All posts by csb10.top

Match facts

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders
Bengaluru, May 7, 2017
Start time 1600 local (1030 GMT)

Head-to-head

This season: In a record-breaking performance, Kolkata Knight Riders bowled out Royal Challengers Bangalore for 49 – the IPL’s lowest total – to win by 82 runs. Knight Riders, defending 131, used no spinners; Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Woakes and Colin de Grandhomme took three wickets each and Royal Challengers were dismissed in 9.4 overs.Overall: Knight Riders lead 10-9 in all IPL matches but Royal Challengers have a 4-3 record against the Kolkata team in Bengaluru.

Form guide

Royal Challengers Bangalore (eighth): lost to Kings XI Punjab by 19 runs, lost to Mumbai Indians by five wickets, lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by 61 runs
Kolkata Knight Riders (third): lost to Rising Pune by four wickets, lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 48 runs, defeated Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets

In the news

A hamstring niggle kept Robin Uthappa out of Knight Riders’ last game. The team will take a call on his selection based on how he shapes up during practice on Saturday.Chris Lynn, recovering from a shoulder injury he picked up on April 9, said he hoped to return to the side before the playoffs and was back to training this week. According to assistant coach Simon Katich, Lynn “could well be available for selection”.Nathan Coulter-Nile, RCB’s nemesis last time, suffered a blow on his helmet grille against Rising Pune Supergiant and was subsequently “shaken up” and “a little bit off colour” leading up to this game, according to Katich. A call will be taken on his fitness closer to the game.Royal Challengers are out of contention for a top-four finish. The captain Virat Kohli, after another heavy loss on Thursday, said that his team continued to “let themselves down with the bat” and that he found it “difficult to find motivation” due to their poor performance. Shane Watson has been in and out of their XI and it will not be of any surprise if Travis Head replaces him again.

Qualification scenario

A win against Royal Challengers will all but seal Knight Riders’ place in the playoffs – and help them shake off any nagging doubts that might have crept in after two losses in a row. Moreover, they are chasing a top-two finish, which allows them two chances to get to the final; they will need to win at least two of their last three games for this, but might need to win all three depending on other results.

The likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Mandeep Singh, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Kedar Jadhav (wk), 6 Shane Watson/Travis Head, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 S Aravind, 9 Samuel Badree, 10 Aniket Choudhary, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa/Sheldon Jackson (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile/Piyush Chawla, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Kuldeep Yadav

Strategy punt

Kolkata Knight Riders might consider legspinner Piyush Chawla, who has had considerable success against de Villiers (dismissed four times, conceding only 43 off 44 balls) and Kohli (dismissed three times, 95 off 71 balls). If Chawla plays, though, captain Gautam Gambhir will look to hold him back until Chris Gayle is dismissed. The West Indies batsman has hit Chawla for 103 runs off 57 balls.

Stats that matter

• Sunil Narine is having his poorest IPL with the ball. He has averaged 39.71 runs for every wicket and has a strike-rate of less than a wicket per game. His economy of 8.53 in the Powerplay – where he has taken only one wicket – is the worst among all spinners this season (minimum five overs bowled).
• Knight Riders’ batting is heavily dependent on their top four. Their middle and lower order have scored at an average of 14.52 and a strike-rate of 115.97, the second-poorest among all teams – behind RCB.
• Overall, Knight Riders have the second-worst scoring-rate at the death, and hit a boundary only every 6.1 balls.
• In 2017, Chris Gayle has averaged 9.00 per match at the Chinnaswamy after four games. Shane Watson averages 13.66 while de Villiers averages 15.75. Each of them has scored at below a run a ball, too. Virat Kohli (106) and Kedar Jadhav (133) are the only two Royal Challengers batsmen to score more than a hundred runs this season at home.
• Virat Kohli has smacked 137 runs off 73 balls against Umesh Yadav.

Vidarbha finished at the top of the Group A points table after thumping Assam by 104 runs at the Karnail Singh stadium in Delhi. Top-order batsmen Jitesh Sharma and Ganesh Satish hit half-centuries, which formed the backbone of Vidarbha’s 273 for 9. Siddhesh Wath and Apoorv Wankhade pitched in thirty-somethings each to boost their team even as as the lower order crumbled.In response, Assam lost Pallavkumar Das early, but Rishav Das mounted some resistance with his second List A fifty. Pritam Debnath, Arun Karthik, and Amit Verma all found starts but failed to capitalise. The second-best score for Assam was wicketkeeper Kunal Saikia’s 34-ball 38. Offspinner Abhishek Chaurasia’s 6 for 37 ,however, ensured Vidarbha skittled Assam for 169 in 41.1 overs.Haryana dismissed Baroda for 181 in a chase of 267 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi, but it was not enough for a spot in the quarter-finals. New-ball bowlers Sanjay Pahal and Ashish Hooda claimed three wickets each to spark Baroda’s collapse. Opener Kedar Devdhar, who struck 81 off 113 balls, had given Baroda a positive start in their chase, and they were well-placed at 109 for 2. Then they lost their last eight wickets for 72 runs.Having opted to bat, Haryana put up 266 for 5 with half-centuries from wicketkeeper-batsman Nitin Saini, Rahul Dagar, and Rahul Tewatia. Dagar and Tewatia provided the late impetus with a unbroken 136-run stand for the sixth wicket.Captain Govinda Poddar’s third List A hundred fashioned a 69-run win for Odisha over Punjab at the Palam ground in Delhi.Poddar walked in at 5 for 1 in the sixth over and did not budge until the 42nd over. He struck 12 fours and a six in his 119-ball 120 and found support from allrounder Biplab Samantray, who scored 48 off 61 balls, as Odisha reached 240.Left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh then ran through the Punjab line-up with career-best figures of 5 for 49. Shubham Gill and Anmolpreet Singh, who represented India in the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh last year, contributed with half-centuries each, but the middle and lower order fell away. Punjab were eventually bowled out for 171 in 30 overs.

Steve O’Keefe knew this Test was his big chance. He had played four Tests before, but never more than one in a series. One in Dubai, one in Sydney, one in Pallekele, another in Sydney. So when he saw a pitch that threatened to be a raging turner, he knew the pressure was on to perform. And, having been given the new ball to share with Mitchell Starc, O’Keefe went to lunch on day two with 0 for 23 from seven overs.He was disappointed with how he had bowled. He was not leaking runs, but nor was he threatening much either. So, O’Keefe spent some of his lunch break training with Sridharan Sriram, the former India allrounder serving as Australia’s spin consultant on this trip. And when O’Keefe was handed the ball for his first spell upon the resumption, he took three wickets in his first over to turn the match in Australia’s favour, and finished with 6 for 35 from 13.1 overs.”When I first started to bowl, my first six overs, I went probably back to my comfort zone, which is what I bowl in Australia,” O’Keefe said after play. “You probably won’t see it on camera, but I know how it feels. I was probably just going a bit over the top and whenever I tried to bowl quick it was too full, and it was ordinary bowling the first six overs.”I’d been working in the nets on some other variations, just changing the seam angle and arm angle and you probably don’t notice it, but for me it made all the difference. Sree was like ‘let’s go out and bowl it so you feel comfortable with it’.”It’s amazing how things can quickly change over here. I probably didn’t bowl very well at all in my first six overs. And then it all just happened really quickly. I guess that’s the sort of wicket it is. We played and missed at a lot of balls, and fortunately for us they nicked them and we caught them. It was a good day to be a part of and well finished off by the batters.”O’Keefe’s success should guarantee that, unless he suffers an injury like he did during last year’s Sri Lanka tour, he will play multiple Tests in a series for the first time in his career. At 32, he knew this tour was make or break for his international career, after the disappointment of being forced home from Sri Lanka, which had been followed by a drunken incident at a Sydney hotel that led to a fine from Cricket Australia.Steve O’Keefe returned the third-best figures by a visiting left-arm spinner in India•AFP

“Going to Sri Lanka, I thought that was my big opportunity, and I sort of messed that one up,” he said. “To be honest, I always thought an India tour was there but that it was almost unreachable. To be given this opportunity – I’ve tried to make the most of it and I’ve prepared for it back home by giving away some of the Big Bash cricket to prepare solely for red-ball cricket … It means a lot to do well, but we’re day two in a four-Test series, so we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”O’Keefe was well backed up by the fielders on day two in Pune – Peter Handscomb’s take at second slip to get rid of Ajinkya Rahane was particularly special, but also by his captain. Steven Smith trusted O’Keefe to take the new ball and then went to him again soon after lunch, despite his struggle for impact in his opening spell.”I think the important thing is I’ve been well backed up by Steve Smith, who I think is a brilliant captain,” O’Keefe said. “When you play under a captain who shows a lot of belief in you, it’s amazing what can happen.”O’Keefe’s final analysis of 6 for 35 was the third best by a visiting left-arm spinner in India, behind Hedley Verity’s 7 for 49 in 1934 and Michael Clarke’s 6 for 9 in 2004, and they were also the second-best figures of O’Keefe’s first-class career. And while he was still coming to terms with his triumphant performance shortly after play on day two, he knew it would count for little if Australia let India off the hook in the second innings.”It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he said. “I think it will if that contributes to a win. Right now we’ll enjoy it, we had a good day, but that’s all it is. It’s just a good day’s cricket. We know this Indian team, how well they can bat, and even in spinning conditions they’re exceptional players. They’re all match-winners, all their top seven batters, you’d even argue the top eight. We’ve got our work cut out for us. We’re 300 ahead – let’s get more and let’s create 10 chances tomorrow and hold on to them.”

Updated India squad

KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli (capt), MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra
In: Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool
Out: R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja

India have added legspinner Amit Mishra and offspinner Parvez Rasool to their squad for the three T20s against England, choosing to rest their first-choice spin pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for the series. Ashwin and Jadeja had been part of the initial 15-man squad for the series, which also includes legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal.The series begins on January 26 in Kanpur, rounding off England’s full tour of India.Mishra played two Tests against England in the recent home series and picked up five wickets. In the home ODIs against New Zealand before that, he was India’s top wicket-taker with 15 strikes at 14.33 and an economy rate of 4.79. He had played that series, too, in the absence of Ashwin and Jadeja, who were rested.In all, Mishra has played eight T20Is, and taken 14 wickets at 13.71 and an economy rate of 6.40. Only one of those eight T20Is have come in the last year; before playing West Indies in Florida last August, his previous T20I was in early 2014 at the World T20 in Bangladesh where he finished as India’s second-highest wicket-taker behind Ashwin.Rasool, who is handy with the bat down the order, has played just one international game till date – against Bangladesh in Dhaka in mid-2014. It is understood that the selectors felt this series was a good opportunity to blood someone like Rasool as there were no high-profile T20I tournaments in the near future.When Rasool was selected for India A to play England in a warm-up one-dayer in January 2013, during what was a stand-out Ranji season for him with bat and ball, he became the first cricketer from Jammu & Kashmir to be selected in an Indian team to play an international side.Leading up to the recently-concluded ODIs against England, once again Rasool was picked to play a tour game, and he claimed 3 for 38 including the wickets of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes. In the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy, he took 38 wickets at 23.86.In the IPL, Rasool has represented Pune Warriors, Sunrisers Hyderabad and, most recently, Royal Challengers Bangalore. In 37 T20s, he has 27 wickets at 34.44 with an economy rate of 6.88.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details0:38

Fernando: SL tried to prevent Herath from getting a wicket

The serious demeanour of Dean Elgar, a batsman not given to fripperies, dominated the opening day of the second Test at Newlands as Sri Lanka failed to gain lasting benefit from a good bowling day. A new year had dawned, but it was very much the old Elgar, recognisably sure of stroke and restricted in ambition, who guided South Africa forward as he progressed conscientiously to a sixth Test century.At 169 for 5, with 30 overs remaining and Temba Bavuma just dismissed on the pull by Sri Lanka’s highly-promising fast bowler Lahiru Kumara, the day was still in the balance, but South Africa snatched it with a sixth-wicket stand 103 in 24 overs between Elgar and Quinton de Kock, who gambolled around without a care on land that Elgar had tilled, and watered from the sweat of his brow, for hours.Elgar’s end came against the second new ball – 129 from 230 deliveries – when he pushed at a wideish delivery from Suranga Lakmal and was defeated by a little seam movement, leaving Kusal Mendis to pouch the catch. De Kock, his antithesis, survived a few escapades with failed ramp shots and top-edged pulls to reach a happy-go-lucky 68 not out by the close.Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s captain, would be well satisfied. He had happily volunteered that a fresh and grassy Newlands surface was intended to favour his strong pace attack. Even Table Mountain, adorned by cloud throughout the first session, came out in support. “Against England last year it was a road,” he said. “It was different for that bowling attack. You have to prepare for the team you are playing against.”Sri Lanka had first use of it, but were unable to bury their reputation. Two wickets late in the morning session for Kumara ensured they achieved what was surely a minimum objective of three wickets when the odds were most in their favour, and the addition of du Plessis shortly before tea brought them further reward on an otherwise trying afternoon.

Fastest to 1000 runs for SA and Herath’s feat

• 23 Number of innings taken for Quinton de Kock to reach 1000 Test runs. He is the joint fifth fastest for South Africa behind Graeme Smith (17 inns), AB de Villiers (20), Eddie Barlow (21), Graeme Pollock (22) and Faf Du Plessis (23).

• 355 Number of wickets taken by Rangana Herath in Tests. He is now the joint second highest wicket-taker for Sri Lanka in Tests and joint 19th overall. Herath, Dennis Lillee and Chaminda Vaas have 355 wickets each.

• 129 Dean Elgar’s highest Test score and his second century against Sri Lanka. Previously he made 103 in Galle in 2014. Elgar now has four centuries at home averaging 49.90.

Stephen Cook was the Man of the Match in Port Elizabeth, striking a century and half-century in South Africa’s emphatic 206-run win, but he made a four-ball duck on this occasion: two outswingers and an inswinger from Lakmal before another outswinger, slightly fuller, forced Cook into a statuesque nibble and a faint edge to the wicketkeeper.Lakmal carried the most threat for Sri Lanka with the first new ball, clearly roused by the sight of lavish movement, never short of a tongue-out grin when the ball behaved in a manner that is a special delight for bowlers condemned to playing out much of their career in Sri Lanka’s draining conditions.Nuwan Pradeep, although combative enough, lacked the technical skill to make the most of the conditions and limped off midway through an over during the final session. His only impact was on the umpire Aleem Dar, catching him on the elbow as he approached the crease and bringing some pained arm extensions from the man who had just passed Rudi Koertzen as the most capped umpire in all formats. An umpire incapable of raising his finger was not about to help Sri Lanka’s cause.Angelo Mathews, who initially bowled himself ahead of Kumara, settled for containment with a line well outside off stump which South Africa’s batsmen ignored at their leisure which later made it hard to ascertain why Mathews took the second new ball while Kumara, already strong and stocky at 19, and capable of speeds well beyond 140kph, had to make do with the old.Kumara accounted for both Amla and JP Duminy in the same over. Amla was unhinged by an excellent delivery which came back sharply off the seam between bat and pad, leaving him without a Test half-century in his last nine innings, a strikingly lean run for a batsman blessed with such natural gifts. Five balls later, Duminy became a second duck in the top four when he fended a back-of-a-length delivery from Kumara off his hip for Mendis to spring down the leg side for a fabulous catch.Mendis’ presence behind the stumps had been the outcome of much Sri Lankan agonising before start of play. News gradually filtered through that Dinesh Chandimal was feeling ill, not enough to rule him out of the match, but persuading Sri Lanka that he should concede the gloves to reduce his workload. Sri Lanka also made two changes from the first Test, omitting Kusul Perera and Dushmantha Chameera in favour of Kumara and the seasoned Upul Tharanga.Elgar’s hundred was his sixth in 31 Tests, his average still a touch below 40, but he has blunted many attacks in that time. He approached his innings methodically, working the ball off his hips and drawn occasionally into a restrained straight drive. His highlights reel included, oddly enough, a one-handed cover drive, a shot one imagines that he would prefer to be expunged from the records. The shot that brought up his hundred, down the ground of Pradeep, could hardly have been more satisfying: halfway through his next over, Pradeep trudged off to the dressing roomDu Plessis, a South African captain of some gravitas, played in similar vein. As the assistance for the seamers lessened, Mathews turned to his left-arm spinner, Rangana Herath, for the first time in the 42nd over. Herath took 57 wickets at 18.93 in 2016, second only to R Ashwin in terms of victims, all of them killed with kindness. He is at the age when the passing of the years invite questions as to how long he can continue in such form, but he soon dispensed with Du Plessis.In his fourth over, he wandered up with his usual economy to draw du Plessis into an uppish drive only for Tharanga to miss an inviting chance at deepish mid-off. No matter. In his penultimate over before tea, he strolled up again to have du Plessis caught at slip, driving wildly at a wide one.South Africa’s captain had favoured a seamers’ track and, although in his case it was the portly figure of Herath who had prospered, he would be tossing a new ball to his pace attack sometime on the morrow with a belief that this Cape Town pitch would maintain its life for a while yet.

After first being hit by a delay which caused fixtures to start a week later than planned, Zimbabwe’s first-class competition, the Logan Cup, has been interrupted by a player protest. The third day of the match between the Mid West Rhinos and the Matabeleland Tuskers was delayed after players refused to take the field over the issue of non-payment of salaries. Later in the day, play did get underway briefly as the players decided to play so that they fulfill their contractual obligations and can insist on payment. Eventually it was declared that Matabeleland Tuskers had forfeited their second innings, and Rhinos subsequently took the game.*ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the domestic players, not nationally contracted ones, led the strike because they have been left without pay. Nationally contracted players have received salaries, but the domestic players were only remunerated for one month instead of a promised two.An email, seen by ESPNcricinfo, was sent by Zimbabwe Cricket’s company secretary to the provinces last month, informing them that salaries for November would be paid in December because provincial contracts were not finalised by the end of November. Domestic players have since received one salary payment – December’s – but their November amounts remain outstanding.In an effort to calm the situation as quickly as possible, ZC has promised players that their outstanding fees will be paid by December 21 but a source said the players are not convinced they will see their salaries. “There is no trust,” the insider said.The other match in the first round, between Mountaineers and Mashonaland Eagles, was abandoned without a ball bowled, after persistent rain rendered the field unplayable.*13.50GMT, December 20: The article was updated after news of the match result came in.

ScorecardDavid Payne enjoyed an impressive all-round day•Getty Images

David Payne took four wickets and scored a fourth first-class half-century but Gloucestershire ended day two behind the game at Northamptonshire. The hosts closed their second innings 44 without loss, leading by 109.Payne removed four wickets in 11 balls in the morning session to whittle Northamptonshire out for 326 before his half-century helped boost Gloucestershire to 261, reducing the first-innings deficit to 65.But it was Northamptonshire who ended the second day on top as Ben Duckett gave their second innings a bright start following Rob Keogh’s 4 for 67.Keogh helped reduce Gloucestershire to 158 for 7 before Payne followed up his career-best 67 not out at Cardiff last week with another half-century to provide the visitors with a second batting point.He survived a diving chance offered to Rory Kleinveldt at third slip on 10 but thereafter played with composure. A loose drive sped away to the third man rope for his ninth four and a single took him to fifty in 57 balls.Together with Jack Taylor, they began a smart recovery shortly before tea. Keogh had Will Tavare caught at short midwicket after a dogged innings trying to regain form, before Phil Mustard tried to drive outside off stump and got a thin edge to David Murphy.Before Keogh’s wickets, Azharullah made the breakthrough after lunch with a delivery that nipped away from Hamish Marshall to clip the outside of the off stump and Steven Crook fired a full straight delivery into Craig Miles’ stumps to leave the visitors in trouble.They had hoped to be in a better position after Payne ran through through Northants’ lower order in 11 balls, taking the four remaining wickets without conceding a run. Crook fell second ball of the day trying to late cut and getting a thin edge to Mustard, four balls later Kleinveldt drove loosely to extra-cover.Murphy scored Northants only runs of the day with an edge to third man before Payne returned to have Azharullah smartly held at third slip by Marshall. Ben Sanderson lost his off stump next ball as Payne, wicketless on the first day, finish with 4 for 57.In reply, Gloucestershire lost Chris Dent to a thin edge behind and Gareth Roderick to a better catch from Murphy for Kleinveldt’s second wicket. When George Hankins slapped a pull to square leg and was very well held by a diving Adam Rossington, the game was back on an even keel but the hosts had taken control by stumps.

Having gone wicketless with the first 280 balls of his Test career, Miguel Cummins picked up three in his next ten balls. In the space of those first 280 balls, Cummins went through multiple frustrations: going off with cramps in his debut Test, and, in his second Test, watching batsmen fend accurate bouncers in the general direction of short leg but just out of the fielder’s reach.”For me, the debut Test was very tough, because I was playing for the first time so nerves took in,” Cummins said at the end of the second day’s play in St Lucia. “Was fighting a long way, fighting hard, hard, hard. Came today, saw the [other] guys take wickets but didn’t let that fluster me. I tried looking for wickets but my job was to build pressure.”On Tuesday, West Indies took the first five Indian wickets for 126 runs, and in the second session on Wednesday, they ran through the last five wickets for the cost of only 14 runs. But in between, R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha put on 213 to balance out some of West Indies’ good work with the ball.Cummins applauded his team-mates for toppling India’s top half, but admitted Ashwin and Saha made things tough for them. “We did a very good job of getting their top order,” he said. “They are a very talented batting line-up but we stuck to our plans. But can’t take anything away from Ashwin and Saha, they batted very well. We had to keep fighting when they had the partnership.”West Indies made good use of a St Lucia pitch with plenty of bounce on offer, with Alzarri Joseph dismissing Virat Kohli with a well-directed lifter on day one and Cummins and Shannon Gabriel wiping out the lower order with a barrage of short balls.”The plan was not to bowl short [exclusively] but mix it up,” Cummins said. “Ashwin normally sits on the back foot, lot of guys sit on the back foot. So our plan was to get some balls [pitched] up and let them drive and then use the short-pitched stuff.”

Australia captain Steven Smith will miss the remainder of the tour of Sri Lanka – three ODIs and two T20Is – as he returns home to rest ahead of the tour of South Africa. David Warner will lead the side in the rest of the fixtures in Sri Lanka. Smith revealed the development at the end of the second ODI in Colombo, which Sri Lanka won by 82 runs to level the five-match series at 1-1.”I hate missing cricket, but in the long run it will do me a world of good,” Smith was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia on Twitter. “The schedule is very busy. I still want to take on the role in all three formats and do it to the best of my ability.”Australia have lost four of their five international fixtures on tour so far, but Smith suggested his early departure had been considered since much earlier in the tour. Australia’s last match in Sri Lanka is a T20 international on September 9. Their tour of South Africa begins on September 27 with an ODI against Ireland in Benoni, after which they play five ODIs against South Africa.”We spoke about it at the start of the Test series,” Smith said. “There is the South Africa series next, and a big summer with six Test matches and a few one-dayers against New Zealand in between, before we go to India. So it was talked about – to try and give me a little break at some point. We had a few discussions – myself, Darren Lehmann and Rod Marsh, who also consulted with the other selectors. It took a bit of convincing to get me over the line.”Smith, who is Australia’s captain across all formats, said the role remained manageable despite the team’s busy schedule. He has captained in 42 international matches – including in 11 Tests – over the past year, in addition to playing in the IPL, most recently for Rising Pune Supergiants. He did not rule out taking his break from cricket during the IPL, but was quick to suggest the tournament was a valuable experience.”For me, I’ve got a lot of time for the IPL,” he said. “I think it’s been a great learning curve for me. I think I’ve learned a lot about the way I play, particularly white-ball cricket, from the IPL. Playing a lot of back-to-back games I think you learn a lot about yourself as a player. I’ve certainly got a lot of time for the IPL in that respect. But captaining Australia is a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time. At some point, maybe it could give. For now, I want to continue trying to play everything that I can.”Cricket Australia’s national selector Rod Marsh said in a statement: “Steve has a large amount of cricket coming up in the next 12 months and we wanted to find a time for him to freshen up and these last five matches provide a good opportunity to do so.”Regardless of the results of the first two matches our plan was always for Steve to take a break and refresh ahead of the ODI Series against South Africa next month.”Smith’s replacement Warner has not captained Australia in any format, and now takes charge in a tour in which he has been in indifferent form.”This is a great leadership opportunity for David, he has really embraced his role as vice-captain and we are confident he will do a great job in Steve’s place,” Marsh said.

A verdict of suicide has been ruled in the death of former Warwickshire cricketer Tom Allin who died on January 4.Allin’s body was found below the A39 River Torridge Bridge in Bideford, Devon. Devon and Cornwall police later found three suicide notes at his home written to family and friends.The police did not find any suspicious circumstances or third-party involvement in Allin’s death.Dr Elizabeth Earland, the senior coroner for Exeter and Greater Devon, recorded a conclusion of suicide.”On the evidence I am in no doubt that Tom was the architect of his own demise and he clearly intended the consequences of what he did and there is no evidence of a third party involvement,” she said.Allin’s death came months after he had suffered serious leg injuries in a car crash. The inquest heard he was “recovering well physically” but in early December he had told a nurse his mood was “up and down” and was advised to seek help.Jason Ratcliffe, PCA Assistant Chief Executive, said: “We are aware of the tragic circumstances of Tom’s death and once again our thoughts are with Tom’s family and friends at this difficult time. Tom’s father Tony is also a PCA member from his playing days at Glamorgan and we will continue to support Tony and his wife Beverley in any way that we can.”Allin was released from Warwickshire prior to the 2014 season. He had continued playing in the minor counties competition for Devon, with his last appearance coming in August against Shropshire.He was involved in primary school sports coaching in Barnstaple and Bideford and was head of cricket at Shebbear College as well as a coach at Bideford College.