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Tim Ward and Lawrence Neil-Smith posted half-centuries as Tasmania batted out the final day for a draw against Queensland despite the Bulls’ invitation to try and force a result with a sporting declaration on the third afternoon.Tasmania began the day at 1 for 59, with a lead of 204 and 96 overs available to set up a fourth-innings run chase on another benign Karen Rolton Oval pitch in Adelaide. But the Tigers showed little to no intent to try and set a target with nightwatchman Neil-Smith failing to score from his first 35 deliveries on day four to be 1 from 61 balls at one stage before going on to make 71 not out from 201 deliveries. Ward fell for 81 just after lunch.Queensland captain Usman Khawaja said he was “a little bit disappointed” with the approach of Tasmania.”We declared hoping they’d set us a chase, and then try to chase it,” Khawaja said. “It was always going to be hard to get lots of wickets on that [pitch] so it had to be a sporting declaration and get them to set us a total and us try to chase it down.”That was the only way there was going to be any result. But they obviously didn’t want to play that way.””They batted for a session too long…they could have pushed the game more on day two expecting them to declare around lunch, that’s when you normally declare. But that was just their game plan. I guess they were happy to get first innings [bonus] points and that’s what it was.”Ward said: “We knew it was going to be tough to take 10 wickets and the decision was made just to go out there and keep batting and make sure we didn’t lose this one.”Ward, coming off a superb 144 in the first innings, played fluently compared to Neil-Smith reaching a brisk half-century and moved to lunch on 80 not out, within sight of twin centuries in just his second Sheffield Shield match.But the break did him no favours, with Matthew Kuhnemann producing a stunning delivery in the second over after lunch to remove him for 81. A shorter-length ball ripped out of the footmarks and forced Ward to chop onto his stumps.Charlie Wakim then followed Neil-Smith’s lead making 3 for 61 deliveries before becoming Kuhnemann’s third victim of the innings. Neil-Smith reached his maiden first-class half-century before the game was called off after Khawaja and Joe Burns each delivered an over to put an exclamation point on another high-scoring three-innings draw in Adelaide to start the Sheffield Shield season.

Shaun Tait, the former Australia quick who recently signed a five-month deal to be bowling coach with the Afghanistan national team, has also been roped in as bowling coach of Puducherry in the Indian domestic circuit. Afghanistan remains a priority, though, and Tait will link up with Puducherry only when available.”I’m with [Puducherry] throughout the season based on availability from my commitments with the Afghanistan team,” Tait confirmed to ESPNcricinfo on Saturday. Puducherry have Dishant Yagnik as their head coach – both Tait and Yagnik have been players with Rajasthan Royals in the IPL in the past, and Yagnik has more recently been Royals’ fielding coach.”Tait has expressed his willingness to join the Puducherry team later this month. However, if he gets a call from Afghanistan he may join them and stay with the team before rejoining Puducherry for his duties,” a Cricket Association of Puducherry (CAP) official was quoted as saying by PTI, which said that Tait was expected to mentor the quick bowlers at the CAP academy in Puducherry too.Related

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India’s domestic calendar for 2021-22 will begin with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy on November 4 this year, while the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier first-class competition, starts on January 13, 2022. The 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy will get underway on December 8, with neutral venues being used for all tournaments.Tait’s appointment with Afghanistan was confirmed in early August, and his first assignment there was expected to be the three-match ODI series against Pakistan in Hambantota in early September. But that series was postponed indefinitely because of logistical concerns, and Tait will now link up with the team only prior to the T20 World Cup in late October. He was never expected to move to Kabul, and had said the agreement had been that he would join the team whenever they travelled.”There have been talks for a few months now about me possibly taking up the role,” 38-year-old Tait told ESPNcricinfo earlier about his Afghanistan gig. “It eventuated because head coach Lance Klusener wanted someone else to oversee the bowling side specifically.”Everyone talks about Afghanistan’s spinners, so one of the specifics of my role is to get people talking more about their fast bowlers. There is some improvement to be done and hopefully, I can add that side of things. With all the concentration on the spin, a couple of guys get picked to do the role at the death and they’re gonna need some guidance. That’s where I come in.”Tait is a level-two certified coach from Cricket Australia and has worked as a bowling coach with Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League and Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 league.

Small targets. Big drama. The story has done the rounds for as long as there has been Test cricket and yet another riveting chapter was added to it at Sabina Park.West Indies were set 168 to win. But they ended up battered and bruised and barely standing as Pakistan, and especially Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali, went into mode.A match that had ebbed and flowed, forever refusing to reveal a clear winner, had come to an unbelievable climax. One team needed 17 runs. The other needed one wicket. Anything was possible.”I have never been in a situation like that before, batting with the tail,” Kemar Roach, a professional cricketer of 13 years, said after play. “I am part of the tail, so for me it was to go out there and believe. That was the biggest thing – to believe and stay positive – and it worked, and I give thanks.”Roach’s strength of will translated into 30 unbeaten, match-winning runs. His experience shepherded the 19-year old Seales, who had already announced that he was ready for the big stage by picking up 5 for 55 on Saturday, through a last-wicket partnership that just wouldn’t be broken, even across four high-pressure overs.”The plan was to just stay positive. That’s me,” Roach said. “I was just trying to take on every ball as it came. This is by far the most important innings so far. I was just trying to pick the gaps and run hard. My advice to Jayden was just protect the stumps. The biggest threat is the straight ball. He did it very well. He is a star for the future. His five wickets today speaks wonders about our cricket. All the best to him, and I wish him a great career!”Seales’ contribution to West Indies’ victory – eight wickets and an equally crucial two runs off 13 balls – earned him the Man-of-the-Match award. It also left him speechless. “Test cricket has been a dream come true for me,” he managed in the end as he picked up his prize and walked away during the presentation.So it was up to his captain to come up with some suitable words, much as it had been down to him to come up with a suitable total in the first innings. Kraigg Brathwaite’s 97 off 221 deliveries was the highest individual score across all four innings of an extremely tight game. “We never lost hope,” he said. “It was truly amazing. I thought Pakistan bowled really well. It is about patience – who has more patience will come out on top.”Last week, Phil Simmons, the West Indies coach, had pulled his batters up, demanding more runs from them, but he has rarely had a bad thing to say about his bowlers. And in the end, with light fading and tensions rising, they were the ones that stood up to be counted yet again.

Tamim Iqbal has been forced to pull out of his T20 stint with Essex due to “personal reasons” which have required him to return to Bangladesh.His signing for the NatWest Blast was only confirmed last week and he made his first appearance against Kent on Sunday. He scored 7 before being bowled by Adam Milne in a seven-wicket defeat.A brief Essex statement said: “We wish him all the best and it would be appreciated if Tamim’s privacy is respected during this time.”

Former South African Test opener Jacques Rudolph will retire from all forms of cricket at the end of the 2017 English season. The 36-year old has stepped down as four-day captain for Glamorgan with immediate effect, but will continue leading the T20 side until his retirement.”The time feels right to call an end to my playing career,” Rudolph said. “I have been incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed playing the game I love for the last 20 years. But at the end of this summer it will be time to focus on a new venture away from cricket and spend more time with my young family.”Rudolph, a product of the famed Afrikaans Hoer Seunskool, made his first-class debut twenty seasons ago in the 1997-98 summer. He played 48 Tests in two stints – the first 35 came between 2003 and 2006 and the remaining 13 between 2011 and 2012 – because he had signed a Kolpak deal with Yorkshire in 2007.By scoring 1000 runs or more in his first four seasons with the county, Rudolph found his way back into the South African team. But his second coming yielded only one Test century and he was dropped in November 2012. Rudolph then turned his attention to playing franchise cricket for the Titans and eventually called time on his South Africa career after the 2015-16 season.Rudolph has been with Glamorgan since 2014 and has captained them for the last two seasons. In 2017, he scored 319 runs in five first-class matches at 35.44 and 305 runs in eight one-day matches at 38.12. The T20 competition he will lead Glamorgan in begins on July 7. While Rudolph has not detailed what life after cricket holds, he has interest in a game farm with fellow South African batsman Boeta Dippenaar.With Rudolph standing down, Glamorgan have given the Championship captaincy to their 35-year-old Australian seamer Michael Hogan until the end of the season.

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County Championship Round-up: England hopefuls make their case

Given they were relegated, it might be argued that every Nottinghamshire batsman paid the price for the collective underperformance that defined their 2016 season, yet it was Riki Wessels who found himself carrying the can, dropped for the last four matches after scoring just 489 runs at 25.73, of which 159 came in one innings.After two exceptionally good seasons, across all formats, it came as a painful blow, especially since there were several other experienced hands in Nottinghamshire’s misfiring middle order who might equally have been singled out as the county sought to give younger players the chance to prove their worth.So when, during a pre-season interview, he suggested that it would be folly for Nottinghamshire to trust young players to lead them back into Division One he must have known he would need to produce supporting evidence of a pretty compelling nature.It is to his great credit, then, that as Trent Bridge witnessed Division Two cricket for the first time in 10 years it was Wessels who responded to a familiar crisis with the innings that transformed the day, leaving the dressing room just as 84 for 4 was about to become 88 for 5 and not returning until Nottinghamshire were 447 all out, by which time, unbeaten, he had crafted his maiden double-hundred – at quicker than a run a ball, too.He has only once before come close to such riches in first-class cricket in England and Wales, coincidentally against Sussex, when he was out on 199 at Hove in May 2012. He must have feared he would run out of partners this time but with Stuart Broad making 57, Luke Fletcher 25 – after his extraordinary 92 at Chester-le-Street last week – and Jake Ball 18, he will have several drinks to buy.There was one obvious moment of good fortune, when Harry Finch spilled a fairly routine chance at slip, off the promising young pace bowler, Jofra Archer. Wessels was on 47 at the time, and had that one stuck Nottinghamshire would have been 174 for 7, facing the prospect of making not one batting point, let alone five.Yet that moment apart, this was the Wessels of 2014 and 2015, his footwork and timing increasingly impressive, mixing power with ingenuity as the confidence flowed back.Riki Wessels made a maiden first-class double-hundred•Getty Images

Poor Sussex, who must struggle to remember when they last had a full complement of fit bowlers. Vernon Philander and Ajmal Shahzad have joined the injured list since last week’s heavy defeat against Kent. Steve Magoffin returned but otherwise they arrived with a hugely inexperienced attack in which Adam Barton, a 21-year-old left-arm seamer who had bowled against Nottinghamshire for Cambridgeshire MCCU last month, was making his Sussex debut.Barton took a mauling, suffering the indignity of being scooped for six twice by the imperious Wessels, although the heaviest toll was inflicted on Stuart Whittingham, another seamer with only a handful of matches, punished to the tune of 43 runs from just 20 deliveries to Wessels, 40 of them in boundaries. In a way, they perfectly illustrated his point about trusting to youth.It was unfortunate for Sussex that Magoffin, the principal architect of Nottinghamshire’s rocky morning session, was unable to bowl more than 18 overs, leaving the field after taking his fifth wicket soon after lunch.Yet even without that setback, Sussex’s decision to leave out David Wiese, their South African Kolpak, seemed a gamble. Archer had his moments, including the wickets of Alex Hales and Jake Libby with the first four balls of his second spell, but took some punches too.Under a heavily cloudy sky and with Nottinghamshire willing to risk preparing competitive pitches, Luke Wright’s decision to forego the coin toss and bowl was the right one, of course. Indeed, the scorecard did nothing but endorse it until Wessels and Broad put on 132 for the eighth wicket.Five wickets for 37-year-old Magoffin, putting all his experience to good use in a textbook display of quality seam bowling, underpinned it beyond argument and at 180 for 7 the only interruption to the dominance of Magoffin had been provided by Hales, whose 45 off 39 balls was also mostly at the two rookies’ expense.Magoffin, the man who denied Wessels on 199 in 2012, has taken five wickets or more on 27 occasions, including six times in his last 11 innings. He took 12 in the match, six in each innings, when he last bowled at Trent Bridge two years ago.Yet he was on the losing side then and it will take a mighty effort from here by Sussex for there not to be a repeat as Nottinghamshire look to consolidate their start with a third win in three. Two wickets for James Pattinson, in what will now be, at least for the time being, his final Championship match for Nottinghamshire, and one for Broad left them 11 for 3 at stumps.

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File photo – Pragyan Ojha’s third five-wicket haul in List A cricket put Bengal into their first final since 2012•PTI

Bengal openers Shreevats Goswami and Abhimanyu Easwaran struck centuries to help them post 329 for 4, before Pragyan Ojha took five of Jharkhand’s last six wickets – including that of MS Dhoni – to bowl them out for 288 to win by 41 runs at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla. They will play Tamil Nadu in the final on Monday.Goswami and Easwaran added 198 for the first wicket after Dhoni elected to field. Goswami, who was named Player of the Match, was the more aggressive of the two, hitting 11 fours and a six in his 99-ball 101 before he fell to medium-pacer Monu Kumar in the 35th over. Easwaran also made 101, his second century of the tournament, and like 127 against Mumbai, this innings too consisted of more running than it did boundaries.After his dismissal in the 40th over, Bengal scored 100 runs off 62 balls, fueled by their captain Manoj Tiwary. His unbeaten 75 off 49 balls, took Bengal past 320 while Varun Aaron took the most wickets for Jharkhand, but was also their most expensive bowler, going for 89 runs.Jharkhand started slowly, but their partnerships progressively increased till the fifth wicket fell. The two most substantial of those were 54 for the fourth wicket between Dhoni and Saurabh Tiwary (48) and 97 for the fifth between Dhoni and Ishank Jaggi. But their chase fizzled out when Dhoni fell to Ojha for for a 62-ball 70 at the end of the 43rd over. Jaggi (59) was dismissed by Sayan Ghosh (2-52) shortly after and the last four batsmen fell to Ojha in a collapse that eventually read 6 for 38.

Leeward Islands moved a step closer to clinching a spot in the semi-finals of the Regional Super50 with an eight-wicket win over West Indies Under-19 at North Sound on Monday. West Indies Under-19 were bowled out for 78 in 45.3 overs, 20 of which were maidens, after being sent in before Montcin Hodge and Jahmar Hamilton’s unbeaten 72-run third-wicket stand clinched victory with one ball left in the 17th over.Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein did most of the damage with the ball for Leewards, finishing with figures of 4 for 8 in ten overs with five maidens. Fast bowler Alzarri Joseph plucked out the first two wickets, getting Shian Brathwaite and Emmanuel Stewart caught behind to make it 13 for 2. Hosein then ripped through the middle order to claim the next four wickets to make it 34 for 6. Captain Kirstan Kallicharan accounted for nearly half of West Indies Under-19’s runs, scoring 33 at No. 6 before he was ninth out to left-arm spinner Jason Campbell with the score on 78 and Campbell cleaned up the tail for the last wicket with nothing added to the total.Monday’s results meant that West Indies Under-19 are the first team eliminated from semi-finals contention in either group. Leewards can clinch a semi-finals spot with a win in either of their final two group games against Trinidad & Tobago or Windward Islands. They can also qualify if Kent lose any of its final three group games against Trinidad & Tobago, Windward Islands or West Indies Under-19.Trinidad & Tobago created an eight-point cushion over Kent for second place on the Group A table with a 32-run win over Windward Islands at Coolidge. Despite a 104-run opening stand between Evin Lewis and Kyle Hope, Windwards held T & T to 214 after sending them in, but could only manage 182 in reply.Lewis propelled T&T early by dominating the opening stand with Hope, scoring 75 off 69 balls with 11 boundaries. Hope (29) and Nicholas Alexis (46) combined for another 75 as the top three accounted for the bulk of T&T’s total. Denesh Ramdin was the only other batsman to reach double-figures, making 22 before he was dismissed by Kesrick Williams at the end of the 43rd over to make it 180 for 4. His wicket sparked a rapid collapse as T&T lost their last seven wickets for just 34 runs and they couldn’t last all 50 overs, bowled out in 47.5 as Williams, Shane Shillingford and Kavem Hodge took three wickets apiece.Man of the Match Shannon Gabriel helped pin down Windwards’ reply, taking two wickets with the new ball while Rayad Emrit and Khary Pierre struck once each in the space of three balls to make it 43 for 4 in the 15th over. Sunil Ambris resuscitated the chase, continuing his superb tournament with his fifth half-century in six matches. Ambris added 58 with Hodge (27) and another 50 with captain Liam Sebastien.Gabriel though struck a controversial blow two balls into the 41st, claiming Sebastien leg-before, playing back to a good length ball which replays showed had pitched six inches outside leg stump to the left-handed Sebastien with Gabriel bowling over the wicket. With the tail exposed, Gabriel and Ravi Rampaul brought a swift end to play. Kyle Mayers fished an edge-behind off Rampaul for the seventh wicket before a pair of catches on the boundary by Alexis put T&T one away from victory which Gabriel sealed by bowling Williams with a full and straight ball two deliveries into the 47th, leaving Ambris stranded on 75. Gabriel’s 5 for 33 was his maiden five-for in List A cricket and he did it in just 50 balls delivered.A win for Trinidad & Tobago over Kent in their next match would clinch semi-final spots for both T & T and Leewards. Windwards are still mathematically alive, but need a pair of bonus point wins over Leeward Islands and Kent in their final two games, combined with three losses by Trinidad & Tobago and another Kent loss to West Indies Under-19.

The anti-doping tribunal hearing West Indies allrounder Andre Russell’s case is set to deliver its verdict on January 31. The independent tribunal is looking into whether he breached the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) code by being negligent about filing his whereabouts three times between January and July 2015. If found guilty, Russell faces the danger of being banned for two years. According to the WADA code, if an athlete misses three tests in a 12-month period, it amounts to a failed dope test.The charge was pressed by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) last March. JADCO said Russell had been negligent about filing his whereabouts despite several reminders over phone, email and through written letters. Still Russell failed to file his whereabouts on January 1, July 1 and July 25, 2015.In his defence, Russell told the tribunal that he had not been properly trained to file the whereabouts. And considering he was busy fulfilling various cricket commitments he had authorised his agent and travel agent to file his whereabouts on his behalf.The three-member tribunal comprising Hugh Faulkner, Dr Marjorie Vassell and Dixeth Palmer, a former Jamaica cricketer, was due to deliver the verdict in December. But no reasons were offered by the tribunal in public behind the delay.The delayed verdict has kept not just Russell, but also various T20 franchises waiting in anticipation. Although not contracted with the West Indies Cricket Board, Russell is one the most valuable players in the various Twenty20 domestic leagues across the world. Kolkata Knight Riders (IPL), Sydney Thunder (Big Bash League), Islamabad United (PSL), Nottinghamshire Outlaws (NatWest T20 Blast) and Jamaica Tallawahs (Caribbean Premier League) are some of the teams he has represented, and he has been the most valuable player for more than one team and tournament.

Saurashtra opener Kishan Parmar, who was playing his second first-class match, struck his maiden century to revive his team from 130 for 5 to 234 for 5 against Delhi in Vadodara. Saurashtra closed the day with a lead of 89 runs.Seamer Navdeep Saini and offspinning allrounder Nitish Rana had done the damage with the ball, sharing four wickets between them. This came after Delhi’s lower order, led by Pradeep Sangwan’s 75 off 100 balls, opened up a first-innings lead of 145. Sangwan was briefly assisted by Manan Sharma (33) in a 62-run stand for the eighth wicket to frustrate Saurashtra. Kushang Patel, the new-ball bowler, picked up his third five-for in first-class cricket as Delhi were dismissed for 237 in 58.3 overs.Half-centuries from debutant Pavan Deshpande and opener R Samarth helped Karnataka gain the upper hand over Maharashtra in Mohali. Resuming on 67 for 1, Karnataka were ahead by 150 as they ended on 313 for 9, with the second-wicket stand of 101 between Kaunain Abbas (41) and Samarth (64) forming the bedrock of the innings. Deshpande then helped consolidate the lead with Stuart Binny and CM Gautam.Karnataka, who could have been down to 10 players after Maharashtra denied them a replacement for Manish Pandey, who was called-up to the India Test squad as a replacement for the injured Ajinkya Rahane, were handed a reprieve after Swapnil Gugale, the opposition captain, did a U-turn. David Mathias, the fast bowler, came in to bat at No. 7 but fell cheaply. Vinay Kumar, the Karnataka captain, struck an unbeaten 36 to all but knock Maharashtra, who need an outright win, out of contention.Left-arm seamer Tanvir Ul-Haq negated Vidarbha‘s advantage as Rajasthan, bowled out for 140, came storming back to dismiss their opponents for 116 in Greater Noida. Tanvir finished with career-best figures of 6 for 21 in 10.3 overs as the Vidarbha innings lasted just 41.3 overs after bad light delayed start of play by over an hour. Siddesh Wath, the wicketkeeper-batsman, playing his second first-class game, top-scored with 50. Rajasthan’s openers Manendar Singh and AV Gautam batted 11 overs to end on 10 without loss.