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South Africa were thrown off guard by a 59th-over ball change in Hamilton, according to Morne Morkel. New Zealand were building steadily in the middle session, on 163 for 1 when umpires Bruce Oxenford and Rod Tucker ordered a ball change, having felt the ball had gone out of shape. South Africa had been getting some reverse and were clearly unhappy with the change, and the replacement – with the changed ball they conceded 80 runs in the next 21 overs, as Kane Williamson took control.”It was at a crucial stage. We had just got the ball to reverse. From a mental point of view, it cost us about 15 overs to get back into the game,” Morkel said. “For me, it’s a grey area because when they change the ball, they pick a ball for you. For me that doesn’t add up. I would rather they give the fielding team three balls to pick from. But then I am also blaming my tools and I can’t do that.”Instead, Morkel gave full credit to Williamson, who transferred pressure back onto South Africa and marshalled Jeet Raval to a career-best 88. “Kane plays length very well. Anything with slight width, he will cut and play square. Then if you go that touch fuller, especially on this sort of surface, it’s easy. The margins are very small to him,” Morkel said. “The short ball is always key, but here with the surface on the slower side, it’s not such a big threat, so guys can just wait for that fullish delivery. He can bat time and that’s the sort of thing that bowlers don’t like.”Before the series began, South Africa had identified Williamson’s importance and they have duly been on the receiving end of two centuries in this series. Raval indicated his captain still has more to offer. “He is one of the best players we’ve got, if not the best,” Raval said. “The way he goes about his business is awesome. He is never satisfied with 100, or 150, he wants to get big runs and help the team. I was lucky that I was batting at the other end and got to pick his brain a little bit.”Raval on his mammoth partnership with Williamson: ‘I felt like a clown batting with the master at the other end’•Getty Images

Raval shared a record second-wicket stand with Williamson against South Africa, of 190, but could not add a personal milestone of his own. After five fifties, he has yet to convert to a ton and said his attempt this time was the most difficult. “It’s a world-class bowling attack. You are made to work hard for every single run. It wasn’t easy out there. I felt like a clown batting with the master at the other end,” Raval said. “That’s what Test cricket is about – it’s challenging and it never gets easier. Every time you score a run – it’s bloody hard work. You have to deny them for as long as possible, and then hopefully they come to you and you score runs.”Although Raval had the best mentor he could have asked for urging him on, a second-new ball proved too much for the opener. Yet he remained proud of his efforts. “You go through periods where you are doubting yourself or second-guessing yourself. Kane came down and said ‘stick to your game plans and your routines’. That just calms you down. He could see a couple of times when I was getting ahead of myself,” Raval said. “To watch him bat at the other end was unbelievable and to get the partnership with him was outstanding.”Once South Africa broke that stand, they took two more quick wickets but, with Williamson still there, they would consider themselves to be on the back foot, irrespective of what ball they hold. “There’s only one team under pressure now and that’s us,” Morkel said. “We need to come with the right attitude tomorrow. We know they are going to come really hard at us in the second innings to get the win. It’s a nice way for us mentally, we speak about being mentally strong. It would be a great way for us to finish the season if we can hang on.”

West Indies allrounder Marlon Samuels has been cleared to resume bowling in international cricket by the ICC. Samuels was banned from bowling at the international level for 12 months in December 2015, after his action was found to be illegal for a second time in 24 months.The offspinner’s action could be reassessed by the ICC only after the 12-month period ended, and Samuels underwent tests on January 29 at the ICC-accredited testing centre in Loughborough. According to an ICC release, the tests revealed the elbow flex for his offspin deliveries was within the permitted 15-degree limit.If the umpires find issues with his action going forward, they can report him again, and then he will require further analysis of his action by the ICC. Umpires will be provided with images and video footage of his reworked bowling action, the ICC said, to help them judge his action in games.Samuels was reported during the Galle Test against Sri Lanka in October 2015, and subsequent tests revealed he was breaching the 15-degree limit. That was the third time Samuels’ action had been reported; the first instance was in 2008, when he was called for a suspect faster ball after the third Test against South Africa in Durban. He was later suspended from bowling in international cricket but after remedial work on his action, was permitted to bowl in September 2011. Then, once again, he was reported during the Mumbai Test against India in November 2013. Following tests, he was allowed to bowl the offbreak delivery but not his quicker ball.Samuels last played for West Indies against Pakistan on the tour of the UAE in September-November 2016. He was left out of the squad for the tri-series in Zimbabwe that followed. West Indies’ next assignment is the home ODI series against England, starting from March 3.

ScorecardLasith Malinga struck in his first over on his return from injury•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Adam Voges, the captain of Prime Minister’s XI, struck an unbeaten 54 off 31 balls in his final match against an international team, but Sri Lankan XI crashed his farewell by chasing down 170 with five wickets and 17 balls to spare.After being inserted in Canberra, the hosts lost opener D’Arcy Short in the first over to Lasith Malinga, who was playing his first competitive match since the Asia Cup in February 2016 . Joe Burns and Hilton Cartwright did not last long too but fifties from Sam Heazlett, who made his international debut for Australia in New Zealand last month, and Adam Voges boosted the side with counterattacking half-centuries. Heazlett struck four fours and thee sixes, while Voges hit four fours and a six during his unbeaten knock. Cameos from wicketkeeper Alex Carey and offspinner Arjun Nair helped take the score to 169.Vikum Sanjaya, who is uncapped at the international level, staked his claim for a spot in Sri Lanka’s XI in the first T20I against Australia on Friday with 3 for 26.Niroshan Dickwella and Upul Tharanga then slashed 70 runs off the target by the end of the Powerplay. The stand ended when Nair had Dickwella caught behind for 47. Upul Tharanga, who was assisted by useful contributions from Dilshan Munaweera (32) and Milinda Siriwardana (25), stayed till the end to guide his team home.

Former India captain MS Dhoni has said his successor Virat Kohli would go on to win more games than he did, and that his team would “rewrite history” and become the most successful India side of all time.”That’s the kind of potential they have, that’s the kind of experience they have,” Dhoni said in Pune, in the lead up to the ODI series against England, Kohli’s first assignment as full time limited-overs captain. “If it is [about] the numbers, I think Virat and this team will win more games than me in all the formats.”Since Kohli took over the Test captaincy from Dhoni in January 2015, India won 14 out of 21 games, their lone defeat coming nearly a year and a half ago. During the same period India, under Dhoni, had a patchy ODI record – 15 losses in 33 matches – but did better in T20Is – 15 wins in 23 games. They also made the semi-finals of both the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 World T20.Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Shami had played crucial roles in those successes. All of them – apart from Ashwin – are under 30.”Though they are young, they have played a lot of cricket both in India and outside, and in pressure situations,” Dhoni said. “They have played in knockout tournaments – when it comes to the ODI and the T20 formats – and they have played under pressure. We’ve played a lot of Tests in India but they were not easy Test matches – we played on a lot of turning wickets where the lower order’s contribution was very important.”The whole pool of players seems to be one that will play cricket in the right spirit, the way it is supposed to be. I think they will do something very special in the coming years. Of course, the period will be slightly longer because they will be together for a long period. So, hopefully, with no injuries or serious problems to the core members of the group, they will do very well.”Dhoni said he and Kohli had hit it off from the start and praised Kohli for constantly raising the bar for himself.Dhoni on Kohli: “What’s brilliant is that if I go up to him with 100 ideas, he is comfortable saying no to all of them …”•AFP

“In Indian cricket, we’ve seen more often than not that a lot of cricketers, say, when they get five games and if they are out of the side, they’re always worried about the two games they didn’t get,” Dhoni said. “The best part about Virat is he wanted to improve in whatever chances he got. And that is the reason he is so successful right now.”If he scores a 60 or 70, he wanted to score a 100. He wanted to be there at the crease when India are chasing. So, I felt that was the key factor for me, and right from the start we have interacted a lot. He has improvised his cricket and his thinking.”Dhoni said Kohli would find the shorter formats easier as captain. “With more responsibility on him, he’ll keep getting better. My job will be to give him whatever my thoughts are from behind the stumps – reading the batsman, how they’re batting, what their strengths are, how the bowler is bowling.”What’s brilliant is that if I go up to him with 100 ideas, he is comfortable saying no to all of them because that’s what his responsibility is: to pick and choose what he’s really convinced about. I think that kind of relationship is very important because I shouldn’t feel, ‘Okay, if I am saying something, that should happen’, and he shouldn’t feel as if whatever is coming from my side, has to be implemented.”As captain, Dhoni hd moved up and down the batting order to suit the team’s interests. He did not think that would change under Kohli’s leadership.”Because I was the captain, I always felt because it was difficult for newcomers to come and bat at six or seven, I should be the person who takes that added responsibility of playing lower down the order,” he said. “I would’ve preferred batting at four and playing more overs, but felt it was more important to see if somebody else can bat at four and if I can bat at five, and that gives more power to our batting line-up.”At times, I found individuals can be very rigid. It is very difficult to adjust to that new mindset or change the game the way it is supposed to be played according to the team or that slot. I thought I was somebody who could do that and I was willing to do that for the team. It is the same as of now. If I am supposed to bat at Nos. 4,5,6,7, whatever the demand is for the team’s betterment, I am ready to bat there.”

Ravindra Jadeja’s maiden ten-wicket haul in the fifth Test against England in Chennai helped him rise to second in the ICC Test bowling rankings, a list led by team-mate R Ashwin. This is the first time since 1974 that two India bowlers occupy the top spots in the bowling rankings. The last pair was left-arm spinner Bishan Bedi and legspinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar. Having gained 66 points, Jadeja is now eight behind Ashwin.In the recently-concluded Test series against England, Ashwin took 28 wickets at an average of 30.25. Jadeja claimed 26 wickets at 25.84, and an economy rate of 2.31. Of the 93 England wickets to fall in the series, both combined to take 54. Jadeja overtook Josh Hazlewood, James Anderson, Dale Steyn and Rangana Herath on the list. Ashwin has held the top spot since overtaking Dale Steyn and James Anderson in October this year.Jadeja also leapfrogged to No. 3 on the allrounders list, also topped by Ashwin. Jadeja contributed with 224 runs at an average of 37.33 with two fifties. Ashwin chipped in with four fifties with the bat, making 306 runs at 43.71.Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc also moved up to a career-best sixth position after picking up seven wickets in the first Test against Pakistan at the Gabba. ‘

Jason Holder, the West Indies captain, praised Kraigg Brathwaite’s maturity and composure in seeing off a tense chase to help record the side’s first Test win since May 2015. Brathwaite, who carried his bat to make 142 in the first innings, remained unbeaten on 60 in the second innings as West Indies chased down 153 with five wickets in hand.”We showed character and fight. Credit must go to Kraigg Brathwaite. He played an outstanding innings in the first innings and took responsibility of the chase in the second innings,” Holder said of his deputy. “Even though we lost the series, we did a lot of things right.”Brathwaite became the first opener in 2229 Tests to remain unbeaten in both innings. He was complemented by Shane Dowrich, who struck his fourth half-century in an 87-run sixth-wicket stand that helped West Indies wipe off the remaining 39 runs in 7.5 overs on the fifth morning in Sharjah.Brathwaite battled for close to 10 hours over both innings, and reveled in what he termed his best two knocks in his 34-Test career so far. “This has been the best batting Test match so far of my career. I hope to repeat this feat many times in my career,” he said. “I’ve had a good start. The key is to maintain it. I don’t want to get comfortable. I just want to continue working hard and score a lot of runs.”The overnight pair played freely against both pace and spin to collect six boundaries in the morning, thereby converting a potentially tricky chase into a cruise. Understanding his game and having a clear mind, Brathwaite said, were the keys to batting on a low Sharjah surface.”The plan was to keep rotating strike and bring the target down,” he said. “I knew my weak and strong areas. It was just a case of working around my strengths and backing my abilities. I knew on a low pitch, getting onto the front foot to play your strokes would give more runs than staying on the back foot.”Brathwaite’s partner Dowrich said their approach in this Test was a template they had to stick to in their quest to maintain consistency. “This is a special feeling. The way we played this Test is the way we should play going forward,” he said. “We were positive right from the start. I just told myself I’ll be positive this morning since Kraigg is the anchorman. We knew if we stayed positive, we’d win here. Test cricket has been my dream growing up. I’d love to continue to perform for West Indies.”

Darren Stevens will continue his Kent career at the age of 41 next season after agreeing a new one-year deal with the county.Stevens, who was awarded a benefit year in 2016, had been out of contract at the end of the season, but demonstrated his enduring worth with a strong all-round showing to help the club finish second in Division Two of the County Championship.”Darren has given so much to Kent that all along we have wanted him to remain with us and are delighted that he has made that decision,” said Graham Johnson, Kent’s chairman of cricket.”I’m sure all Kent supporters will greet the news with delight, help him round off his benefit year in style and look forward to his contribution to further develop what has been achieved to date.”In the first-class season, Stevens made 782 runs at 48.87, and claimed 37 wickets at 30.56. He also made a strong case for his retention with an innings of 136 in Kent’s final game of the season, against the Division Two champions, Essex.After that match, Stevens said: “I love this place and I don’t want to go anywhere else, so my hope is that we can sort something out because I feel I’ve still got two years left in me. I still have passion for the club and for these lads and I want to be successful, so we’ll have to see what happens.”I always love scoring runs and get more satisfaction from scoring runs being that Kent signed me as a batsman. I’ve obviously turned myself into a bit of an all-rounder in the meantime, but my main job is to get runs and the past couple of months have been pretty enjoyable in that regard.”

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has lauded captain Kane Williamson’s demeanour and work ethic for the team’s seamless transition from the Brendon McCullum era. Hesson also felt McCullum and Williamson brought a largely similar approach to their leadership styles.”Kane captained, I think, 36 games before he took over full-time. Even during the time that Brendon was captain, for a number of tours or part of the tours, Kane came in and it was a very seamless change,” Hesson told reporters after New Zealand arrived in New Delhi.”I think the key to any captain-coach relationship is to making sure that we use each other’s strengths. Kane is very thoughtful, methodical, [as a] player likes to plan well, but also likes his own time.”Brendon wasn’t hugely dissimilar to that; he prepared really well. He was probably a little bit more of a high profile, sort of ‘out there’ character, especially in New Zealand. As you see, Kane is probably slightly more of a backseat [type] but within the team they operate in a very similar fashion.”Williamson, for his part, is well aware of the importance of compartmentalising his twin roles as leader and premier batsman. Although he comes on the back of a good run of scores – Williamson finished as the team’s second-highest run-getter in New Zealand’s recent tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa – he recognises the need to pull his weight as one of the team’s better players of spin bowling.”I suppose you take that [captaincy] hat off and you are very much a batsman and you have a role to play in the team. I see them as slightly different things, so that to me is the focus,” Williamson said.”India is a tough place to play, particularly, in more recent years where the pitches have been very tricky. I guess [when] you throw in world-class spinners, the challenges are very tough but at the same time we see it as a very exciting opportunity. [The] previous series’ here, certainly spin played a huge part, and at times batting was difficult.”Hesson said playing on the dry pitches of Bulawayo during the Zimbabwe tour was a useful preparatory exercise ahead of the India series. Both he and Williamson agreed their players had to draw upon whatever past experiences they had of playing in India – either during the IPL or in past tournaments like the World T20.”That [Zimbabwe tour] was very much a spin-dominant series and conditions,” he said. “Although it didn’t spin as much, it certainly was slower and probably similar pace that we are going to face in India. The week between the series has been about rest really and recovery, and obviously the next week-to-ten days is going to be critical to be really specific around individual game plans.”Hesson was upbeat about New Zealand’s “gifted” spin trio – Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and the returning Mark Craig – making a mark despite their relative inexperience: they have a combined tally of 98 wickets from 34 Tests.”In the last couple of years, a number of overseas spinners have done well, so we certainly back our spinning group [which is] young and inexperienced but gifted,” Hesson said. “The challenge for us is firstly in adjusting to the different ball – the SG Test is going to be completely different to what we have been operating with the Kookaburra. So, there is a little bit of change there, a little bit of changing around seam angles, which are different over here than they are in different parts of the world.”Even though we are not going to bowl like sub-continental bowlers, we do have to make sure that we find a way to create opportunities. All those three are keen learners of the game and certainly we are going to put a lot of faith in them over the coming weeks.”Hesson also believed that the seamers, Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner, would put to good use the time they spent working on reverse swing in Zimbabwe. “It is a huge component of playing cricket overseas,” he said. “We have obviously spent a lot of time in Zimbabwe where we got the ball to reverse, and on surfaces that aren’t responsive in terms of seam movement.”There are many different methods [of getting the ball to reverse] and we certainly are going to have to be working on that over the coming days.”

Dale Steyn has reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test bowlers’ rankings after picking up match figures of 8 for 99 in South Africa’s 204-run win over New Zealand in Centurion. Steyn went up two places in the rankings, leapfrogging R Ashwin and James Anderson, to become No. 1 for the first time since December 2015, when he suffered a shoulder injury during the Durban Test against England.

Top five Test bowlers

• Dale Steyn (South Africa)

• James Anderson (England)

• R Ashwin (India)

• Stuart Broad (England)

• Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)

The other two members of South Africa’s pace attack in Centurion also climbed the rankings, with Vernon Philander going from 13th to 11th, and Kagiso Rabada from 30th to 27th. Faf du Plessis, who scored a century in South Africa’s first innings, jumped from 33rd to 24th in the Test batsmen’s rankings.South Africa’s 1-0 series win, meanwhile, lifted them from seventh to fifth in the team rankings, which meant they swapped places with New Zealand, who now sit a place below sixth-placed Sri Lanka.

ScorecardLauren Winfield top-scored for England with 63 off 40 balls•Getty Images

Another match, another rout. At least for Pakistan they can leave this one knowing home is not too far away. It has been a tour to forget: a sizeable 6-0 blemish on the last six months that saw them turn over India, in India, at the World T20. From their inability to counter England’s top-order assaults, to their oversized playing kit, which billowed with every misfield and misguided hack across the line – this tour has shown they have much more work to do.A fifth won toss in six and Heather Knight had no qualms batting first: England had won all 11 previous matches at Chelmsford and, with that in mind, Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield ensured a 12th was sewn up early with an opening stand of 108.Across the six matches, the first England wicket has been worth 801 – more than half of their team’s runs. When Pakistan do return to their own beds, a few of their bowlers might want to check under them to ensure Beaumont and Winfield are nowhere to be seen. Both their half-centuries were typical of their play over the last month: Winfield willing and on the front foot, Beaumont wristy and devastating.The familiarity spread right through to the game’s conclusion. Pakistan were run ragged in the field and, facing a total they had no intention of chasing – Danni Wyatt pilfered 11 from the first four balls of the final over to help England set 170 – it was just a matter or whether they would be bowled out in the allotted time. In the end, they finished seven wickets down and 57 short.England rang changes with the ball, the most noticeable being left-armer Tash Farrant coming in for Katherine Brunt. Having made her debut at the age of 17, Farrant spent two years on the sidelines from January 2014 to February 2016, when Mark Robinson gave her a run out in England’s final T20I before the World T20.Hers is an example he was keen to address: a player picked young yet too young to cope with being dropped and overlooked for a prolonged period. Now 20, she looked at ease, cycling through her variations and even nabbing the wicket of opener Nahida Khan with a slower ball that was flat-batted back to her. There were first international wickets, too, for Alex Hartley.Talking about how easy you find things is one of cricket’s great taboos, but even Heather Knight, a measured individual who seems to cringe at her own success, might wonder what all the fuss of captaining your country is about.From the early part of Robinson’s tenure as head coach, it was evident that both he and Knight were on the same page. In one of their first coach-player interactions, Knight said she wanted to move away from feeling like the onus is on her to bat for as long as possible. She wanted freedom.As captain, she has been able to afford that to the rest of her team. All this while questions were being asked of whether life after Charlotte Edwards would really be so rosy. Those answers will not be able to be given just yet, but Knight was understandably punchy in the press conference.”There was a lot of noise around the squad before the series and the girls have responded. The cricket we have played has been really entertaining to watch. Everyone is feeding off the success of each other and it’s been a really nice place to be.”That last point is key. Perhaps one of the most noticeable elements of this England side is how much more open they seem. And while players young and experienced have commented on how Robinson has created a relaxed atmosphere, it has been particularly clear to former players no longer in the system.Caroline Atkins, who represented England between 2001 and 2011, was taken aback at how at ease the players were when she was around the team at Taunton as they prepared for the third ODI. It was not an atmosphere she was used to. Isa Guha and Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent have also presented caps to debutants during this tour, something that has rarely happened in English women’s cricket. Rainford-Brent, who  presented Hartley with her T20 cap before this match, was even invited into the team huddle – a ringed haven usually reserved for squad members.There are of course elements that still need work. On a personnel level, Kate Cross’ return to international cricket, after an impressive pre-season tour of Sri Lanka with the England Academy, was disappointing, as she took 1 for 56 from the 11 overs she bowled across the first two ODIs. Cross will spend the next few weeks up to the inaugural Women’s Super League fine-tuning some technical aspects of her game, such as her front arm, before leading the Lancashire Thunder in what is hoped to be a testing fortnight of high-level cricket. She will hope her name will be added to the long list of seamers Robinson has healed.Long term, it will be interesting to see whether the confidence gained from these six matches can carry through into something more sustainable. This is not a team that likes to blow their own trumpet. But after six matches of runs, wickets and outright dominance, and given the manner in which they are looking to play their cricket, they might have to get used to it.