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With India-Pakistan cricketing ties currently in limbo, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has asserted that stopping cricket is not the answer to combating terrorism. Imran, who is currently in India attending , a news conclave, said he had raised the issue with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and was hoping for a positive response.”Stopping cricket is not an answer to terrorism. You don’t boycott a society on the basis of few sick men,” Imran said. “I supported the ban on South Africa once, but that was due to their stance on apartheid and that was a human rights violation. But other than that I believe sport should carry on.”It is a matter of a lifelong relationship. People to people contact is necessary to build ties. Sachin [Tendulkar] is loved in Pakistan as a Wasim [Akram] is loved in India.”On his meeting with Modi, Imran said: “I told Modi that cricket should happen. Modiji smiled at that question and I couldn’t decipher whether it was a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But I am a positive person and would take that positively.”We are the first generation of partition children, so we had heard a lot of hate stories. And people like us were on each side of the country. But when I toured India as a cricketer, I realised that we are the same people, who listen to the same songs and have the same tastes. There is consensus in Pakistan against terror. So we should look to bridge gaps not create distances.”Former India captain Kapil Dev, who was sharing the stage with Imran, was however more guarded in his stance on India-Pakistan ties.”Players have no problem in playing against each other, but you can’t go against government policy,” he said. “Boards certainly want to play, but Imran, Kapil and Sachin’s views do not matter. It is the government’s decision which finally counts.”

Lalchand Rajput, India’s Under-19 coach, has been named cricket manager of the Indian team for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa next month. Rajput will take over from Chandu Borde, who is managing the team on the current tour of England.Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad will continue as fielding and bowling coaches, Rajiv Shukla, vice-president of the Board for Control of Cricket in India, said.The board is expected to advertise for a new coach to take charge of the team after the Twenty20 tournament. “We want to get a coach as early as possible,” Shukla said after a meeting of senior board officials in New Delhi. The Indian team has been without a coach since Greg Chappell stepped down following the team’s World Cup exit in March.Mahendra Singh Dhoni had earlier been named captain of the team for the Twenty20 tournament, which Rahul Dravid, the regular captain, and seniors Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly had decided to skip.Shukla also said a new National Cricket Academy would be built at Bangalore, for which the Karnataka government is expected to allot land. The board also announced that the Brabourne Stadium would host a Twenty20 game between India and Australia on October 20, following a seven-match ODI series between the two sides.

ScorecardDavid Langford-Smith took five wickets for Ireland on the first day of their Intercontinental Cup match at Aberdeen against Scotland who were dismissed for 265. Ryan Watson was the only top-order batsman to star for the home side with a pugnacious 74 before he was caught at deep backward square by Langford-Smith off the bowling of Trent Johnston, the Australia fast bowler.Watson received little support from the Scotland middle-order until John Blain arrived at the crease, who proceeded to at last take command of the Ireland bowling, hitting 53 from 94 balls. In reply, Ireland lost Jeremy Bray in the slips and they now trail by 222 runs.

West Indies saved the follow-on on the third day at Port-of-Spain … just.Daren Ganga and Marlon Samuels batted well, but the lower ordercouldn’t keep up the momentum and the innings folded for 408.Australia took a handy first-innings lead of 168, and extended that toone short of 200 for the loss of Justin Langer in an uncharacteristicallyrestrained hour’s batting before the close.It took some time, but Australia eventually worked their way through theWest Indian batting order. Steve Waugh hasn’t batted in this match yet,and won’t mind too much if he misses out tomorrow as well. On abelter of a pitch, albeit one showing signs of occasional unevenbounce and offering substantial turn, Waugh will be looking to pushthat lead towards 400 before letting his fast men off the leash again.Ganga’s century, his second in successive Test innings after 17matches without one, gave West Indies hope in the first session. Thespinners, Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg, were turning the ballappreciably, but Ganga picked them with great certainty, apart from theodd rush of blood, building on his century at Georgetown. He cracked15 fours and a six in his century,It was Ganga’s second Test hundred, and his first at home in Trinidad.Ironically Brian Lara, who was out for 91 late on the second day, has yetto reach three figures in 10 Tests on his home island. Some estimateshad it that 5000 extra people might have ventured to the ground on thisEaster Monday if Lara had still been batting.Ganga had 117 by lunch, but failed to add to his score afterwards. BrettLee, armed with the new ball, moved one away from him – the perfectpacy outswinger – and Matthew Hayden clutched a screamer into hismidriff (279 for 5). The new batsman, the debutant David Bernard,played straight enough despite being clunked on the head by a Leebouncer that flew off for four leg-byes, but had made only 7 when JasonGillespie threaded one through the gate and knocked back his offstump (300 for 6).Samuels, who made two single-figure scores in the first Test, wassketchy at first against Lee, but blossomed later, unfurling somedeadeye drives. One over from Hogg cost 14, including an off-drive thatblistered to the boundary, followed by a huge six over the cycle-trackinto the crowd at long-on. At 47 Samuels was caught by Hayden at firstslip off Andy Bichel, but it was a no-ball. He sauntered to a half-century,in 130 minutes, in the next over.At the other end another new cap, the diminutive wicketkeeper CarltonBaugh, played a breezy innings. In the first match of the Australians’tour Baugh bagged a century for the President’s XI in Georgetown.Here he played some breezy strokes and helped Samuels put on 67,but at 19, off what turned out to be the last ball before tea, hedemolished his own stumps trying an extravagant cut (367 for 7). It wasMacGill’s 100th Test wicket, in only his 21st match.West Indies nibbled nervously at the tea-time sandwiches, needing 10to save the follow-on. Samuels fell for 68 with the lead exactly 200,chipping a catch to the incoming Bichel at long-off (376 for 8). VasbertDrakes earned a huge cheer for the vital single, and although he soonlost Merv Dillon – lbw to Jason Gillespie for his 25th Test duck (384 for9) – Drakes set the Trini Posse jiving with two huge sixes off Hogg, oneof which nearly reached the TV commentary box.Drakes was eventually trapped in front, a fourth wicket for Lee. Despitethe extravagant turn the spinners extracted at times, it was the fast menthat did the damage: Gillespie was also waspish and wasted little.West Indies may have saved the follow-on, but they haven’t saved thismatch yet.

ScorecardMichael Papps did his chances of playing in next week’s opening Test at Lord’s no harm by scoring an impressive 126 against Kent at Canterbury. He put on an opening stand of 244 with Mark Richardson, who scored 92, as the New Zealanders closed a dominating day on 297 for 2.Papps had struggled earlier on in the tour, but he made a timely return to form, hitting 18 boundaries in his innings and mammoth stand with Richardson. He is expected to make way if Stephen Fleming, the captain, is fit to return to the team, but Papps made the most of two dropped slipped catches early on to post a big score. He survived a straightforward chance to Rob Ferley at second slip on 23, and then David Fulton put down a more difficult slice at first slip off Alamgir Sheriyar with Papps on 34.He and Richardson batted together for almost five hours until David Stiff, who bowled 20 no balls in the day, trapped Papps lbw (244 for 1), and then bowled Richardson shortly after (253 for 2).Those two wickets were welcome relief for Kent, but Nathan Astle and Scott Styris then cashed in on the platform set by Papps and Richardson. Astle, who edged his second delivery from Stiff and was dropped by Matthew Walker at second slip, hit a bright 32 not out, including seven fours, and Styris ended unbeaten on 14.

FULL NAME: Craig Neil Evans
BORN: 29 November 1969, Salisbury (now Harare)
MAJOR TEAMS: Mashonaland Under-24 (1993/94), Mashonaland (since 1994/95).
Present club team: Old Georgians (Harare).
KNOWN AS: Craig Evans. Nicknames: Moggy, Magoo.
BATTING STYLE: Right Hand Bat
BOWLING STYLE: Right Arm Medium Pace
OCCUPATION: Tobacco auctioneer
FIRST-CLASS DEBUT: Zimbabwe B v Pakistan B, at Harare South Country Club, 3 October 1990
TEST DEBUT: First Test v Sri Lanka, at Colombo, 1996/97
ODI DEBUT: 25 October 1992, v India, at Harare
BIOGRAPHY (updated March 2003)Craig Evans has in the past been one of Zimbabwe’s most frustrating cricketers. Although abounding in natural talent, in the past he often appeared not to take the game seriously enough and to waste the opportunities he had.Craig himself admits that in the past he lacked full commitment to the game, but in his late twenties his priorities changed. He achieved his aim of a regular place in the national one-day team, although his hopes of becoming an established Test player remain unfulfilled. Then, in his thirties, he became a major force in Zimbabwe domestic cricket as he applied himself as never before to success in the game.Craig, like so many of the country’s other top cricketers, attended Ruzawi School and Falcon College. The Ruzawi headmaster, Bryan Curtis, was his first major formal influence, but he also had much encouragement from his father on the family farm near Harare. His first century, he thinks, was scored for Ruzawi against St John’s School in Harare when he was about ten years of age.Representing the Districts in the primary schools cricket week in his final year at Ruzawi, Craig opened the batting and scored three centuries in five days. Unfortunately for him, in those days there was no official national primary schools team. He considers himself to have been mainly a batsman, but as a pace bowler his peers found him frighteningly fast. Tall and well-built, he was much quicker than any other junior school player at that time, but he admits that he did not always fully apply himself or try his hardest.At Falcon College, he usually batted at Number 3 or 4 and opened the bowling, and was selected for the first team at the age of 15. They went on a tour to Australia, which was Craig’s first experience of top-level cricket outside the local scene. Throughout his school years he and Glen Bruk-Jackson played together and shared many excellent batting partnerships; there was a degree of rivalry between them, but Craig also felt Glen to be an encouragement to him, one who helped to give him confidence. Although in the national schools team, Craig felt that Zimbabwe’s comparative isolation in those days before the granting of Test status and the reinstatement of South Africa was a handicap to himself and his contemporaries, depriving them of a vital part of their cricketing education and experience.Craig was already playing in the Mashonaland Country Districts Winter Cricket League, for Enterprise, under the captaincy of Roger Staunton, who also gave him much help and encouragement. Later on he moved to Ruwa, as his father moved farms, and played for the Goromonzi team. Craig’s highest score in any class of cricket is 253, playing for Goromonzi now against Shamva in the semi-final of the Lilthurbridge Cup competition in 1997. This broke the league record of 245, set by Kevin Arnott. Craig still plays winter cricket, liking to keep in touch all year round. In 1997 he scored five centuries, including his 253, and also 151 against Glendale in the victorious final.On leaving high school and moving to Harare, Craig joined Old Georgians Sports Club. The captain at that time, Kevin Murphy, wanted him to concentrate on his batting, and Craig found his bowling losing pace and rhythm. He has never again approached the speed, comparatively speaking, at which he bowled during his school years, but he began to work harder at his bowling again to assist him in his efforts to cement his place in Zimbabwe’s one-day team.During that Zimbabwean winter, he decided to get some experience overseas in England, and played for the Lancashire club Widnes for six months. He averaged 60 with the bat and took some good wickets, enjoying the experience, but found the English pitches much slower than those at home and took a while adjusting on his return. He was temporarily dropped to the second team at Old Georgians, but responded with an innings of 175 not out, which regained him his place. His job in the tobacco industry has since prevented him from returning to English cricket.He felt that the 1996/97 season was an above average season for him; he kept his place in the one-day team almost throughout and enjoyed a good triangular series in South Africa. The highlights were innings of 40 and 43, both against India, the latter being scored in a vital partnership with Paul Strang and leading eventually to a thrilling Zimbabwean victory. He opted out of the visit to Sharjah, staying at home for the birth of his son. He felt that he matured further as a cricketer during the season and finished as a better player. He was now thinking more like a cricketer and playing straighter.He did play one Test match, on the tour to Sri Lanka, but without success. His aim was to earn a Test place batting at number 6 or 7, as a batsman who can also bowl, but realized that there was more work to be done first. He names Muttiah Muralitharan and Wasim Akram as the most difficult bowlers he has ever faced in his career, and also mentions Saqlain Mushtaq; "Streaky [Heath Streak] can also be quite difficult to face on his day," he adds.As a bowler he found the Australians most difficult to bowl to, naming Michael Bevan and also Sachin Tendulkar as very tough opponents. "Andy Flower is a nightmare to bowl at times when he gets in," he adds. "He works you to both sides of the wicket; my good balls used to go for one, while when I bowl to other guys I just get left alone."He kept up his reputation as a one-day specialist into the 1997/98 season, but did little with the bat in nine matches, until he played a valuable innings of 48 not out in the second final against Kenya. He took some useful wickets at times, especially against New Zealand at home, but then lost his rhythm, and realized that his place was in danger unless he could perform with more consistency.He did not find that consistency immediately, playing just one good innings in the rest of the season, 46 off 34 balls against India in Baroda as Zimbabwe chased a target of 275 bravely but in vain. His bowling improved against Pakistan and helped to keep his place in the side, and he feels he bowled better than he batted in India. He now had a reputation, though, as a batsman who might fail nine times out of ten but was liable to play a devastating innings the tenth time round. Unfortunately the following season was to see the absence of that tenth innings.He felt he was finding his best batting form again against India at home, with one-day innings of 34, 17 and 31 at an ever-increasing strike rate. He also played another Test match, but only because several first-choice players were injured, and was sadly the only player in the team who failed to make a significant contribution to the victory over India. It seems unlikely he will play Test cricket again.In Sharjah he took three wickets for 11 runs, a remarkable one-day return, against Sri Lanka, but failed with the bat. After a few further failures with the bat in Sharjah and Pakistan the selectors decided to look elsewhere. To his disappointment Craig was left out of the Bangladesh tournament and also the World Cup.He was rather puzzled by his own failures as he felt confident going out to bat, yet failed to produce the goods. He admitted that his bowling too was not as consistent as it should have been and realized that once again he would have to work harder at his game to fight his way back. He was given another chance in Singapore at the start of the 1999/2000 season, his selection owing a lot to the fact that the matches would be played on a small ground where his ability to hit sixes would be of extra value. But, with scores of 2 and 0, he failed to reach the boundary at all and was again omitted when he returned.Many players would have called it a day, especially at the age of 30, but Craig was enjoying the game and never gave up hope of a return to the national team. He set his sights on playing in the World Cup of 2002/03, and drew attention to himself for setting out his stall for big scores in the Logan Cup competition.In early 2000, playing for Mashonaland against Matabeleland at Bulawayo Athletic Club, he hit what was then the highest first-class score of his career, 153. His partnership of 330 with Dirk Viljoen was the highest for any wicket ever recorded in Zimbabwean first-class cricket. He followed it up with four wickets for five runs as Matabeleland gave up the ghost.He had a quiet time the following season, but in 2001/02, the season before the World Cup, his determination brought him his best season ever. He missed one Logan Cup match through selection for the Zimbabwean development side that played in the Africa Cup, but in each of the other four matches he hit a century.His greatest match began on 1 March in Mutare, as Mashonaland played Manicaland. Mashonaland, overconfident, were brought up short as Manicaland amassed 513 for nine declared, with Guy Whittall recording a double-century. Mashonaland subsided to 226 all out, and it seemed the champions were about to be subjected to a humiliating defeat.In the second innings they had lost four wickets for 101, still 186 behind, when Craig arrived at the crease. Playing with a remarkable mixture of aggression and discipline, he stayed there over six hours while hitting 210, including 33 fours but only one six as he concentrated on keeping the ball on the ground. His game plan, as he said later, was simply to keep out the good balls and wait for the bad deliveries that he knew would come from an attack variable in quality. Manicaland, set 220 to win, collapsed as Craig came on with the ball and he took six wickets for 37 with teasing slow-medium seamers.Mashonaland thus won an astonishing victory by 73 runs, thanks mainly to Craig’s astounding all-round performance. He is one of the few individuals with a significant career to have recorded their best batting and bowling performances in the same match.At the end of that season Craig said, "I think this has probably been my best season ever. I think I’ve matured as a player in the longer game, and I hope I can build on that for whatever cricket I may play from now on."I think I’m a lot more circumspect nowadays in choosing what balls I should be playing and what I shouldn’t be playing. Over the last four or five years I’ve been playing too often at balls I shouldn’t have played, and got out. It’s simple, basic cricket that I’m playing now – time at the crease, occupation of the crease – and I think that’s why I’ve scored the runs I have this season. I think my concentration has been more circumspect recently, and that has helped me a lot this season."Another century at the start of the 2002/03 season finally persuaded the selectors that Craig deserved another try at international level. At the age of almost 33, he made his return to the one-day side against the touring Pakistan team.In the first one-day international Pakistan ran up 302 for four and Zimbabwe were reeling at 32 for four when Craig came to the wicket. Beginning cautiously, he dug in and then began to bat more aggressively in partnership with Andy Flower. The pair added 135 together and given Zimbabwe hope of a remarkable victory when a tragic mix-up led to Craig being run out.Then the dream faded. Three failures followed, and the selectors, ignoring the quality of that innings, dropped him again without giving him a chance to show what he could do against Kenya. Craig missed the final World Cup cut, and that will probably end his career in international cricket.Golf has been the main rival for Craig’s affections, and he has been rated as the best amateur golfer in the country, playing off scratch. "You need to practise to stay in the golf camp," says Craig, "and you can’t really play cricket when you’re playing golf, and you can’t play golf when you’re playing cricket. There are two different styles of play: golf using the right hand and cricket using the left hand. When I was playing a lot of golf, I wasn’t totally committed to cricket. The golf took up a lot of my time when I should have been concentrating on cricket, so my cricket fell behind quite a long way. But during these last two years [said in 1997] I’ve started to catch up now, virtually starting all over again. If I had concentrated more on cricket and left my golf for a while, I would have been all right." It is, in fact, the greatest regret of his career that he did not concentrate exclusively on cricket from the start, as his development has been retarded as a result.As a big hitter and a bowler who can turn his arm over usefully for a few overs, Craig fits the image more of a one-day cricketer rather than a Test player. He is a very powerful hitter, and against the visiting county Northamptonshire in 1994/95 hit a ball at Harare Sports Club over the swimming pool and full on to the roof of the squash courts, a remarkable carry. In a Vigne Cup (Mashonaland league) semi-final in 1998/99 he scored a remarkable 159 not out against an admittedly weak Alexandra Sports Club bowling attack. He reached his century off 87 balls, and took only another 12 deliveries to reach 150, hitting altogether 11 fours and 9 sixes off 105 balls. A gigantic six off Sean Davies not only went out of the ground, but also cleared the tall trees on the edge of the ground and a private house on the far side.He is essentially a straight hitter who plays down the line and is not afraid to hit over the top. Because of his experience opening the innings, he has at times been asked to do so in one-day internationals, but with little success. "My technique and defence against the quicker bowlers is not really up to scratch," he admits, which is part of the reason also why he has rarely been considered for Tests. "But I have been working on it over the last couple of years, and it’s a little better. But it’s got to be a hell of a lot better when you’re playing in this kind of league! My foot movement is not great, and I’m looking to improve that over the next couple of years. Facing the likes of Heath Streak, Henry Olonga and Eddo Brandes in the nets, you can’t help but get better!"Craig names Grant Flower, his colleague at Old Georgians, as the man who has helped him the most in his cricket, through both good and lean times, "but I try to do things myself, my own way, which is very wrong." Craig’s honest analysis of his own faults and his determination to overcome them helped him to secure a place in the national one-day side for more than two years.Craig maintains his enthusiasm for club cricket and continues to make good scores and hit big sixes with regularity. If only he had matured earlier as a player and concentrated primarily on cricket, he might have enjoyed a much longer and more prosperous career on the international stage. Even now, it may not be over.

The CLEAR Black Caps’ efforts in Sri Lanka, before last night’s reduced overs match, could have netted them four wins out of four but for two tight finishes against the Sri Lankans where the home side came out on top.These results, in the face of some severe sickness that seemed to affect half the team, has the Black Caps still in with a chance to take their place in the tournament final.On what seem to be some very low scoring wickets, the toss has played a very important part in these contests as the team winning the toss has some clear advantages, but that is all well and good because then the team has to make the most of the advantage.The Kiwi boys need to win their last game to make the final and, in spite of last night’s loss, I really think they can take this tournament.Instrumental in the series so far has been Dion Nash.It’s great to see him back and leading from the front.He is a class player and his form considering he has been out of top cricket for some time, is tremendous. His aggressive style is well known throughout the cricketing world and opposition teams know they have a battle on their hands when the name D Nash appears on the score sheet.Along with his skill, his off field contribution is just as big, as his astute reading of the game will no doubt be helping Stephen Fleming. I hear that Flem was hardest hit by the bug going around and I hope he has recovered well because I reckon he is due for a big score.Along with Dan Vettori, and the ever reliable Chris Harris, New Zealand has some experience and quality to call on. Throw in excellent performances from the two young men opening up the bowling in Tuffey and Mills and the NZ bowling attack is looking very competitive.I have been following the Black Caps recently on my lap top from South Africa. Hooked up to CricInfo’s superb ball by ball coverage means I can follow the fortunes of the guys all over the world.The reason I am currently in South Africa is to aid in my recovery from the knee surgery I had in Febuary this year. Here in Johannesburg it is winter just as it is in New Zealand.But here there are a few differences that will allow me the best chance to get back to full fitness as fast as I can.Last week I had my first bat on a grass wicket since January 2 which was my last game for the Black Caps.This is what has brought me to Joburg, the ability to have a functional rehabilitation incorporating proper outdoor practice, not be confined to indoor training where the floors would be too unforgiving on my newly operated on knee.While, with Christchurch recording record low temperatures, that’s not really a place to be trying to practice cricket!!The temperature here is 20 degrees during the day and there is not a cloud in the sky. The South Africans are so lucky to have this weather and top rate training facilities available to them at this time of year. My commitment to getting my place back in the Black Caps has seen me source out the best possible facilities in the world to help in my rehabilitation.It is early days yet but things have gone very well and I am hoping to begin bowling this week and can’t wait. Along with information passed through to me on the Black Caps website from our fitness trainers it means my progress is monitored by our experts so I’m lucky to have the best of both worlds, communication from home and some of the best facilities in the world to train.

After scoring an unbeaten 88 which secured Bangladesh’s seven-wicket win against South Africa, Soumya Sarkar revealed that he kept trying to pull the short balls since he was confident he had the mindset to take on the visitors’ attack. Soumya said that he was not worried about the consequences, like getting out, but understood the need to prolong his good starts.”I heard from somewhere that they will stop me by bowling bouncers,” Soumya said. “I wanted to play at them, even if I got out. I wanted to get out of that mindset. I planned that no matter how fast they bowl and how much they try to bounce me, I just wanted to take them on.”South Africa’s pace attack bowled eleven deliveries to Soumya that ranged between very short to just short of good length, but the batsman either managed to get on top of the bounce, or threw himself at a pull. He initially got mixed results as many of the balls fell short of the mid-off fielder after he failed to time it.But later in the innings, after Soumya had crossed 60, he cracked a pull emphatically off Kagiso Rabada for four. It was a statement of intent that he later said wanted to deliver to the opposition attack. Soumya added that South Africa hardly gave him breathing space like he received from the Pakistan attack on his way to an unbeaten 127 three months ago. He rated this unbeaten knock higher than the century.”Against South Africa, I have had to make a bad ball as they weren’t giving away. Pakistan were giving at least one bad ball per over. This was a tougher knock. We were chasing a bigger total against Pakistan so we could plan accordingly. Small targets are always hard to chase. We have to change plans quickly. You have to start fresh after quick wickets. I will keep this innings ahead.”In the four innings after his maiden century on April 22, Soumya failed to bat for more than 47 deliveries or 70 minutes. He made 54, 34, 40 and 27, but got out trying to attack further. The BCB president Nazmul Hasan had mentioned the same to him during their meeting on Saturday, but Soumya said he has heard the exact same thing from everyone.”Everyone says the same thing. Even those who are younger than me tell me, ‘Bro, please finish your innings’. I have been getting used to this,” he said. “I didn’t do too many different things to prolong my innings. My target wasn’t to score a 50 or a 100 but to finish the chase. I just wanted to play till the end.”Soumya said that he minimised the risk in his plan to play a longer innings. Bangladesh’s poor start of losing Tamim Iqbal and Litton Das by the fourth over also contributed to his subdued start.”I cut down one or two of my shots thinking that it might bring me a positive result. A big innings always brings relief. I started differently today but that was due to the circumstances. I think I faced just one ball in the first three-four overs. We had lost two wickets by then so I had to think fresh. I had thought earlier that I would play in my own way. But the two wickets changed my plans.”The other factor he feels helped was having Mahmudullah back in the team. Soumya and Mahmudullah added 135 runs for the third wicket that took Bangladesh within four runs of victory. The pair has already added three fifty-plus stands and Soumya said Mahmudullah understands his game the best, which helps them bat well together.”Since the World Cup whenever I see Riyad bhai come to bat, I smile. I do that whenever I see him in the middle. Today I told him everything is fine. But what he tells me, I always take it seriously. He understands my batting very well.”

Two teams with little in common are meeting at crossroads, one side coming to an end of a successful period, the other beginning a long journey. Contests between South Africa and Bangladesh in any format – save their World Cup meeting in 2007 – have not been much of a contest, but the home team’s improvement will ensure the visitors are anything but complacent.Bangladesh have had few breaks while playing four series and a World Cupin the last 12 months, and these two Twenty20 internationals, three ODIs and two Tests against South Africa will end their 2014-15 and 2015 seasons, which merged into one vast period. They have two months off before hosting Australia in October.South Africa, on the other hand, are touring Bangladesh for their first international assignment since losing the World Cup semi-final to New Zealand in March. Having had three months off, they begin with Bangladesh, before playing New Zealand at home, India away and England at home, before returning to India for the World T20 in March 2016. Between now and February, South Africa play 12 Tests, 16 ODIs and nine T20 internationals.No wonder then that Dale Steyn thought his energy would be better spent elsewhere than in Bangladesh, but since the team arrived in Dhaka last week, his team-mates Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy have given their opponents’ current form due credit. Having had success in the subcontinent previously, South Africa are not the type to go easy on any opponent, and Bangladesh’s victories over Pakistan and India would have hardened that approach.Apart from a host brimming with confidence, South Africa will also have to contend with the heat and humidity of the Bangladesh summer, and Duminy said how well they take care of themselves physically could be critical to success. The T20Is start at 1300 local time.South Africa are missing Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Imran Tahir for the T20Is, and will test an emerging attack comprising Kyle Abbott, David Wiese, Kagiso Rabada, Eddie Leie and Beuran Hendricks, along side Wayne Parnell. Steyn will play only the Tests, while AB de Villiers will play the T20s and ODIs before going on paternity leave.They will be expected to dominate Bangladesh nonetheless, and unless there is an upset, the results are likely to receive a low-key response back in South Africa.In Dhaka and Chittagong, though, interest in cricket – call it madness or frenzy too – is at an all-time high. It has peaked after the 2-1 victory in the ODIs against India, as evidenced by the rush for free seats during South Africa’s warm-up match against a BCB XI in Fatullah. Bangladesh’s fans will do anything to get a glimpse.The captain Mashrafe Mortaza and coach Chandika Hathurusingha have said that South Africa are likely to be tougher than Pakistan and India, not only because of their formidable away record, but also because Bangladesh are coming to the end of a long season.The two Twenty20 internationals are the start of both sides build-ups to the 2016 World T20, and the ODIs that follow are of special importance to Bangladesh. They are all but through to the 2017 Champions Trophy, but one victory against South Africa will cast their qualification in stone.The T20 and ODI series will also be the first under the ICC’s new playing conditions for limited-overs games – no mandatory catchers in the first ten overs of an ODI, no batting Powerplay, five fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle in the last ten overs of an ODI, and free-hits for all kinds of no-balls. Bangladesh have expressed happiness with many of these changes, and it remains to be seen how the teams adjust to them.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHow they were out

An unbeaten century from Tim Bresnan, his second in first-class cricket, and a 129-run partnership with Stuart Broad for the eighth wicket, allowed England Lions to gain the upper hand at the end of the first day against the touring Indians at Chelmsford. The Indian bowlers, led by the experienced Zaheer Khan, made an impact in the second session but Joe Denly’s aggressive 83 at the start, as well as the Bresnan-Broad union, overshadowed that effort.Barring a brief 20 overs under the mid-afternoon sun, the bowlers struggled on a benign surface. Andrew Strauss, who won a good toss, failed to capitalise on the good batting conditions, as did Owais Shah but a trio of batsmen with contrasting styles – Denly, Bresnan and Broad – made India pay. A middle-order collapse raised visions of an fightback but three dropped catches, allied with the Indians’ inability to polish off the tail, returned to haunt them.The Lions dominated at the start of the day, suffered a blip in the middle before solidifying their position towards the end. Denly, the 21-year-old opener who has been in red-hot form for Kent, began as if this was a one-dayer, clattering Zaheer for as many as five fours in an over, racing to 43 in just 29 balls. Bresnan, the 22-year-old allrounder from Yorkshire, was relatively more compact in his style and showed how well he could bat with the tail, guiding them from a modest 225 for 7 to a healthy 379 for 8 at close.Bresnan has chipped in with the bat with some handy contributions this season, helping Yorkshire to the top of the County Championship table. He walked in at 185 for 6, with Zaheer and Ramesh Powar turning in a fine spell in tandem, but survived the early moments confidently. Ravinder Bopara fell soon, at the stroke of tea, but Broad provided him good company after the interval. Broad enjoyed large dollops of good fortune – Wasim Jaffer grassed a tough chance at short leg before MS Dhoni and Ramesh Powar fluffed a sitter apiece. It allowed Broad to get into his groove before opening up with some handsome lofts over the infield.But it was Denly who was the most confident batsmen on view. He was particularly severe on Zaheer’s full-pitched deliveries early on and it was only when the length changed that he was in any trouble. He brought up his fifty with a crisp crack through midwicket and went to lunch set for a big one. However he couldn’t resist the temptation to charge down the track to a flighted offbreak from Powar, left a big gap between bat and pad and watched MS Dhoni pull off a neat stumping.His dismissal fired up the Indians, especially Zaheer, in what was their most successful passage of play. Zaheer cranked up his pace and mixed up his length well, occasionally slipping in a well-directed bouncer, and didn’t flag at any point. Jonathan Trott, who reached 40 without much problem, was suddenly rattled and fell to a half-hearted drive away from his body.Tim Ambrose followed soon, undone by a fuller ball that ricocheted off the edge to the wicketkeeper. Bopara and Bresnan added 40 in quick time but Sachin Tendulkar, bringing himself on just before tea, lured Bopara into an airy flick, only for Dinesh Karthik to pull off a smart reflex catch at short leg. It gave the Indians a sniff but proved to be the last cheery moment of the day.