patel adding some impetus, Warwickshire even managed to claim a second batting bonus point and claw themselves close to parity with Lancashire. If the weather holds – and the forecast is not promising – we might even have an intriguing finish.Meanwhile Haseeb Hameed was forced off the pitch after splitting the webbing between a couple of his fingers – he had two or three stitches and is expected to bat without undue impediment in Lancashire’s second innings – and Chris Woakes returned to training. Woakes had a bat on Monday and, after attempting a gentle bowl, decided he was not quite ready for such rigours. He could, if required, play as a specialist batsman for Warwickshire within a week or so.Warwickshire also announced the signing of Yorkshire allrounder Will Rhodes. He is not likely to be the last of their acquisitions, though they will have more scope for movement at the end of 2018 when over £1m of the annual wage bill will be freed up by players out of contract.

JP Duminy may not be able to keep his place in South Africa’s Test XI after the returning captain, Faf du Plessis, conceded Duminy was under pressure due to poor form. That observation is vastly different from the support du Plessis had offered in the recent past, often saying Duminy looked at his best in training and it was only a matter of time before he translated that into match-day performances.Now, after eight innings without crossing 40, du Plessis has been forced to admit Duminy is not doing enough. He made 15 and 2 in the first Test at Lord’s, with his dismissal on the stroke of tea on day four particularly culpable as South Africa slipped to a 221-run defeat.”JP will be the first guy to say he knows he needs to score runs for this team and it’s no different for anyone else,” du Plessis said. “He is desperate to do well as anyone in that position. You want to try and score runs every time you go out that. He knows at the end of the day that it’s about runs. He understands that if it has to come to a position where there is someone else that needs to be looked at… he will be the first to acknowledge [that]. He is a crucial part of our senior player group and he will always put the team interests above himself so yes, he will be the first to acknowledge that.”With du Plessis back in the squad after missing the first Test for the birth of his first child, one option would for him to slot straight back into the team in Duminy’s place but the captain said South Africa will consider a few other things. Kagiso Rabada is suspended from the Trent Bridge match for ICC code of conduct violations and South Africa may look at playing both allrounder Chris Morris and reserve quick Duanne Olivier to make up for his absence. In that case, Theunis de Bruyn would have to miss out, with du Plessis coming in for Duminy.”With losing KG – do you look at possibly playing a four-seam attack because you are losing quite a high-quality bowler? That’s means there would be a batsman that will miss out,” du Plessis said. “That’s one option.”Either way, du Plessis seemed to suggest that de Bruyn, who scored 48 in the first innings in what was just his second Test, has moved up the queue and possibly ahead of Duminy for the rest of this series. “You can look at someone like Theunis de Bruyn who has played pretty well this game – standing up at Lord’s and it’s only his second Test match. He was solid in that first innings. He played well,” du Plessis said.JP Duminy was twice dismissed cheaply at Lord’s•Getty Images

The form of the middle order was the only positive South Africa’s batting could take from the Lord’s Test after the top four let them down yet again. Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander all scored half-centuries and du Plessis would like to see one of them in particular go on to convert that into something bigger.”Temba has once again been consistent,” du Plessis said. “But now, something Temba needs to work on is making sure he converts those starts. He is playing brilliantly but he knows that fifties don’t win us matches. The difference between the two teams is that one guy scored 190. That changed the outcome of the game.”Bavuma has scored three fifties in his last four Tests but only has one hundred in his short career, against England in January 2016. Having to constantly bail the top order out may be a handbrake for him, however, and du Plessis stressed that the top two must come good. Dean Elgar got a start with a half-century in the first innings at Lord’s and du Plessis was confident Heino Kuhn, who was unconvincing on debut, will show his experience at some stage.”Heino Kuhn is not a young guy anymore but he is new to Test cricket,” du Plessis said. “I don’t think everything is supposed to be a fairytale where you just rock up and score two hundreds in your first game. Ask Dean. He got a pair in his first game. It’s about character and how you stand up to that. This will be good. It will make him stronger.”

ScorecardRob Newton’s half-century kept Northamptonshire above water•Getty Images

Conor McKerr picked up a maiden five-wicket haul in just his second first-class match but his Derbyshire side ended the first day only even against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.McKerr, the 19-year-old on loan from Surrey, took 5 for 87 as Derbyshire bowled Northamptonshire out for just 218 before Northants produced a marginally better display with the ball and, through Ben Sanderson and Nathan Buck, reduced the visitors to 108 for 6 before Alex Hughes battled away with an unbeaten half-century to seer his side to the close on 153 for 6, trailing by 65.Derbyshire had suffered a worrying early blow when Luis Reece left the field in the morning session complaining of breathlessness. He was taken to hospital and is being kept overnight at Kettering General.Sanderson struck with the first ball of the Derbyshire reply, trapping makeshift opening Jeevan Mendis lbw. His second spell produced an edge from Gary Wilson that was taken at the second attempt by stand-in wicketkeeper Ben Duckett, and one that came back in to fix Daryn Smit lbw for 4, continuing the South African’s poor form.In between there were poor strokes from Billy Godleman driving loosely and presenting an edge to Alex Wakely at second slip off Rory Kleinvelt, and Shiv Thakor, who made a quick 45 including seven boundaries before flashing outside his off stump and getting a thin edge to Duckett.Thakor’s wicket was the first of the game for Buck, who followed up by winning an lbw verdict against Wayne Madsen, another South African out of touch. But a stand of 43 between Alex Hughes – who went past fifty in 83 balls with five fours – and Tom Taylor, who ate up 48 balls for his 7 not out, battled Derbyshire back into the game.Northants had got themselves back on top, despite having little to play with after a batting effort lacking in discipline to occupy the crease on a green-tinged wicket but not one offering excessive seam movement.Derbyshire arrived buoyed by a near-miss at Trent Bridge last week and, with McKerr to add an edge to their attack, hurried Northants away from 134 for 3 when Rob Newton and Duckett were going very well in a stand of 78 for the fourth wicket.Newton played with fluency, driving confidently and pulling Hughes to the midwicket boundary. A well-timed off-side push brought him a fourth Championship fifty of the summer in 83 balls with seven fours. Only later in the day did his 67 realise its true value.Duckett, returning from England Lions duty, also looked full of confidence and struck two perfect straight drives, then took further boundaries with flourishing strokes through extra-cover off Tony Palladino to reach 36.But it was Palladino who found the breakthrough to begin the collapse. Duckett dragged a cover drive into his stumps and Newton followed three overs later to the same bowler, trying to punch off the back foot and edging to wicketkeeper Smit. Palladino also removed Buck who dabbed at a ball just outside off and got an edge into his stumps.Before Buck’s wicket, McKerr – who removed Wakely and Rob Keogh before lunch – returned to have Josh Cobb splendidly held in the gully by Alex Hughes for a six-ball duck, driving far too loosely outside his off stump, and picked up a fourth wicket with Sanderson held in the gully.The most galling dismissal of the innings was that of Chesney Hughes, playing against his former county. Trying to pull a long hop from part-time offspinner Madsen, he got a miserable top-edge to extra-cover.Kleinveldt lifted two sixes over point and a third over midwicket – all to the short boundary – as Northants limped to a first batting point. Kleinveldt was last man out miscuing a pull that was taken by Smit to hand McKerr a first five-wicket haul.

ScorecardKeaton Jennings receives staunch support from the Durham faithful•Getty Images

A mere 69 balls is no evidence at all upon which to base any judgement about Durham’s prospects this season. All the same, the four supremely authoritative boundaries hit by Keaton Jennings on the third morning of this game made it quite clear what a loss he would have been had he chosen, like Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick, to further his career elsewhere.Jennings’ efforts may not be enough to save his side against a resurgent Nottinghamshire; Durham go into the final day with a lead of 58 and only three second-innings wickets in hand. But the accuracy of the opener’s attacking shots – a straight drive, a cover drive, a back cut and a clip through midwicket – and the precision of his defensive batting seem to have grown over the winter.Certainly his overall assurance was in clear contrast to the porous techniques of his two dismissed partners this damp Easter Sunday. Ryan Pringle was bowled by the 11th ball of the morning when he swished rather haplessly across the line to Jake Ball; nine overs later, Stuart Poynter lost his off stump to one from from Harry Gurney which swung back inside his forward push.Four balls after Poynter’s wicket fell the rain which had delayed the start of play for 85 minutes returned with renewed vigour and the dull confection of covers on the whole square – white, light green and beige – revealed the groundstaff’s pessimism. The small group of spectators who had braved a poor forecast had to be content with having seen 39 runs scored and a restatement of what they surely knew: that Jennings is comfortably their best batsman.However, the tasks facing Durham over the next two or three seasons will require more than the efforts of their finest cricketers, some of whom are likely to be playing international cricket of one sort or another in any case.Relegation and points deductions will, in their way, make demands on the whole county, not least their highly-regarded Academy and even the North East Premier League, whose leading clubs, Chester-le-Street and South Northumberland, regularly appear in national club knockout finals.When Paul Collingwood says that people in this area know how to fight, he is not talking about the leisure habits of well-lubricated, Novocastrian twenty-somethings strutting their stuff on The Bigg Market every Saturday night. Rather he is referring to the deep-seated inner resolve possessed by folk up here who manage to combine patriotism with a stubbornly independent spirit. Over the next five months, and for far longer, that resolve will be tested and tested again.On the final day of this game it may have to deal with an early defeat inflicted by a Nottinghamshire team unrecognisable from the dispirited bunch dispatched to the Second Division last September.Matches between relegated teams rarely promise to be meetings of the blissfully contented but Chris Read’s men have given every indication that they will treat this season in the second tier with unfussed determination. It is good to see them back to normal, although whether they will begin their season by notching successive wins now depends largely on their ability to remove Jennings early on the last day.

Rohit Sharma and Kedar Jadhav have been ruled out of the upcoming Deodhar Trophy due to injuries. Rohit suffered a minor knee injury and has been advised rest by the BCCI’s medical staff, while Jadhav is out due to a stomach ailment.Ruturaj Gaikwad, the Maharashtra opener, has replaced Rohit in the India Blue squad, while India Red have drafted in Hyderabad left-arm seamer CV Milind and Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami.The injury is a setback in Rohit’s comeback trail after undergoing surgery to treat an injured thigh. He has missed the majority of India’s home season, having last turned out for them in the final ODI against New Zealand in Visakhapatnam.He returned after a four-month layoff when he was named in Mumbai’s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He played his first competitive match in nearly five months against Andhra in Chennai. Bating at No. 4, he managed 16. He was out for 4 in his second game, against Goa, where he was promoted to open.Jadhav played an integral role in the Indian ODI team’s series triumph over England, topping the run charts with 232 runs in three matches, including a match-winning 120 in a chase of 351 in his hometown Pune. He carried his excellent one-day form into the recently-concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he was Maharashtra’s second-highest scorer with 375 runs at 53.57 and a strike rate of 136.36. He finished behind Gaikwad, Rohit’s replacement in India Blue.With Rohit, who was originally supposed to lead India Blue, ruled out, Harbhajan Singh will take over the captaincy of the team.

Canterbury defended 250 to seal their spot in the final of the Ford Trophy 2016-17. Wellington fell short of their target by 28 runs, but will get a second go at making the title bout on February 15 when they play Central Districts in the third-preliminary final. This is courtesy their top-of-the-table finish in the round-robin stage; the loser of the preliminary-final between Nos. 1 and 2 plays the winner of the preliminary-final between Nos. 3 and 4.Three wickets in an economic spell from fast bowler Matt Henry went a long way in ensuring Canterbury’s win. He claimed two of Wellington’s top three cheaply, before returning to end a feisty last-wicket stand between Brent Arnel and Hamish Bennett that had added 32 at over a run a ball. In between Henry’s strikes, several Wellington batsmen got starts but only Luke Ronchi managed to convert that into a half-century. Pacers Henry Shipley and Andrew Ellis were also incisive and economical, taking five wickets between them, to ensure Wellington never got away.Canterbury’s total was built around half-centuries from Chad Bowes and Todd Astle. They were wobbling at 10 for 2 after being inserted, but opener Bowes held the innings together with his 84. After he and Astle were out, another hiccup happened with two wickets in two balls (Ellis caught behind and Johnston run out in the 42nd over), but Cole McConchie ensured they did not slide with a swift, unbeaten 40. Canterbury were eventually bowled out with three balls to spare, most of the damage being done by the spin of Jeetan Patel and the new-ball pair of Arnel and Bennett. But their total of 250 proved more than enough in the end.Central Districts had only one win in their first six matches in this season’s Ford Trophy. They won their last two group games with bonus points and made the playoffs. Now they’ve won their first playoff, beating Northern Districts by 48 runs in New Plymouth, to be one step away from the final. They will need to beat Wellington – who lost only one match in the round-robin stage – on February 15, to have a shot at what had looked like a highly improbable title at one stage.Central Districts chose to bat and were propelled to 336 for 7 on the back of a maiden List A century from Tom Bruce and knocks of seventy-odd at the top and bottom of the order from George Worker and Kieran Noema-Barnett. Bruce and Noema-Barnett’s runs came particularly quickly; Bruce’s 100 came off 81 balls and included eight sixes, while Noema-Barnett’s 74 came off 49 balls. Amid the carnage, Northern Districts’ Scott Kuggeleijn and Ish Sodhi maintained economy rates under five, and shared four wickets between them.Northern Districts’ middle order made a decent fight of it, with three half-century partnerships in good time – going into the final 10, they needed 105 with six wickets in hand and two set batsmen at the crease. But then the bottom five managed only 16 runs among them to end the challenge. When they were bowled out for 288 in the 49th over, Kuggeleijn was left stranded on 85 off 52. Fast bowler Seth Rance and left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel were the most effective of the Central Districts bowlers, picking up three apiece in tidy spells.

John Hampshire, the former Yorkshire captain and England batsman who went on to become an international umpire, has died at the age of 76 after a long illness.Hampshire, who scored a century on his Test debut, against West Indies at Lord’s in 1969, played eight Tests and three ODIs for England, but will be best remembered as an integral member of the great Yorkshire side that dominated the County Championship in the 1960s.In a 23-year career that included spells with Derbyshire, Tasmania and, briefly, Leicestershire, Hampshire scored a total of 28,059 first-class runs at 34.55, including 43 hundreds – the vast majority of those coming during his 456 appearances for Yorkshire.He debuted for the club as a 20-year-old in 1961 and won the County Championship on five separate occasions, holding his own in a team packed with club legends including Geoff Boycott, Ray Illingworth, Fred Trueman and his first captain, Brian Close. An upright front-foot driver with a strong leg-side game, he was one of the most handsome batsmen of his time.”Initially Yorkshire might have been a difficult dressing room to feel at home in, but Brian Close was a tremendous captain,” Hampshire told ESPNcricinfo in one of his final interviews earlier this year.”He integrated everyone. Most of the guys, they wanted to do well because they wanted the side to do well. And they wanted other players to do well. There were some terrific rows, but they were cricket rows. They weren’t personal vendettas or anything like that. Closey was the ringleader a lot of the time, but as soon as they were finished it was, “Right, come on, we’ll have a drink.”Hampshire, like many in that side, could be an intimidating figure on first meeting, but once respect was won, hidden behind a serious exterior was a warm and self-deprecating humour.Just a year after the end of his playing career in 1984, he became a first-class umpire, and stood for the first time in a Test match at Old Trafford during the 1989 Ashes.Later that year, he and John Holder were invited by Pakistan’s captain, Imran Khan, to stand as neutral umpires during Pakistan’s home series against India, a move that helped pave the way for that to become the standard across all international matches. In total, Hampshire stood in 21 matches up until 2002, and finally retired from the county circuit in 2005.Andy Flower, coach of England Lions, was a prominent figure in the Zimbabwe side that was coached by Hampshire upon their entry to Test cricket in the early 1990s and maintained the friendship from that point.”He was very passionate about Zimbabwe cricket,” Flower told ESPNcricinfo. “He grew to love the country, and its cricket, and he was a very important part of our early years. He gave us a really good grounding in the basics of the game, which served us very well.”I last saw him at Lord’s during the summer. He was there as a guest of the ECB, and we had a couple of great chats during the day. Even though he was unwell, he was always such a strong and generous guy, so he’d still be smiling and giggling at himself.”It was always the right balance with John, between playing hard on the field, and relaxing and chatting off it. When he was coach and I was captain, he would often sit me down with Scotch or a good wine – he fancied himself as a connoisseur – and we’d talk about the game for hours.”In March 2016, Hampshire stepped up to the role of Yorkshire president, an appointment he described as being “the icing on the cake” of his career. To some extent, it was a final show of brotherhood by Yorkshire because his county career at Headingley had ended in disillusionment. In 1978, Hampshire famously was instrumental in a batting go-slow at Northampton in protest at a six-hour century by Geoffrey Boycott. It cost his side a bonus point and Boycott the captaincy. Hampshire replaced him but only for two seasons, before he departed for a simpler life at Derbyshire.”From a very humble beginning, getting trains, trams and buses to Headingley to practice in the winter in hope of getting a game for Yorkshire Seconds, to being president. I think it’s quite an achievement,” he said.”John epitomised everything that’s good about Yorkshire County Cricket Club,” said Steve Denison, Yorkshire’s chairman. “Brave, talented and with a heart of gold, he captained Yorkshire, scored a century at Lord’s on his Test debut and became a highly respected umpire after hanging up his playing whites.”Loved by players and members alike, John capped his wonderful life in Yorkshire cricket as our club president last year. On behalf of everyone involved with and connected to the Club, I would like to extend our most sincere condolences to John’s wife Alison and two sons Ian and Paul. He will be sorely missed by all at Headingley.”

Dhaka Division finished second in the NCL’s Tier-1 after their innings and 78-run win over Barisal Division at Sylhet International Stadium.When they batted first, 18-year old Dhaka batsman Saif Hassan became the youngest batsman in Bangladesh to score a double-hundred. His 204 was, however, not the highest score of the innings as Taibur Rahman reached 242 off 302 balls with 26 fours and a six. Saif’s 410-ball knock included 20 fours and a six, as Dhaka declared on 588 for 6.For Barisal, seamer Tawhidul Islam took 5 for 87 in 20.5 overs. The batsmen could not build on his good work though as they were bundled out for 189. Dhaka fast bowler Shahadat Hossain took four wickets to help enforce the follow-on. Barisal were bowled out on the fourth morning for 321 with Shahriar Nafees top scoring with 104 off 143 balls. Dewan Sabbir and Nazmul Islam took three wickets each.

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Maiden first-class centuries from Kuldeep Yadav and Saurabh Kumar lifted Uttar Pradesh to 481 against Baroda in Nasik. UP had been reduced to 207 for 7 on the opening day before an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 153 between Kuldeep and Saurabh took them to 360 for 7 at stumps. That partnership extended to 192 after play resumed, although the duo fell short of the record eighth-wicket stand for UP – 204 between Anand Shukla and Sagir Ahmed against Rajasthan in 1961-62.Sagar Mangalorkar, the right-arm pacer, broke through for Baroda, having Saurabh caught for 105. A run-out ended Kuldeep’s stay, after he had added 43 more for the ninth wicket with Imtiaz Ahmed. Kuldeep had made 117. Imtiaz further shored up UP by dominating a last-wicket partnership of 39 with Ankit Rajpoot and staying not out on 41. Managalorkar and Babashafi Pathan took three wickets each.Baroda lost five wickets in their reply, but Kedar Devdhar struck an unbeaten 120 to take them to 242 for 5. Devdhar and Aditya Waghmode put on 82 for the first wicket before Baroda lost wickets in a cluster. It took an unbroken 91-run sixth-wicket stand between Devdhar and Irfan Pathan (51*) to put the innings back on track. Medium-pacer Imtiaz Ahmed inflicted the bulk of the damage with three wickets. Baroda trail by 239 runs.At the Palam Ground in Delhi, Shreevats Goswami’s maiden double-century propelled Bengal to 475 for 9 before they declared against Madhya Pradesh.After Bengal were reduced to 88 for 4, Goswami and Abhimanyu Easwaran had put on 97 for the fifth wicket to take Bengal to 185 for 4 at stumps on a truncated first day.The duo could only add 17 more to that before Easwaran was trapped lbw by Chandrakant Sakure for 80. Goswami batted on and was helped by contributions from Pragyan Ojha (32), Veer Pratap Singh (24) and Sayan Ghosh (20*) as he stayed unbeaten on 225. Sakure finished with 3 for 105 and Puneet Datey took 4 for 105. MP lost Aditya Shrivastava for a first-ball duck before ending the day on 19 for 1, trailing by 456.Mayank Sidhana struck 115 while captain Gurkeerat Singh fell seven short of a century as Punjab put up 468 against Mumbai at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot. Mumbai lost early wickets in reply, and were reduced to 8 for 2 at stumps.The day had begun with Punjab on 216 for 4, with Gitansh Khera on 4 and Sidhana on 11. Khera fell for a patient 16 that came off 64 balls after which Sidhana and Gurkeerat came together for a sixth-wicket partnership of 178 that pushed the score past 400. But Punjab collapsed to lose their last five wickets for 34 runs.The slide began with Gurkeerat’s dismissal for 93, caught behind off Tushar Deshpande. Sidhana fell to the same bowler in his next over, and though Manpreet Gony scored 31, the lower order was dismissed quickly. Suryakumar Yadav took a career-best 4 for 47.Punjab used four bowlers for the 7.2 bowlers they sent down. Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for a second-ball duck and Armaan Jaffer was trapped lbw by right-arm medium-pacer Kamal Passi. Mumbai were behind by 460 runs with eight wickets in hand.Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund led a strong reply to Gujarat’s 307, but fell one run short of a century as TN ended the second day on 154 for 2 in Belgavi.Abhinav and Kaushik Gandhi offset the early loss of Laxmesha Suryaprakash, who was caught behind off Rush Kalaria for 6, with a second-wicket stand of 141. Kalaria struck for a second time, bowling Abhinav on 99 shortly before stumps. Gandhi remained not out on 43.Earlier, Gujarat had resumed their first innings on 267 for 7 with Axar Patel on 28 and Chintan Gaja on 2. Axar was the eighth man dismissed, for 44, before the innings ended with Gaja’s dismissal for 20. Left-arm medium-pacer T Natarajan took 3 for 86 for TN.

South Africa’s Test captaincy is not up for discussion and will return to AB de Villiers once he is match fit. De Villiers has been sidelined since July with an elbow injury and has been replaced by Faf du Plessis, who has yet to lose a match in his stand-in stint, but will have to hand the job back when de Villiers returns.”At the moment it’s clear to us that Faf is stand-in captain and AB is the current captain when he comes back, looking at his fitness and so on,” Linda Zondi, South Africa’s convener of selectors, said after the Hobart Test.Although the board and not the selection panel appointed the captain, Zondi said the directive is likely to be to give de Villiers his job back once he is back on the park. When de Villiers underwent surgery in late September, he was diagnosed as needing eight to ten weeks of recovery time which should put him on track to play the home series in Sri Lanka in December-January. De Villiers will not have had any game time since mid-July, when he turned out for the Barbados Tridents in the Caribbean Premier League.Zondi has not expressly said de Villiers will need to play some domestic cricket but has indicated that the panel would like him to have some game time. “We will be guided by the medical team in terms of where he is and in terms of match fitness,” Zondi said. “That’s important. He has been away for five months – a long time. For starters, he has to be match fit. We will take it from there.”Should de Villiers need to play some cricket, his only opportunity will come in the domestic T20 competition. There was some talk of de Villiers joining the squad ahead of the day-night Test in Adelaide, which is preceded by a two-day warm-up game in Melbourne, in a bid to put himself in contention for the pink ball Test but both coach Russell Domingo and stand-in captain du Plessis had brushed off such suggestions. To that end, de Villiers had not traveled to Australia yet, and it appears unlikely that he will.That would mean du Plessis has at least one more match in charge to add to a legacy against Australia that has already seen the team make history. Du Plessis led the ODI side to a first-ever 5-0 whitewash against Australia and a third successive Test series win in Australia. He has impressed with his skills as skipper and Zondi admitted the selectors were pleased with the way du Plessis had progressed.”We nominated Faf to be a stand-in captain and he has done a very good job,” Zondi said. “It was an easy process for us when the decision was made because he was already a T20 captain. So it was continuation. We are excited to have him as a leader.”It just gives us more options. And we have other guys. Like I said, Hashim Amla, who also brings that experience. We are quite excited about how Faf has shown leadership but we are not going to be carried away.”It may be surprising to hear Zondi mention Amla among the leaders, especially after he stepped down as captain earlier in the year. However, Amla is the most experienced batsman, and in the absence of Dale Steyn, the most experienced member of the squad overall, and although he has only contributed 48 runs across the two Tests, has been involved in team discussions and at the forefront of celebrations.