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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:11

Agarkar: Ashwin showed he is a quick learner

A roughly even contest through its first six completed sessions, the Green Park Test swung emphatically India’s way after lunch on day three, as Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin ran through New Zealand to earn India a 56-run first-innings lead. By stumps, they had swelled this to 215 thanks to unbeaten half-centuries from M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, who put on their second century stand of the match.India, well ahead at tea, pulled away rapidly thereafter. With Ish Sodhi and Mark Craig serving up a feast of short balls, Vijay and Pujara hit seven fours in the first three overs of the final session. Then, after four relatively quiet overs, Vijay played two of the shots of the match, off Mitchell Santner, an inside-out drive to the left of extra-cover and a late cut with bat meeting ball inches in front of off stump.By the end of the day, India’s run-rate had slowed to normal Test-match proportions, but the economy rates of Craig (4.36) and Sodhi (4.14) told a story. On a pitch where Ashwin and Jadeja were causing all kinds of problems, India’s batsmen had shone an unforgiving light on the inadequacies of New Zealand’s spinners.New Zealand’s only wicket came in the last over before tea, when KL Rahul late-cut Sodhi straight into slip’s hands. As he had done in the first innings, Rahul had shown plenty of attacking enterprise – in this instance using sweeps, reverse-sweeps and lofted drives to move along at a 70-plus strike rate – before falling in the 30s.Wickets often fall in clusters in India. One brings many. There were two such clusters in New Zealand’s innings. First, they lost three wickets in 23 balls at the start of the morning session. After lunch, even more damagingly, they lost their last five in the space of 29 balls, for the addition of only seven runs. In the process, Jadeja picked up his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests, and Ashwin swelled his Test wicket count from 193 to 197.The two teams’ first innings almost mirrored each other. India had gone from 154 for 1 to 318 all out. New Zealand had lost their second wicket with their score 159. The magnitude of India’s lead was probably down to lower-order contributions: Jadeja had scored an unbeaten 42, and added 41 for the last wicket with Umesh Yadav. Not for the first time in home Tests on turning pitches, he had played a vital role with both ball and bat.New Zealand went to lunch 238 for 5, and had moved to 255 for 5 when Ashwin came back into the attack to bowl the seventh over of the session. From over the wicket, his first ball was a well-flighted offbreak that brought Mitchell Santner on to the front foot and turned just enough to take a thin edge through to Wriddhiman Saha.Santner, out for 32 off 107 balls, had defended resolutely till that point, and featured in partnerships of 49 with Luke Ronchi and 36 with BJ Watling.Three overs later, New Zealand felt the full force of Jadeja. He had Craig and Sodhi lbw off successive balls, both caught shuffling across the crease rather than going forward or back, though the ball that dismissed Sodhi may have been sliding down leg. Trent Boult survived two balls, and then, defending his third onto his boot, was caught brilliantly by Rohit Sharma diving forward from silly point.The innings ended in the very next over, Watling looking to drive a teasing Ashwin offbreak down the ground and ending up offering a return catch.The day began much like day two had prematurely ended, with Ashwin and Jadeja causing plenty of discomfort with their turn and bounce. They beat the outside edge four times in the first five overs before Ashwin struck the first blow. He got the ball to drift into the left-handed Tom Latham, causing him to play down the wrong line as he pressed forward to defend. By the time he realised this, it was too late, and ball straightened to hit front pad right in front.Four balls later, 159 for 2 became 160 for 3. Ross Taylor’s bat tends to come down from gully towards wide mid-on while he defends, and such a technique can leave a batsman vulnerable against a left-arm spinner as relentlessly stump-to-stump as Jadeja. The ball went with the arm, and Richard Kettleborough did not hesitate to uphold Jadeja’s lbw appeal. Replays suggested it was a tight call on whether the ball would have carried on to hit or miss leg stump.For most of day two, Kane Williamson had been able to trust the slowness of the Green Park pitch and play comfortably back to good-length balls. But in the half-hour or so before tea, the ball had begun spitting and hissing with greater frequency. On one occasion, an Ashwin offbreak hurried into him when he sat on the back foot and produced a loud lbw shout.In the ninth over of the morning, he went back again to Ashwin, possibly shaping to cut or punch through the off side, and this time the ball turned extravagantly, like one of Muttiah Muralitharan’s specials, zipping in to breach the gap between bat and body and clip the top of the stumps. It had perhaps needed a special delivery to get Williamson out in the form he was in, and Ashwin had produced just that.New Zealand were 170 for 4 at that point, 148 adrift and rocking unsteadily. They repelled India for the next 23.3 overs, with Luke Ronchi and Santner putting on 49 and bringing a measure of calm to proceedings before Jadeja struck again, six overs before lunch.Ronchi was the batsman dismissed, and India would have been relieved to see him walk back. Showing excellent footwork, particularly while going on the back foot, he had cut and driven Jadeja and Ashwin for four fours in the arc between point and extra-cover while moving to 38. Then, looking to sweep Jadeja, he misread the trajectory of a dipping delivery that hit him on the back leg. Rod Tucker gave him out, but replays suggested that the ball, bowled from left-arm over and spinning sharply, would probably have missed off stump.Tucker, though, did not see any replays; what he saw was a batsman sweeping from the stumps, a ball pitching fairly close to the batsman, and dust flying everywhere. At first glance, there was even the suggestion – dispelled by later viewings – that the ball may have hit Ronchi’s front pad. It was one of those errors that slow-motion replays tend to magnify. Likewise with the Taylor and Sodhi decisions. Unfortunately for New Zealand, all three went against them.

Durham have been relegated from the top flight of the County Championship, with Hampshire staying up in their place, after being hit with a penalty for receiving financial support from the ECB during the 2016 season. They will begin 2017 in Division Two with a 48-point penalty in return for a £3.8m bailout.The club has accepted it will no longer be allowed to bid to host Test matches at Chester-le-Street, although they will be eligible for ODIs and T20 internationals. Durham will also start next season with -4 points in the NatWest T20 Blast and -2 points in the Royal London Cup; hand back non-player related ECB prize money for 2016; and be subject to a more closely controlled salary cap until 2020.The financial aid package, which has been agreed between the ECB and Durham’s board, is aimed at allowing the club to cover its operating costs, settle a proportion of outstanding debt and focus on restructuring.”We’ve been working with Durham County Cricket Club throughout the year on how best to address their financial issues; we welcome the club’s willingness to review its business model and management structures,” Tom Harrison, the ECB’s chief executive, said.”There is no doubt that a strong, financially robust Durham has a vital role to play in developing England talent, enriching our domestic competitions and underpinning the wider growth of the game in the north east.”The financial package and associated conditions approved by the ECB Board reflect the unprecedented seriousness of Durham’s financial situation. To help them through these difficulties and continue as a first-class county, this had to be addressed with immediate, practical financial assistance. We also have a wider responsibility to the whole game and need strong deterrents in place to preserve the game’s integrity and financial stability.”Durham have made a strong contribution to the game as a first-class county, through domestic competitions, local participation and producing fine England players. We now look forward to working productively with the new Board of Directors in the restructured company and supporting a healthy future for Durham and the game in the north-east.”After enduring a troubled campaign on and off the field, Durham appeared to have secured their Division One status with back-to-back victories in their final two games of the season, over Surrey and Hampshire, who finished 45 points behind them in eighth place and were initially relegated alongside Nottinghamshire.However, to retain their viability, Durham had to call upon assistance from the ECB – including an accelerated annual fee payment of £1.3m, as well as the rescheduling of their £923,000 staging fee for the second Test against Sri Lanka in May – to help service debts to the local council, believed to be in the region of £5-6 million.The ECB spent the past week considering whether a sanction should be imposed. A points deduction was eventually deemed to be the only realistic option available to the board, given that a financial penalty would merely have exacerbated the club’s issues.”We are clearly disappointed at the position we are in and the sanctions we have accepted, particularly for the players and staff who have worked so hard to keep us in the first division,” David Harker, the club’s chief executive, said.”However, we continue as a first-class county, will host international cricket and have a platform to stabilise and develop Durham County Cricket Club. It is important that the club addresses its serious financial challenges and puts the business on a sustainable footing and therefore we have had to accept the conditions offered by ECB.”Other counties have faced serious financial challenges but have been able to find other solutions including private investors without this reliance on ECB. We will continue to work with the ECB to promote cricket in the North East and are committed to securing a successful sustainable future for Durham.”There is no suggestion of financial impropriety at Durham, and other Test-match grounds have accrued greater debts in the course of modernising their venues. However, the club’s remote location has made it harder to diversify and generate the sort of revenues that keep their rivals solvent.The club, which won the County Championship three times in six seasons between 2008 and 2013, has proven itself to be one of the most successful counties in terms of producing England players, with Ben Stokes and Mark Wood among the most recent examples. However, in a sign of potential struggles to come, they have lost two of their most influential batsmen of recent seasons, with Scott Borthwick and Mark Stoneman choosing to move to Surrey.In a statement, Hampshire said that the club “deeply regrets the situation that Durham finds itself in and sends its sincere sympathies to the club, its players, staff and of course its loyal supporters”.The club chairman, Rod Bransgrove, added: “I also fully endorse the support of ECB in helping one of its 18 first-class stakeholders to survive in the long-term and am satisfied that the sanctions imposed as a result of Durham’s circumstances are fair and have been well considered. Of course, the fact that Hampshire benefit from all of this is fortuitous for the club and will give us all a great boost as we plan for next summer.”Given the unprecedented list of injuries that we faced this year, I believe that we will not discredit the first division next season and I am very much looking forward to seeing what the 2017 campaign will bring with a full-strength and enhanced Hampshire squad.”

All members of the Pakistan cricket team are safe in Nelson after an earthquake of high intensity hit New Zealand, their manager Wasim Bari has confirmed. Pakistan were in Nelson to play a three-day tour game before the first Test, scheduled to begin in Christchurch on November 17. The epicentre of the quake was 200km away, also on the South Island, but it was so strong – 7.5 on Richter Scale – that tremors were felt across the country.The Pakistan women’s team, who are also touring New Zealand, was even closer, staying on the 13th floor of a hotel in Christchurch. Basit Ali, their manager, told Geo News that they were all safe but “still scared”.The earthquake struck late on Sunday evening. “We felt the first tremors around 11.30pm,” Bari, the former Pakistan wicketkeeper, told ESPNcricinfo. “Some of the boys were in prayer, some were watching the India-England Test on TV when we felt the windows shake. The whole room began to shake. We were on the sixth and seventh floor, and evacuated immediately. The hotel staff was very helpful. We are all safe.”By around 1am on Monday morning, having walked around outdoors for a bit, the team moved back to the reception. They had not yet got the clearance to go back up to the higher floors. “There have been aftershocks too,” Bari said.The east coast of New Zealand’s South Island is on a tsunami alert with people being asked to move either inland or to higher buildings if they can’t travel inland. Nelson is at the northern tip of the South Island, but the Pakistan team remains aware of the tsunami risk.Pakistan were supposed to travel to Christchurch on Monday, but their plans are now uncertain. This being the middle of the night, there had been no communication between the Pakistan team and the NZC, but NZC’s liaison officer has been with the team through the ordeal, Bari said.The epicentre of the earthquake was at a depth of about 5km, about 40km from the town of Amberley, which in turn is only about 90km north-north-east of Christchurch, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2011. Whether the city will be able to host the Test beginning on Thursday will only be known once the damage is assessed properly on Monday morning.

He may have scored more than 600 runs in the series, but Virat Kohli’s excellence with the bat appears to have left James Anderson cold.Kohli, whose 235 in Mumbai has left him averaging 128.00 in the four matches so far, came into the series with a point to prove against England. In nine previous Tests against them, he averaged just 20.12 with a single score over 50.He struggled particularly badly on the 2014 tour of England. With England frustrating him with a line outside off stump, he was drawn into dangerous, impatient strokes against the moving ball and ended the series with an average of just 13.40. Anderson dismissed him four times.Speaking before the start of this series, Kohli said: “I can put it very simply as that was a phase I didn’t perform very well, and it happened to be England. Could have been any other country in the world. I just take it as a setback in my career, and not motivate myself in a way that I have to prove people wrong or have to do something special against a particular opposition. For me, I’m playing a cricket ball, be it any game, any opposition, anywhere in the world. Those things do not change for me so I don’t put those things in my head.”Kohli has made his point even more eloquently with the bat. On the same surfaces on which England have, since Rajkot, struggled, he has two centuries and four others scores of 40 and above. He has consistently proved a significant obstacle for England and, having ensured his team would leave with a draw in the first Test, made centuries in Visakhapatnam and Mumbai.Perhaps his best performance came in the second innings in Visakhapatnam, where he made 81 out of a total of 204 despite a pitch of uneven bounce and against an England attack gaining lateral movement with the ball. It was masterful batting and further evidence that Kohli is a vastly improved player since the last time he faced England.Anderson, however, remains unconvinced. He suggested that Kohli is not so much an improved batsman, as a batsman playing in conditions that do not exploit his “technical deficiencies”.”I’m not sure he’s changed,” Anderson said. “I just think any technical deficiencies he’s got aren’t in play out here. The wickets just take that out of the equation.”We had success against him in England, but the pace of the pitches over here just take any flaws he has out of the equation. There’s not that pace in the wicket to get the nicks, like we did against him in England with a bit more movement. Pitches like this suit him down to the ground.”When that’s not there, he’s very much suited to playing in these conditions. He’s a very good player of spin and if you’re not bang on the money and don’t take your chances, he’ll punish you. We tried to stay patient against him, but he just waits and waits and waits. He just played really well.”Anderson took a similarly unflattering view of India’s spinners. While R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have 39 wickets between them in the series, Anderson said: “I’m not sure they’re too difficult to handle.”He did admit, however, that England had endured their “worst morning of the tour from a bowling point of view” on the fourth day in Mumbai.”It is immensely frustrating,” he said. “Coming to the ground this morning, we needed to get three wickets. If we could get them we’re still well in the game. Unfortunately we didn’t bowl as well as we could have first thing. The ball started flying around and then they got settled and managed to put on a big partnership.”Despite going into the final day 49 runs behind and with only four wickets in hand, Anderson insisted that England still had a chance of the win they need to stay in the series.”We’re going to come and try to fight our way back into this game if we can,” he said. “We’re 50 runs behind. If we can bat with the positive intent we showed today, there’s no reason why we can’t get a hundred ahead of them and then try to put some pressure on them with the ball.”

Umpire C Shamshuddin has withdrawn himself from officiating in the T20I series decider between India and England at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. He was reportedly unwell.The Indian umpire faced criticism after the second T20I in Nagpur, particularly for his decision to adjudge Joe Root lbw in the final over of England’s chase. Replays showed the batsman had got an inside edge. Shamshuddin had also given Virat Kohli a reprieve when he was on 7 during India’s innings.Shamshuddin had officiated in the fifth ODI between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide on January 26, and had returned to India less than 24 hours before the Nagpur match. Appointing umpires for bilateral T20s is the prerogative of the home board.After England were beaten by five runs in Nagpur, their captain Eoin Morgan expressed “extreme frustration” during the post-match press conference and said they would mention the umpiring in their report to the match referee. In the lead up to the third T20I, Joe Root also called for the introduction of DRS in T20Is.

The Napier City Council is set to launch an inquiry* into the abandonment of the second Chappell-Hadlee ODI at McLean Park on Thursday, according to a report. Not a ball was bowled despite there being no rain for four hours after the scheduled start of play.A series of inspections were made by Kumar Dharmasena and Chris Brown, the on-field umpires, even as the ground staff worked on the square and the outfield, but overcast skies made efforts to dry damp patches of the outfield futile. After multiple inspections, the outfield was deemed too dangerous.This is the second successive ODI that has been washed out in Napier. Last year’s ODI against Pakistan was also called off without a ball bowled.Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, later said the ground “wasn’t even close” to being fit for play. “We were given a start time which was a bit on the keen side because there was still casual water around the outfield. As we warmed up you’d throw balls and water would spray. As we did so, more water came to the surface so it actually got worse rather than better which was unexpected.”The ground was unfit for play. It wasn’t even close, to be fair. One of those aspects is player safety but you also need to be able to play a game of cricket, whether it be diving around or digging your knee into the ground, whether it be slipping over, or the ball landing and plugging.”The washout also casts shadows over the possibility of the ODI between New Zealand and South Africa scheduled for March 1. Napier City Council, which owns the ground, is expected to initiate an independent review.NZC’s chief operating officer Anthony Crummy also said the matter had to be looked into. “We did have some rain today but not enough to have the game being abandoned. We really need to have a look at what has happened,”Crummy said. “We understand that Nelson Park [next door] and other grounds are dry so something has gone wrong here and we need to understand what that is.”There was a brief possibility of a start when umpires confirmed a 4.45m start for a 37-over game, but two inspections later, the umpires deemed the ground far from ready. Aaron Finch, the Australia captain, labelled the ground condition “extraordinary”.”There was a good handful [of puddles] but they were in really key spots – backward point, cover, square leg – those spots that are hot spots in the field,” Finch said. “Particularly in around the ring it was quite soggy and slippery, and the water was splashing up quite a bit.”Along with management, we both [Finch and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson], once we started warming up, we realized that at 4 o’clock that they were a bit unsafe and then threw it over to the umpires from there. To be honest, it just didn’t improve. I don’t think the Super Sopper did a hell of a lot, to be honest. It’s just one of those things – for a place that hasn’t had rain for 11 weeks, it was quite extraordinary.”Hesson said it was too early to say if he would be comfortable having his team return to the venue for the South Africa ODI next month. “I’ll be interested in the outcome of the review because we can’t have a day like today,” he said. “You have got two teams fizzing to play, a great crowd, and you haven’t got a huge amount of rain, but the outfield was not even close to fit for play which is very frustrating for everybody.”We were training on Nelson Park 100m away and the ground was bone-dry four hours ago, and the outfield here is not. There’s clearly an issue here, I don’t know what that is, but they need to have that review and we’ll know more.”Napier mayor Bill Dalton, according to the , said an independent expert will look at the ground on Friday, and they would do “everything to make sure we have future games”. “We have a world-class groundsman [Phil Stoyanoff] who has prepared this park for many years,” Dalton said. “We have a rich history of games in Napier and will do everything to make sure we have future games.”It was only one small area of the park that was deemed not dry enough. I know people who walked over that area and couldn’t see what the issue was. But I’m not an umpire, or a cricketer and can’t make those calls.”*11.05am GMT, February 2. The article has been corrected to reflect that the review will be initiated by the Napier City Council, and not NZC as previously stated

Sunset and Vine, the UK-based production house that handles the broadcast of the Pakistan Super League, has withdrawn its services for the league’s final which will be played in Lahore on March 5. ESPNcricinfo understands that a Dubai-based company, Innovative Production Group, will handle production of the Lahore match. The PSL is also seeking to replace its overseas commentators: Danny Morrison, Alan Wilkins, Mel Jones are reluctant to travel to Lahore, while Ian Bishop, whose contract was until the play-offs, will leave to cover West Indies’ home ODIs against England.Companies that handle the HawkEye technology and Spider-cam have also pulled out from the final, which will be televised without the supporting components. A drone camera is likely to replace the spider-cam.Sunset and Vine, which had also handled the broadcast for the PSL in its inaugural edition last year, had informed the PCB through an email last week about its reluctance to travel to Lahore. Innovative Production Group was part of the PCB’s contingency plan.On Monday the provisional government gave a public go-ahead to the staging of the final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, after week-long deliberations and assessments of the security situation in the country. The PCB has been working to get the ground ready for the match later this week.The stadium has been renovated extensively, and includes a new media facility at the College End of the ground, with a capacity to accommodate more than 150 journalists, which will be inaugurated before the final. Tickets for the final are also set to be released, with prices ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 12000.To ensure the final features foreign players, the PSL management has asked the four franchises who have made it to the play-offs to work on a contingency plan. The franchises have been asked to nominate a pool of foreign players from a list of over 60 said to be willing to travel to Pakistan, in the event – as seems likely – some of their own foreign players don’t go. Presently, Peshawar Zalmi are most confident their foreign contingent will travel to Lahore, while players from the other three sides are still undecided. Teams can field a maximum of four foreign players in their XI but the rules are flexible enough to allow teams to play with XI local players if necessary.Najam Sethi, the PSL chairman, is optimistic the final will feature foreign players.”First let the two finalists be confirmed, which will be by March 3,” he said on Monday. “I will be going back to Dubai now and once the finalists are confirmed I will again talk to the franchise owners and foreign players. We have also prepared a back-up list of foreign players in case the overseas signings of the finalist teams refuse to come to Lahore. “

Allrounder Mohammad Saifuddin has received a maiden-call up to the Bangladesh squad for the two-match T20I series against Sri Lanka in Colombo from April 4. The 16-member team also included offspinner Mehedi Hasan and left-arm spinner Sunzamul Islam, who too were yet to represent their country in the shortest format.

Bangladesh T20I squad

Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe Mortaza, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Subashis Roy, Sunzamul Islam, Nurul Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin
In: Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehedi Hasan, Sunzamul Islam, Mohammad Saifuddin
Out: Rubel Hossain, Shuvagata Hom, Taijul Islam

Saifuddin, a 20-year old fast bowler and a handy left-handed lower-order batsman, was flown into Colombo last week to play in the practice match. He picked up nine wickets from nine matches in his first BPL season last year playing for Comilla Victorians. He has played more than twice as many games in first-class cricket for Chittagong, tallying 48 wickets at an average of 31.10, and has struck six fifties as well. He first caught the selectors’ eye in the Under-19 World Cup which was held in Bangladesh in 2016.Mushfiqur Rahim rounded off the list of players coming into the squad that last played against New Zealand in January. Mushfiqur had missed that series having sustained a hamstring injury. Mehedi too has done enough to become a regular fixture in Bangladesh’s limited-overs teams while the uncapped Sunzamul received their first ODI call-ups during this Sri Lanka tour but is yet to get a game.Fast bowler Rubel Hossain, offspinner Shuvagata Hom and left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, who had been part of the team in New Zealand, have been excluded.

West Indies coach Stuart Law is deeply disappointed with the Bridgetown pitch, on which his team registered a stirring 106-run victory against Pakistan this week. The track, Law said, suited Pakistan more and left him “heartbroken” for his quick bowlers. Praising his side for winning convincingly despite that, he said the victory came as a result of the hard work they put in but do not often get credit for.”I wasn’t expecting what we turned up to see,” Law said. “If we can’t get a good coverage of grass in a tropical climate, there is something wrong. It wasn’t the sort of pitch we would have liked, I know that Pakistan were licking their lips when they saw it because it was a bit like a Pakistani pitch.”Day two when we were bowling, bouncers were landing five metres short of the keeper. We’ve got boys who bowl 90 miles an hour, and to see the ball do that is heartbreaking, particularly on day two. You expect it on day four, day five, no problem. But to get through the game the way we did, in those conditions, which suited the opposition more so, very proud of the effort.”West Indies’ victory brought the series level at 1-1, with one Test left to play. In the first Test, they fell to a seven-wicket defeat after collapsing in their second innings to 152. Here, they conceded the first-innings lead, before a second-innings seven-for from legspinner Yasir Shah left Pakistan chasing 188. Shannon Gabriel, with help from 20-year-old Alzarri Joseph and captain Jason Holder, made sure they did not get close.Law said the work Gabriel puts in behind the scenes to be fit and ready for the games needed applauding. “He just improves every time he goes out there. Not [just] his effort on the field, that’s unquestionable, but behind the scenes, which people don’t see. He goes to lengths to see he’s right and in perfect physical condition every time he goes out on the field.”He has had injury problems, but physio CJ Clarke is working tirelessly with him. Even away from the Test-match scene, he gets in early, works hard with him. And Shannon is very diligent with his preparation. When you’ve got a guy who can bowl 90+, you want to make sure you’re looking after him, and then he produces like he did this Test, that was just outstanding work.”Much like Gabriel, Law said many in the team put in a lot of hard work away from the public eye. He said there was no shortage of talent, but improvement would only come with more exposure to Test cricket – of the playing XI in Bridgetown, only Kraigg Brathwaite has played more than 30 Tests. “They’ve got the talent, that’s for sure. It’s one thing having talent, but when you couple that with experience, you become a formidable opponent. At the moment there’s not a lot of experience in our dressing room.”The experience is coming. We’ve seen in difficult conditions, playing against the best legspinner in the world [we won]. He got seven wickets but a lot of boys coped with him pretty well. To keep him out for as long as we did, I think [it] shows that we are learning.”From the first Test match we changed a few technical things with our batsmen, it seemed to work for the right handers. The work ethic…if someone says the West Indies boys don’t work hard enough, they don’t know what they’re talking about. The boys are pretty proud of their effort, leading up to this Test match and during it, to strive for that perfect game, to strive for errors to be eradicated… We’re going in the right direction.”The series decider will begin on May 10 in Dominica.

Overview

While the format of the Champions Trophy meant that Bangladesh missed out on spots in the 2009 and 2013 editions, they made sure they didn’t face similar disappointments by ensuring their place in the 2017 edition on the back of impressive ODI performances over the last two years. They will enter the Champions Trophy ranked no. 6 on the ICC ODI table, a gain that came about after their first away win over New Zealand in the recent Ireland tri-nation series.

Squad

Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mehedi Hasan, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Sunzamul Islam, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed

Led by the spirited Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s quest to make it to the 2017 Champions Trophy began shortly after the 2015 World Cup. To remain one of the top eight sides, they needed to win series and not just one-off matches. They beat Pakistan, India and South Africa on the trot at home, sealing their place in the tournament. While they did not win as many games over the following year and a half, the side continued to develop consistently. Most recently, they drew an ODI series in Sri Lanka and finished second in the tri-series, involving Ireland and New Zealand.Since April 2015, Bangladesh have the third best win-loss ratio among teams that have played more than 15 ODIs during this period. The side now has a fine mix of senior cricketers, who are experienced enough to know the intricacies of ODIs, and young guns who are brimming with talent.This tournament could be the stepping stone for Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan and Mosaddek Hossain much like the 2007 World Cup was for Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim.

Champions Trophy history

2000 – Pre Quarter-finals2002 – Group Stage2004 – Group Stage2006 – Qualifying Round

Form guide

Bangladesh have not won an ODI series since September last year. Their best recent result was the five-wicket win over New Zealand in the Ireland tri-nation series.

Strength

A team combination that has been in place for the last five-odd years. Five senior players – Shakib, Tamim, Mashrafe, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah – aided by coach Chandika Hathurusingha have played a central role in the side’s progress.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Weakness

Bangladesh’s long batting line-up can sometimes make them complacent, with batsmen playing aggressively for unrealistic periods. There have been multiple occasions when Nos. 6 and 7 Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain have had to bat conservatively during the slog overs just to make sure Bangladesh play out their overs. The fact that Bangladesh’s tail cannot contribute much, even by means of slogging, only accentuates the problem.

Key stats

• 1- Number of wickets Mashrafe needs to become the first Bangladeshi to reach 100 ODI wickets at away and neutral venues
• 2 – Number of current Bangladesh squad members who have played previously in the Champions Trophy. Shakib and Mashrafe played in the 2006 edition.
• 4 – Number of hundreds Tamim Iqbal has scored since the 2015 World Cup. He has struck eight overall