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As many as 13 wickets fell in Kolkata as Karnataka took the opening-day honours, taking a 41-run lead with seven wickets intact after bowling Delhi out for 90 in less than a session in their Group B fixture at Eden Gardens.Stand-in captain Karun Nair’s decision to bowl first was vindicated by the new ball bowlers. S Aravind, the left-arm seamer – who replaced the injured captain Vinay Kumar – triggered the meltdown, taking 4 for 12 in 11 overs as Delhi slumped to their lowest score against Karnataka. Their previous-lowest was 138 in the 2005-06 season.Aravind was complemented by Abhimanyu Mithun and offspinner K Gowtham, who returned to the state side after four years during Karnataka’s season-opener last week. Mithun took two wickets, and Gowtham took three, including that of the in-form Rishabh Pant (24) who had been put down twice – once by Gowtham himself at backward point, and once by Mayank Agarwal at slip.While the surface had a green tinge, it was far from menacing as the scorecard suggested. This was in evidence as the Karnataka openers added 87. While R Samarth, coming off a double century against Jharkhand, exuded confidence in his 53, Agarwal buried flamboyance for discipline for his 56, before fending a Vikas Tokas bouncer to third slip. Karnataka ended on 131 for 3, with Nair and Mithun at the crease.The effectiveness of Karnataka’s seamers may have encouraged Ishant Sharma, who was returning to competitive cricket after chikungunya kept him out for more than a month. But he was ineffective for the most part, as his length erred on the shorter side. On the odd occasions where he bowled full, he was driven comfortably. In comparison, Aravind proved that minute deviations on a helpful surface are just as effective as raw pace.Delhi’s only highlights came towards the ends of the day, when Robin Uthappa (5) and Agarwal (56) were caught in the slips.Cheteshwar Pujara carried forward his good form from the New Zealand Tests•Associated Press

Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara (79 not out) and Sheldon Jackson (105) made Maharashtra rue their decision to bowl first in Vizianagaram. The pair’s 164-run third-wicket stand helped Saurashtra recover from the loss of their openers in the first session and post 285 for 3 at stumps. Jaydev Shah, the captain, was unbeaten on 35.Jackson, who walked in to bat at 67 for 2, struck 10 fours and five sixes in his 12th first-class ton, a 155-ball 105, before Akshay Darekar, the left-arm spinner, dismissed him in the final session. Sagar Jogiyani (24) and Avi Barot (28) were the other batsmen to be dismissed, falling to Rahul Tripathi and Mohsin Sayyad respectively.Ganesh Satish (93 not out) and Sanjay Ramaswamy (83) were the architects for Vidarbha, who went into stumps on Day 1 of their clash against Assam in Trivandrum on 254 for 3. The base was built during the course of a 131-run second-wicket stand between the pair, after Faiz Fazal, the captain, elected to bat. Offspinner Swarupam Purkayastha, picked up two wickets in four deliveries to briefly spark a revival, but Ganesh and Ravi Jangid ensured there was no further damage.Pankaj Singh’s second five-wicket haul this season put Rajasthan in a strong position against Jharkhand in Vadodara.Kaushal Singh top scored with 56 in Jharkhand’s 209 all out after electing to bat. Kaushal’s 96-run sixt-wicket stand with Ishank Jaggi (49) helped Jharkand climb out of a hole at 69 for 5. Pankaj Singh took three of those first five and ended with 5 for 60 off his 21 overs, while Nathu Singh and Ajay Singh took two wickets apiece.Rajasthan were 26 without loss at stumps.

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.

Former Test wicketkeeper Courtney Browne has replaced Clive Lloyd as West Indies’ chairman of selectors, effective immediately.The WICB confirmed the move on Thursday evening but did not announce whether Lloyd, who had been in the role since August 2014, had stepped down of his own choice or been sacked.Browne, who played 20 Tests and 46 one-day internationals for West Indies, has been on the selection panel for almost six years and has been given a two-year appointment as chairman.The WICB also announced that from October 1, Lloyd would move to a new role as a “special ambassador”, in which he would be responsible for acting as a spokesperson for the board at special events.”The time as Chairman was quite rewarding and I am hoping my contribution would have added value to the current system,” Lloyd said. “I made every attempt to serve with distinction and I was pleased to contribute to the game again. I look forward to the new role. The details of that arrangement will be discussed and will be released shortly.”

Match facts

May 27-31, 2016
Start time 11am local (1000 GMT)

Big Picture

It’s grim up north. Especially if you are more used to hanging out in the tropics. Aside from some early success with the new ball at Headingley, Sri Lanka’s two-and-a-half days in Yorkshire were miserable in the extreme – they were bundled out for 91 and 119 in the space of 433 deliveries all told, the second shortest batting effort in their Test history.But sometimes you just have to doff your cap at the skills on display in such debacles, and with match figures of 10 for 45, James Anderson put to bed once and for all his curious distrust of Headingley’s home comforts with a performance that few teams in the world could have lived with.The worry for Sri Lanka, however, is that life is about to get even tougher, as they head to Chester-le-Street, the most northerly Test venue in the world, where the weather at present appears to be blowing in directly from the Arctic.They head there with a depleted bowling attack, following the untimely injury that has curtailed the tour of their promising young quick, Dushmantha Chameera, and a demoralised set of batsmen – notwithstanding a battling rearguard from the 21-year-old Kusal Mendis, whose maiden Test half-century delayed the inevitable in the second innings.Nothing is pre-ordained of course, and England travel with concerns of their own – not least the absence of the talismanic Ben Stokes, whose first Test appearance at his home ground in Durham should have been one of the major drawcards for a venue that has struggled to sell tickets for this fixture, and is thought to be preparing to host its sixth and final Test.Instead, Stokes is laid up in rehab following an operation for a cartilage tear in his left knee, a devastating blow for a player who tried to play through the pain after sustaining the problem while bowling in the first Test. Chris Woakes, fresh from a career-best haul of 9 for 36 for Warwickshire, is primed to step in as England’s designated allrounder – a first Test cap for the Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball must wait for another day.There are battles within battles to be played out in the coming days as well, not least the one taking place in Nick Compton’s mind. After a lean run of scores – 15, 26, 0, 19, 6 and 0 in his six most recent innings – Compton has admitted he is playing for his Test career. However, he’d do well to recall the circumstances of his most recent matchwinning effort – 85 and 49 on a dank seamer at Durban in December. Sri Lanka have rattled England’s top-order once already on this trip, so it needn’t be the last of the summer wine for Compo if he can channel once again that immoveable mindset.Although both teams start back at 0 for 0, with expectations duly recalibrated, it is still hard to envisage anything but another thumping England Test victory – they’ve never yet failed to win in five previous appearances at Chester-le-Street, including an Ashes-sealing 74-run triumph on their last appearance in 2013, a match that Stuart Broad was recalling with glee on Twitter during the build-up.And with good reason. Broad’s match figures on that occasion were a not-insubstantial 11 for 121, including 6 for 50 in a thrilling victory surge on the fourth and final afternoon. And therein lies the rub for Sri Lanka. When a team as inexperienced as their post-Sanga-and-Mahela line-up is pitched against a new-ball pairing with 781 Test wickets between them, you sense it will take something truly extraordinary to upset the status quo.Angelo Mathews strapped on plenty of layers for Sri Lanka’s net session at Chester-le-Street•PA Photos

Form guide

England: WLWDW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Sri Lanka: LLLWW

In the spotlight

If you stuck their names in a limerick, it would be hard to tell them apart, but – on recent Test form at least – Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes make a better rhyming couplet than a like-for-like pair of England allrounders. Where the former has gone from strength to strength – literally, in the case of his muscular double-hundred at Newlands in January – Woakes has struggled to live up to expectations at the highest level, notwithstanding the extra yard of pace that most observers agree he has added to his bowling since making his debut in the 2013 Ashes. A Test best of 26 not out in six Tests, allied to eight wickets at 63.75, are not auspicious numbers, but this could be the opportunity he has been waiting for. Chester-le-Street is the sort of venue that favours his style of accurate, skilful seam and swing – think of Richard Johnson’s 6 for 33 way back in 2003.There’s no two ways about it. If Sri Lanka are to have any realistic hope of competing in some of the most inclement conditions that they’ll ever face in their Test careers, they will need their skipper to front up with the bat. Angelo Mathews was a qualified success in the Headingley Test – insofar as his first-innings 34 was the highest score of that innings by a distance, and it could have been even more had he chosen to refer his lbw decision that replays showed had struck him outside the line. But he was powerless to prevent their meltdown second-time around, and from the moment of his dismissal – at 93 for 3 after 23.2 overs, Sri Lanka lost their last seven wickets for 26 runs in the space of 12.1 overs. He has previous in England – his matchwinning 160 in the second Test two years ago belongs in national folklore – but turning this tour around will be an even greater challenge

Teams news

In keeping with England’s new, positive outlook towards everything from declarations to follow-ons, Alastair Cook once again confirmed his team a full 24 hours in advance of the toss. In comes Woakes for Stokes, with Ball missing out, and up a notch on the batting card go Jonny Bairstow, the Man of the Match at Headingley, and Moeen Ali – whose form as a designated No. 8 has been ropey in recent times. Both have been given extra responsibility at 6 and 7 respectively, with Woakes slotting in as a very handy No.8.England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Nick Compton, 4 Joe Root, 5 James Vince, 6 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Steven Finn, 11 James AndersonChameera’s back injury opens the way for Suranga Lakmal’s recall, but aside from that, Sri Lanka are unlikely to make wholesale changes, not least because those who played at Headingley are now that little bit more acquainted with the conditions. Nevertheless, Milinda Siriwardana could challenge Lahiru Thirimanne for a middle-order berth. Despite Thirimanne’s experience on two previous tours, he has a grand total of 90 runs in eight previous Test innings in England, dating back to his debut at Southampton in June 2011.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Lahiru Thirimanne / Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Dasun Shanaka, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Shaminda Eranga, 10 Nuwan Pradeep 11 Suranga Lakmal

Pitch and conditions

Chester-le-Street, the fiefdom of Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth, is no place to be a visiting batsman – even those that are used to English conditions. Remarkably, when Durham won the County Championship in 2013, they conceded a solitary batting point (ie, one first-innings score in excess of 200) in eight home games. And that’s just the conditions on the ground – throw in the misery overhead, and life gets even tougher. One local observer described the weather on the eve of the game as “minging”. Although it is expected to clear up just enough for the first three days of the game, another rain-band is expected to sweep in on Monday. If Headingley is anything to go by, that salvation may be scheduled too late.

Stats and trivia

• Alastair Cook started the series needing 36 runs to become the 12th player – and first Englishman – to 10,000 in Tests. He still needs 20 more to get there, but he has a five-month cushion on Sachin Tendulkar, the previous youngest (at 31 years and ten months).
• Rangana Herath, who claimed two wickets in the first Test, needs one more to become the third Sri Lankan to 300 in Tests.
• Sri Lanka will be the fifth different team to play a Test at Chester-le-Street, after Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, West Indies (twice) and Australia. England have won three of their previous five matches by an innings.

Quotes

“He’s scored two hundreds already. So he can play at this level. Like all of us, he’s only a score away, and he needs a score, but he’s in a really good place to do that.”
Alastair Cook gives Nick Compton a boost ahead of what may be a make-or-break Test“That game was quite embarrassing. We have to flush it out of our system.”

Lunch England took a huge step towards a series-clinching win just before lunch on the fifth day in Manchester when Jofra Archer finally dislodged Shubman Gill after 87 overs of resistance.When Gill walked out to face a hat-trick ball in the first over of India’s second innings, his team trailed by 311 runs and looked certain to lose within four days. But a doughty, defiant century – the fourth in his first series as India captain – kept the match and the series alive, trimming the deficit to under 100 and slowly wearing England’s bowlers down.Gill was given a life early on the fifth day when Ollie Pope failed to hold onto a stinging chance at short cover, and was hit on the glove and helmet as Ben Stokes broke through the pain barrier to bowl an eight-over spell from the James Anderson End. Stokes did not bowl on the fourth day due to cramp and grimaced after every ball due to a shoulder niggle.But he was the man that gave England their first breakthrough, pinning KL Rahul on the back pad to trap him lbw and break a partnership worth 188 with Gill. Stokes exploited the variable bounce on offer throughout his spell, with some balls shooting through low and others – like the brute that struck Gill – leaping unexpectedly.Chris Woakes took the new ball alongside Archer and occasionally beat the bat, with Gill surviving an incredibly tight leave soon after a celebratory yelp on reaching three figures. But he played away from his body to a back-of-a-length ball from Archer shortly before lunch, and edged through to Jamie Smith to make England clear favourites.

Australia were left contemplating the possibility of needing to replace over 10,000 runs after Steven Smith suffered a compound dislocation of the little finger on his right hand on the third day of the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, leaving him a major doubt for the upcoming tour of the West Indies, as a rare loss in a tournament decider loomed into view.Smith suffered the injury when he dropped a sharp chance offered by Temba Bavuma on 2 as the South Africa captain edged Mitchell Starc to first slip where Smith was standing so close that he was wearing a helmet.Smith immediately knew he was in trouble and started to leave the field in significant pain even before the medical staff reached him.”He was assessed by Australian team medical staff at the ground and taken to the hospital for X-rays and further treatment,” a CA spokesperson said.The dropped catch was a pivotal moment in the day as South Africa would have been 76 for 3 chasing 282 had it been held, but instead Bavuma was unbeaten on 65 at the close as fought through a hamstring injury.Since 1996, Australia’s men have lost just one of the 10 global finals they have been in – the 2010 T20 World Cup against England – but barring a spectacular South Africa collapse on Saturday will relinquish the mace.”We understand the magnitude of the task, that 8 for 70 or whatever it is, is incredibly tricky and conditions would have to go away,” assistant coach Daniel Vettori said. “I think with the nature of where the ball is at and the surface, it’s a difficult task, but it is a task that the group has probably done at times throughout the last three, four, some of them five, six, even longer years.”Meanwhile, Smith’s injury also leaves Australia with the prospect of having a big hole to fill in their batting order in the West Indies, where the first Test begins in Barbados on June 25, although the extent of Smith’s injury was still being assessed at the close of play with him not having returned to the ground from hospital.Earlier this year left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann was able to make a swift return to action after suffering a similar blow in the BBL before going on to take 16 wickets in the series against Sri Lanka.Australia already have significant uncertainty around their top order with Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green struggling in the WTC final. After a relatively lean period by his high standards, Smith has been prolific in recent Tests with four hundreds in five matches against India and Sri Lanka before 66 in the first innings at Lord’s.Should Smith be ruled out of all or part of the West Indies tour, it could create an opening for Sam Konstas’ return, with Labuschagne going back to No. 3 and Green dropping down to No. 4 where he made 174 not out against New Zealand before his back injury.Josh Inglis is the other spare batter in the squad for the WTC final, which will be the same group that travels to the Caribbean. Should reinforcements be needed, Nathan McSweeney could come into consideration while the resurgent Kurtis Patterson could be another option.

Ashleigh Gardner has been cleared of concussion after the allrounder’s bizarre collision with Georgia Wareham before Australia’s T20I against New Zealand.Gardner missed Australia’s series-opening win in Mackay on Thursday night, after she and Wareham clashed heads during a warm-up game.Wareham has also been cleared of any concussion symptoms after recovering from the knock to play in the five-wicket win.Gardner, the reigning Belinda Clark Medallist, initially laughed off the incident before leaving the ground in tears. The 27-year-old has had a wretched history with concussions with seven throughout her professional career. The issue prompted Gardner to see a neuropsychologist in 2018, after suffering four in the space of 20 months. Saturday’s news will therefore come as a welcome relief to Gardner, with both she and Wareham a chance to play the second T20 against New Zealand in Mackay on Sunday.Australia also have other injury concerns ahead of next month’s World Cup in the UAE with Grace Harris (calf) and Kim Garth (knee) both missing the New Zealand series.Beth Mooney, who will pay her 100th T20I in the second match of the series, said Australia would be looking to sharpen up.”It was a good game for us, not a great one,” Mooney said. “So we’re looking to sharpen up every facet of the game, maybe getting off to a bit of a better start with the bat in terms of wickets lost, and then with the ball, maybe tidying up a few different areas there.”[New Zealand] got 140 on the board and they perhaps were a few runs short, so we’ll have to adjust tomorrow night if they come out pretty hard.”On the landmark game, which will come at the scene of one of her greatest performances, the unbeaten 125 against India in 2021, Mooney said: “It’s always nice to play one game for Australia, but to play a 100 when there was probably a time where I didn’t think I’d play any is very special.”New Zealand were without Sophie Devine for the first game of the series as she continues to recover from an ankle injury with a cautious approach being taken ahead of the T20 World Cup

Career best performances from Andy Gorvin and Eddie Byrom helped Glamorgan maintain their 100 percent record in this year’s Metro Bank One Day Cup as they beat Notts Outlaws by eight wickets at the Gnoll in Neath.Glamorgan’s seamers did a fantastic job at keeping the Outlaws’ batting line up under control with Gorvin’s 5 for 56 the star performance with Jamie McIlroy and Dan Douthwaite picking up two wickets eachThe Outlaws finished on 274 for 9 and Glamorgan chased that down with relative ease with Byrom finishing on 123 and Colin Ingram making 103.This victory means Glamorgan sit at the top of Group B ahead of Warwickshire on net run rate.Notts Outlaws made a slow start in the face of some excellent new ball bowling from Timm van der Gugten and Jamie McIlroy as they scored 23 runs for the loss of two wickets inside the powerplay. Six of the first 10 overs were maidens and van der Gugten was perhaps a little unlucky to finish wicketless after regularly beating the bat.McIlroy picked up both wickets inside the fielding restrictions with Ben Slater going for 1 and Jack Haynes falling for his fourth consecutive duck in this competition. From there a stand of 86 from Freddie McCann and Haseeb Hameed brought the Outlaws back into the match.McCann fell for a career-best 48 when he inside edged the ball onto his foot and he was caught by Will Smale off the bowling of Gorvin.Wickets fell regularly throughout the Outlaws’ innings, and it was Hameed who held things together. He did well to survive the early movement from the Glamorgan seamers and he was in a position to counter attack against the leg spin of Colin Ingram which went for 22 runs in his two overs. Hameed was dismissed for 89 when he looked to accelerate towards the back end of the innings.The Outlaws went past 200 thanks to contributions from Tom Moores and Liam Patterson-White who both made scores in the thirties. The tail added some important runs to take Notts to a total that they could hope to defend.It was a completely different start to the Glamorgan innings as Byrom and Will Smale put on 103 for the first wicket to break the back of this chase.Smale had made 37 when he was caught by Lyndon James in the covers and Kiran Carlson fell in the next over when he nicked James through to wicket-keeper Moores to leave Glamorgan 108 for 2 and to give Notts Outlaws some hope.From there it was all about Byrom and Ingram who look Glamorgan to victory thanks to a brilliant stand of 170 that made the Outlaws’ total look a long way short of par on this pitch.Both batters were brutal on anything short and the small boundaries at the Gnoll presented no real challenge for the two set batters as the pair hit 27 fours and six sixes between them. Ingram went to his 10th List A hundred when he struck the winning runs.