THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2016 SPORTS India spinners in firing line against confident England VISAKHAPATNAM: India’s much-hyped innings and 1-63 in the second. Mishra fin- spin attack are under pressure to deliver in ished on 1-98 and 2-60 while Jadeja’s solid the second Test at Visakhapatnam starting 3-86 was followed by 0-47 in the second today against an England side high on con- innings. fidence and boasting new teenage sensa- tion Haseeb Hameed. RAHUL RETURNS Nineteen-year-old Hameed, dubbed However, the pitch at the “Baby Boycott” for his unflappable style Visakhapatnam ground in Andhra Pradesh akin to batting great Geoffrey Boycott, state is expected to be more favourable to scored 31 and 82 on debut during last India’s spinners than Rajkot’s flat and grassy week’s drawn first Test, the latter the high- track. “We’re under no illusions that these est by a teenager for England. next four Tests could be even tougher,” said He shared a 180-run second innings Bayliss. England could include leading opening stand-a record for England in wicket-taker James Anderson, who has India-with captain Alastair Cook, who made recovered from a shoulder injury, while 130, as the homes side’s spinners endured a India are also set to make changes. torrid start to the five-Test series. Opener Lokesh Rahul was added to the India’s spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, squad on Tuesday after proving his recov- the world’s top-ranked bowler, Ravindra ery from a hamstring injury sustained bat- Jadeja and Amit Mishra had been expected ting against New Zealand last month by to rip through England’s batting line-up scoring a century in a domestic fixture on but wilted in the Rajkot heat. Monday. The tourists sparkled with four cen- He looks certain to return at the top of turies-from Cook, Joe Root, Moeen Ali and the order to replace Gautam Gambhir who HARARE: Sri Lanka batsman Asela Gunaratne and Sachiti Pathirana make a run during the One Day cricket match against West Indies at Harare Ben Stokes-as the hosts clung on for a struggled in Rajkot with scores of 29 and 0. Sports Club in Harare, yesterday. The two teams are playing in a triangular series featuring Zimbabwe. —AP tense draw, losing six wickets on the final All-rounder Hardik Pandya could make afternoon after being set a notional 310 to his debut and add pace to India’s attack. win. There had been questions marks over “We can still play an extra bowling the quality of England’s slow bowlers option and keep putting pressure on the W Indies bowlers shine before the game but they outperformed opposition,” said captain Virat Kohli. their Indian counterparts with leg-spinner India (from): Virat Kohli (capt), Adil Rashid taking seven wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin, Gautam Gambhir, “Our batters played well against their Ravindra Jadeja, Ramit Mishra, Karun Nair, in bonus point win spinners, and our spinners and seamers all Hardik Pandya, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya bowled well. The way the guys played in Rahane, Lokesh Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha, this Test should give us plenty of confi- Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh HARARE: Superb bowling allowed the West dence,” said England coach Trevor Bayliss Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Murali Vijay. England Indies to overcome the absence of several key SCOREBOARD after the first match finished on Sunday. (from): Alastair Cook (capt), Moeen Ali, players as they beat Sri Lanka by 62 runs in England’s strong showing against the James Anderson, Zafar Ansari, Jonny the second one-day international in Harare HARARE: Scoreboard in the one-day international between Sri Lanka and West Indies on yesterday. top-ranked Indians banished memories of Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Gareth yesterday. West Indies Sri Lanka last month’s defeat to minnows Bangladesh Batty, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Ben After managing just 227 all out with the J. Charles c Perera b Lakmal 2 D. de Silva c Hope b Holder 3 when they were undone by rookie spinner Duckett, Steven Finn, Haseeb Hameed, bat, Ashley Nurse and Shannon Gabriel K. Brathwaite run out 14 K. Perera run out 4 Mehedi Hasan. Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris grabbed three wickets apiece and captain E. Lewis c Dickwella b Pathirana 27 N. Dickwella c Benn b Gabriel 28 Ashwin recorded just 2-167 in the first Woakes. —AFP Jason Holder picked up two as Sri Lanka were S. Hope b Gunaratne 47 K. Mendis c Nurse b Holder 4 bowled out for 165 inside 44 overs. J. Carter c de Silva b Kulasekara 54 U. Tharanga c & b Nurse 12 A. Gunaratne lbw b Nurse 18 As a result the West Indies also picked up a R. Powell c Dickwella b Pradeep 44 C. Brathwaite c Lakmal b Pradeep 14 S. Jayasuriya c Powell b C. Brathwaite 31 bonus point, putting them level on five points S. Pathirana c Lewis b Nurse 45 J. Holder run out 2 with Sri Lanka, who beat Zimbabwe in N. Kulasekara c Lewis b Gabriel 16 A. Nurse not out 5 S. Lakmal b Gabriel 0 Monday’s series opener in the triangular S. Benn lbw b Kulasekara 7 N. Pradeep not out 0 series. S. Gabriel lbw b Lakmal 0 “It’s good to start off with a win in a short Extras (4w) 4 Extras (6lb, 5w) 11 Total (all out, 43.1 overs) 165 tournament,” said Holder at Harare sports Total (all out, 49.2 overs) 227 Fall of wickets: 1-7 (de Silva), 2-8 (Perera), 3-16 (Mendis), club. “We fell short of our batting target but Fall of wickets: 1-7 (Charles), 2-27 (K. Brathwaite), 3-76 4-51 (Dickwella), 5-64 (Tharanga), 6-79 (Gunaratne), 7- made up for it in the field, where I thought we (Lewis), 4-129 (Hope), 5-172 (Carter), 6-209 (Powell), 7- 139 (Pathirana), 8-151 (Jayasuriya), 9-160 (Lakmal), 10- were outstanding. 214 (C. Brathwaite), 8-215 (Holder), 9-226 (Benn), 10- 165 (Kulasekara) “It’s good to start turning things around, 227 (Gabriel) Bowling: Gabriel 8.1-0-31-3, Holder 8-0-16-2, C. and hopefully we can get some consistency Bowling: Kulasekara 10-1-37-2, Lakmal 9.2-1-45-2, Brathwaite 9-0-34-1, Carter 1-0-4-0, Nurse 10-1-46-3, Pradeep 10-1-55-2, Jayasuriya 4-0-19-0, Pathirana 6-0- Benn 7-1-34-0. going and start maturing.” Shorn of their 25-1, Gunaratne 10-1-40-1. Result: West Indies won by 62 runs biggest stars, including batsman Darren Bravo after he was sent home for comments made on Twitter about West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron, the West Indians lost the toss and were asked to bat first in seam-friendly conditions. They soon found themselves on the back VISAKHAPATNAM: Members of England cricket team play a friendly game of soccer foot, with Johnson Charles finding third man during a training session ahead of their second test cricket match against India in Visakhapatnam, India, yesterday. —AP and fellow opener Kraigg Brathwaite run out by a direct hit from Nuwan Kulasekara. Although their next three partnerships all reached more than 40, none were able to set Aussie chief selector up a significant total as Evin Lewis was caught behind off Sachith Pathirana’s offspin for 27, and debutant Shai Hope was bowled for 47 by quits over Test crisis Asela Gunaratne. Kulasekara then had top scorer Jonathan SYDNEY: Australia’s chairman of selec- we build for the future,” Marsh said. “I Carter caught for 57 at deep square-leg, and tors Rod Marsh quit with immediate have always had the best interests of once Rovman Powell’s entertaining cameo effect yesterday after a run of five heavy Australian cricket foremost in my heart, had been halted on 44 by Nuwan Pradeep, Test defeats left the team in crisis, saying and that’s why I have made this decision.” Kulasekara effected another run-out and it was time for “some fresh thinking”. The Australia’s four-man selection panel now grabbed a second wicket with the ball. former wicketkeeping great, 69, stepped consists of Mark Waugh, Trevor Hohns Despite the challenging conditions, the down amid recriminations about the and coach Darren Lehmann. The panel West Indian total looked short until a brilliant poorly performing team which crashed has been under heavy scrutiny over the first spell from Holder yielded the wickets of to a third-straight home series defeat to shocking results of Steve Smith’s national Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis, with a South Africa on Tuesday. team, culminating in their latest batting Charles direct hit helping to reduce the Sri “This is my own decision and no one collapse of eight for 32 in their innings Lankans to 16 for three. within Cricket Australia has pressured me and 80 runs defeat to the Proteas in “The bowlers did a great job to keep them or even suggested that I should do this,” Hobart this week. to 227, but the batsmen didn’t turn up today,” Marsh said in a statement. Cricket said Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga. Australia said it would hold an extraordi- DARK DAYS “We lost three early wickets and never nary meeting later Wednesday to decide Lehmann declared only four players- recovered - we just couldn’t form a partner- on an interim replacement, with an captain Smith, David Warner, Mitchell ship.” Starc and Josh Hazlewood-were sure to It was Nurse who prevented any meaning- keep their places after Australia’s second ful recovery in the middle of the innings, dis- demoralising collapse in the Hobart Test.