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Ireland fast bowler Max Sorensen announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday. The 31-year old had made his debut in 2012 and was groomed as a replacement for veteran seamer Trent Johnston, who would quit the game a year later. In all, Sorensen played 13 ODIs and 26 T20Is, picking up 16 and 26 wickets in each format. He was excellent in first-class cricket, with 28 wickets at 19.57, including a best of 5 for 37 against Scotland in 2013 that also paved the way towards the Intercontinental Cup title.Sorensen, born in Johannesburg, last represented Ireland in June 2016. Considering his age and troubles with injury – a shoulder problem has forced him to play as a specialist batsman for his club Leinster Lightning – he has decided to look beyond cricket.Max Sorensen last played for Ireland in June 2016•Getty Images/Sportsfile

“At this stage of my career, I feel I need to move on with my life,” Sorensen said. “I realise the likelihood of me getting back into the set-up is unlikely, with my various injuries and fluctuating performances in the past year or so. It’s time for me to move forward and hang up the international boots. Once again I want to thank all involved with Irish cricket for their help and support – it truly means a lot.”Sorensen was part of Ireland’s three most recent World T20 campaigns and he opened the bowling when they beat West Indies in the 2015 World Cup. He is currently fifth on the list of bowlers with most T20 wickets for Ireland, taking 43 in 37 matches. Sorensen’s peak performance came in 2013 when he was their leading wicket-taker during the 2013 World T20 Qualifier in the UAE, with 14 in 8 games, which helped Ireland win the tournament. However, his performances tapered off in the following years, leading to the 2016 World T20. In that tournament, against Oman in Dharamsala, Sorensen had to defend 14 runs off the last over, but ended up conceding 16 as Oman pulled off a two-wicket win.Outgoing head coach John Bracewell marked him as a “tireless worker, never giving anything less than 100% effort”.”He always exhibited professionalism and passion, as well as obvious skill. He was a fine role model to the younger players in the squad, and was a very popular figure in the dressing room. I wish him all the best in his future.”Despite a shoulder injury limiting Sorensen’s ability to bowl, he struck a match-winning 98 not out for Leinster against Munster Reds in the Inter-provincial T20 tournament in June.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMeg Lanning’s half-century helped Australia make lightwork of a tricky target•Getty Images

Australia secured a semi-final berth as they overpowered India’s 226 for 7 with consummate ease on a slow turner in Bristol. India’s inability to bring to the fore their power-game at various stages during the course of the 157-run second-wicket stand between centurion Punam Raut and Mithali Raj, who became the leading run-getter in Women’s ODIs, left them shortchanged. They will now have to beat New Zealand in their final group game on Sunday to make it through to the semi-final of an ICC event for the first time since 2010.Beth Mooney and Nicole Bolton added 62 for the first wicket in 15.4 overs to set Australia up. After Bolton bottom-edged a sweep off Poonam Yadav to Sushma Verma, the wicketkeeper, Meg Lanning dug in. Batting with a strapped shoulder, she displayed nimble footwork to negate India’s spin troika of Ekta Bisht, Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav, to make 76 not out as Australia eased home with 29 balls to spare. She was complemented by the in-form Ellyse Perry, who finished with 60 not out, her fourth successive fifty to go with two wickets.Where Australia’s spinners wrested control – they combined to take 4 for 129 off 29 overs – partly due to India’s diffidence with the bat, India’s slower bowlers leaked a combined 183 in 34 overs. India’s slow scoring was largely due to the inability of Raj to hit the ball off the square; she consumed 82 deliveries and limped past the 34 she needed to eclipse Charlotte Edwards’ record.Jess Jonassen and Kristen Beams used angles and flight to cut off scoring options for Raut and Raj. Their protection of the leg-side boundary kept teasing the batsmen to work against the turn, making it difficult to maneuver the ball over the off side.Once the record was out of the way, Raj seemed a little more relaxed. The first sign of intent came three balls later as she waltzed down the pitch to hit a straight six to also become the first batsman in Women’s ODIs to cross 6000 runs. By then, Punam was in her 50s. From time-to-time, she resorted to sweeping against the turn and bringing out the delicate paddles to keep the runs ticking. Off the pacers, she was particularly punishing towards Megan Schutt, who she shovelled and lap-swept to pick off boundaries.Yet, at no stage did the pair give Australia any shivers. When Raj mistimed a lofted hit back to Beams in the 41st over, India had barely managed to cross the four-runs per over mark. Over the next six overs, Harmanpreet Kaur brought out the odd big hit to make a 22-ball 23, but Raut’s wicket in the 47th led to a total breakdown. India lost four wickets for 16, with Deepti Sharma, their second-highest run-getter of the tournament, not coming out to bat until the final over.Early in the chase, India kept things tight, conceding just 34 off the first 10. The situation was ripe for their spinners to mount a challenge. But Bisht’s first over that went for three boundaries led to opening of the floodgates. Poonam Yadav looped the ball up, but by not landing it right on a surface where the turn was slow, gave the batsmen enough time to rock back and pull.Lanning showed intent right from the time she walked out, lofting Yadav over her head for six off the fourth ball she faced. To compensate, the spinners resorted to bowling short and kept getting put away square of the wicket through cuts and sweeps. India didn’t help matters by fielding as poorly as they did, runs regularly conceded by letting the ball through their legs at the boundary. All of this meant, the chase went cold at the halfway mark. For large parts of the last 15 overs, it seemed as if an extended net session was on, the sense of helplessness in India’s ranks all too evident as what should’ve been a challenging chase turned into a cakewalk.

ScorecardAlex Davies steadied Lancashire with a fine century•Getty Images

Alex Davies irritates opponents and seems to greatly enjoy doing so. Very many other cricketers have possessed a similar cast of mind, of course, but few achieve their goal with quite the gleeful devil evinced by Davies. For example, Hampshire had only to place two short midwickets during the second session of this day for him to clip the ball along the ground between them. Such calculated daring brought Davies a third Championship century of the season and it refreshed Lancashire supporters on an afternoon when the heat blanketed anyone emerging from shade.Davies’s approach is often garlanded with risk. He was dropped twice on the way to his hundred and on 17 he would have been run out by the length of a 1930s dole queue had Matt Salisbury’s throw hit the stumps. But Davies seems to savour danger, too. For all his 22 years and, one might assume, relative maturity, he grins out of his photographs like one of William Brown’s outlaws in Richmal Crompton’s once popular stories. One can imagine him scrumping apples or making good use of a catapult in the age before screens sought vainly to dull the young. That disarmingly wide-eyed innocence deceives no one; Davies is one of cricket’s good-hearted rascals and one of the game’s undiluted competitors.He is also a fine batsman. By the time he was caught at deep square leg by Michael Carberry off James Vince’s fifth ball of the innings he had taken Lancashire to within 26 runs of avoiding the follow-on. That task was completed by Dane Vilas and Ryan McLaren during a session when the bat held sway over the ball and the day drifted into the warm reverie of a summer evening. At one stage, the batsmen were having a drink, Lewis McManus was changing his wicketkeeping gloves and a Hampshire cricketer was removing grit from a team mate’s boots. Our cricket ended at nearly seven o’clock with Lancashire 117 runs in arrears and Vilas unbeaten on a fine 76. The crowd drifted off for their restorative suppers and perhaps they will be encouraged a little by the South African’s disciplined application.In mid-afternoon, though it seemed longer than that, the home supporters – all sun hats, polo shirts and cotton dresses – had required reviving for other reasons. Having seen Hampshire complete their recovery from 177 for 6 and post a healthy 395, they had then watched as Lancashire lost their first three wickets for a mere 69. This decline began when Rob Jones, having taken a blow on the helmet from Gareth Berg, was snared lbw for 2 by the next delivery, which caught him on the crease.That was a fine piece of cricket by this impressive Hampshire team and it was followed by another four overs after lunch when a Berg inswinger removed Luke Procter’s off stump. Steven Croft, Lancashire’s normally combative captain, then played perhaps the most quiescent innings of his career, scratching a single from 32 balls in 54 minutes before he was leg before when playing no recognisable shot at all to a ball from Kyle Abbott which nipped back off the pitch.Lancashire’s recovery from these toils was led by Davies and it was begun by his rather skittish partnership of 74 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Having taken only two runs from five overs near the beginning of their stand, the pair then collected 47 from the next 30 balls. Chanderpaul got off the mark with two cover-driven fours and he and Davies both took sixes off the same Brad Taylor over. Runs came in something of a torrent on this true pitch which currently facilitates attacking strokeplay. Davies manufactured fours to third man and clipped the ball backward of square and Chanderpaul, who can exhibit all the gay daring of a borough surveyor examining a warehouse, matched Davies shot for shot, but was stumped for 33 when lured forward by an excellent ball from the offspinner, Taylor which turned past the outside edge. Yet Vilas batted with even more disciplined aggression into the evening session and it suddenly seemed ages since the last rites of Hampshire’s inningsThose had begun when James Anderson, who bowled with more threat in six overs on the second morning than he had managed in 22 on the first day, removed Taylor in the third over but Salisbury then put on 43 for the last wicket with Abbott. Indeed, so unruffled were the last-wicket pair that it seemed Abbott would follow Jack Brooks’ example in the previous first-class match on this ground and cruise to a maiden century. Alas for such Natalian dreams, Salisbury skied McLaren to Chanderpaul at mid-on when Abbott was 97 and the visitors’ innings ended on 395.Hampshire were well-placed with that total on the board and were in an even stronger position in mid-afternoon. But ultimately the day belonged to Davies. Short, combative and increasingly skilful, Lancashire’s wicketkeeper long ago won the respect of his colleagues; he can now add the fond regard of the county’s supporters, all of whom know that he is one of those players who always give of their best and whose loyalty has been firmly pledged. A year ago his career was threatened by a knee injury and in early April he had yet to score a first-class hundred; now he has three of them although not yet a full cap. Lancashire cricket is both his livelihood and his sporting love. She will never suffer if he can prevent it.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:04

Hogg: Game lost for KKR with Yusuf’s reckless dismissal

Mumbai Indians ended the league stage of the IPL with a table-topping 20 points after they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs at the Eden Gardens. The defeat meant Knight Riders, with 16 points, would not finish in the top two. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had beaten Gujarat Lions in Saturday’s afternoon game, had ended the league stage on 17.Having made as many as six changes to their line-up in an effort to test their bench strength ahead of the playoffs, Mumbai posted 173 on the back of half-centuries from Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu. Knight Riders were in control of the required rate from the start, but kept losing wickets far too frequently.As many as five Knight Riders batsmen got to 20, and yet their top-scorer only made 33. This proved decisive, in the end, as they fell short of their target by 10 runs. It was Knight Riders’ first home defeat while chasing since 2013.Rayudu fires to lift sluggish MumbaiLendl Simmons came into this game with an ordinary T20 record against left-arm pace – 503 runs off 492 balls, 20 dismissals – and he duly fell to a left-arm quick, flat-batting Trent Boult to mid-off in the third over of Mumbai’s innings. Rohit Sharma, pulling and slog-sweeping crisply, then scored 27 off 20 before Ankit Rajpoot had him lbw with an offcutter. That left Mumbai at a healthy 69 for 2 in 8.2 overs.From there, though, they slowed down. Tiwary and Rayudu were Mumbai’s most productive pair in the 2010 season, and now, seven years on, they added 61 in 7.4 overs. Tiwary struggled to find the boundary once the Powerplay restrictions disappeared, scoring only 18 off 21 from the start of the seventh over before muscling Sunil Narine for successive fours in the 15th over to bring up his half-century. A comical mix-up – he stood unmoved at the non-striker’s end when Rayudu called for a fairly regulation single – ended his innings at 52 off 43 – it was the second-slowest 50-plus score of the season.The four other fifties in that top five (Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli, Chris Morris and Manoj Tiwary) had all ended up in losing causes.Rayudu, though, ensured Mumbai would post a challenging if not entirely massive total. He began fairly sedately, hitting only one boundary in his first 20 runs, but upped the pace by peppering the leg-side boundaries, the highlight of his innings a pick-up shot over the deep backward square-leg boundary off Boult to bring up his half-century. Despite Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya only scoring 14 off 14 between them, Rayudu’s 63 off 37 ensured Knight Riders wouldn’t run away with the game.Slog on, regardlessGiven that a team has ten wickets to exhaust over 20 overs, the “ideal” T20 innings would consist of batsmen going for big hits right through, with no pause for the rebuilding phases characteristic of 50-over cricket. That approach, however, requires a side that bats deep, with power hitters all the way down to Nos. 9, 10 and even 11.Here, Knight Riders – in a chase of 174, where such an approach may not have been strictly necessary – seemed to be aiming for the platonic ideal of a T20 innings without having the line-up for it. Given that Chris Woakes was ruled out with an ankle injury, and that his replacement Boult is a classic No. 11, Knight Riders’ serious batting only extended up to Colin de Grandhomme at No. 7.Still, they kept going hard; they kept finding the boundaries, but they also kept losing wickets. By the end of the ninth over, they had hit seven fours and six sixes and lost five wickets. Chris Lynn, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan fell in the 20s, and it felt as if one of them could have attempted to anchor Knight Riders and give them some stability to go with their scoring rate. Instead, all three were out going for big shots.When Yusuf holed out against Vinay Kumar, Knight Riders needed 87 from 66 balls; a perfectly straightforward ask, but they already had their last recognised pair at the crease.Pandey, de Grandhomme steady chaseManish Pandey and de Grandhomme gave Knight Riders the partnership they needed, putting on 41 in 31 balls. De Grandhomme maintained Knight Riders’ momentum, employing deftness rather than brawn to pick up his boundaries. He used Vinay Kumar’s pace to steer him either side of short third man for three fours in the 11th over, before clubbing Hardik Pandya over the midwicket boundary in more characteristic fashion.Umpire S Ravi missed an inside-edge from Pandey to wicketkeeper Rayudu in the 14th over, but Mumbai didn’t have to wait too much longer for a breakthrough, Hardik nipping one back off the seam to bowl de Grandhomme at the start of the 15th. At that point, Knight Riders needed 46 from 35.Knight Riders run out of batsmenPandey’s run of luck continued – substitute fielder J Suchith put him down at deep midwicket when he pulled Tim Southee uppishly in the 17th over. The rest of that over continued to frustrate Mumbai. Kuldeep Yadav guided the next ball past short third man for four, and then escaped being run out while taking a non-existent single when Karn Sharma missed the stumps at the bowler’s end. Then Southee was no-balled for bowling with only three fielders inside the circle. At the end of that over, Knight Riders only needed 25 off 18.But they still only had one real batsman left, Pandey, and he pulled Hardik straight to deep midwicket off the first ball of the 18th over. Having now lost seven wickets, Knight Riders simply had no batsmen left with the skill to score 25 off 17 balls, particularly when umpire A Nanda Kishore gave Kuldeep caught-behind in the penultimate over when the ball missed his outside edge.

Match facts

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
Hyderabad, April 30, 2017
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)3:08

Hogg: No 3 the perfect slot for Uthappa

Head to head

This season: Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 3 for 20, Yuvraj Singh struck two sixes in his innings with a strike rate of 162.50 but Sunrisers Hyderabad only managed 155 in pursuit of their 173-run target.Overall: Kolkata Knight Riders hold a dominant 7-3 lead over Sunrisers

Form guide

• Sunrisers Hyderabad (third): beat Kings XI Punjab by 26 runs, lost to Rising Pune Supergiant by six wickets, beat Delhi Daredevils by 15 runs.

• Kolkata Knight Riders (first): beat Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets, beat Rising Pune Supergiant by seven wickets, beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 82 runs.

The likely XIs

Sunrisers Hyderabad 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Naman Ojha (wk), 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Siddarth KaulKolkata Knight Riders 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Umesh Yadav

Strategy punt

Sunil Narine could very well open the batting. No surprises there. Maybe Knight Riders should also consider opening the bowling with him, against two left-handed Sunrisers openers. While David Warner has scored a decent 67 runs off 50 balls against Narine, Shikhar Dhawan has only managed 31 runs off 30 balls. When Narine bowled one over to them in the Powerplay earlier in the season, he conceded seven runs, including three singles and two dots in the over.

Stats that matter

• Sunrisers are the only side yet to lose a home game this season, while Knight Riders are the only team to win three away games so far
• Robin Uthappa is the most prolific batsman in the middle overs (seven to 15) this season. He has amassed 225 runs off 124 balls at a commanding strike rate of 181
• This could also be Uthappa’s best IPL season if he keeps scoring the way he has been. His average this IPL – 41.37 – is his second-best, behind 44 in IPL 2014. His strike rate of 168 in 2017 is second best after 171.55 in IPL 2010 and he has smashed 17 sixes already. In the last two seasons combined, he had struck only 15 sixes in 28 innings.
• Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sunrisers’ top wicket-taker and most economical bowler (minimum five overs) this season, has never dismissed Gautam Gambhir or Uthappa in the IPL. Gambhir has scored 72 runs off 63 balls against Bhuvneshwar, and Uthappa has collected 63 runs off 51 balls.
• Among the current Knight Riders bowlers, Umesh Yadav has been most successful against Warner. The fast bowler has dismissed him three times while conceding 30 runs off 23 balls. No bowler has dismissed Warner more than three times in the IPL.

New Zealand legspinner Ish Sodhi was unwanted at the IPL, and often by his country, but has joined Nottinghamshire for the NatWest T20 Blast.Sodhi, 24, comes with the recommendation of Andre Adams, the former Nottinghamshire and New Zealand seamer, and will be available for the duration of the tournament.During a brief spell with Adelaide Strikers at the BBL he claimed the remarkable figures of 6 for 11, the sixth best in T20 history, against Sydney Thunder but that was not enough to attract interest from an IPL franchise at the recent auction. Overall in T20 he has 60 wickets at 21.96 and an economy rate of 7.14. He was impressive at the 2016 World T20 where he claimed 10 wickets in five matches with an economy of 6.10.”Ish is a young player whose game has really moved forward,” Peter Moores, Nottinghamshire’s head coach, said. “He’s growing fast and we’re really excited to have him. We’ve seen the impact legspinners can have in T20 cricket. With the way batsmen strike the ball, you need bowlers that can take wickets throughout the innings.”Ish is a natural attacking leg-spinner who can create pressure and get us some crucial breakthroughs in the middle overs.”Sodhi has been in and out of the New Zealand side during their current season following his omission after the tour of India. He played two T20s against Bangladesh, where he claimed five wickets, and the first two ODIs against South Africa before being overlooked for Jeetan Patel in the last two matches of the series.Unless New Zealand take three specialist spinners to the Champions Trophy he could miss out on a place in the final 15.

Match facts

March 3, 2017
Start time 0930 local (1330 GMT)

Big Picture

After the rigours of a winter in the subcontinent – and with little to show for their efforts following gruelling losses in all three formats against India – a spring sojourn in the Caribbean, three ODIs in the course of a fortnight on tour, has the distinct flavour of a rest cure. Nothing, however, is quite that straightforward for one-day cricket at the moment, as West Indies’ absence from this year’s grand jamboree amply testifies.Could it be that West Indies’ failure to qualify for this summer’s Champions Trophy is the wake-up call that cricket in the Caribbean has long needed? This time last year, of course, they were beating England in thrilling fashion in the final of the World T20, but that emotional triumph was achieved, quite literally, in spite of the WICB, which remains defiantly at loggerheads with so many of its star players, as epitomised by its failure to select the man of that match, Marlon Samuels, for these three games.But at the same time, the cosy assurances that West Indies cricket would forever be invited to the sport’s biggest gatherings has been shattered, and already their new coach, Australia’s Stuart Law, has admitted that qualification for the 2019 World Cup is the team’s over-riding priority.They are currently ranked at No. 9 in the world, one place outside the automatic slots, and it’s fair to say that West Indies’ record against England in the coming six months will make or break their ambitions. They have these three games, plus five more in the summer, ahead of September’s qualification cut-off, and there’s no time like the present to get their late push up and running.And what of England, the renaissance team of world white-ball cricket? Their stunning coming of age since the 2015 World Cup has been dissected ad nauseam but, two years down the line, Eoin Morgan’s men can no longer get away with surprising people with their potential. In particular, despite their fighting efforts in a historically heavy-scoring ODI series in India, their ambitions faltered because of the shortcomings of their bowling attack. These three matches – plus five more against Ireland and South Africa in May – will be critical to their fine-tuning process.They go into the series with a glut of absentees. David Willey, Mark Wood, Jake Ball and Reece Topley are among the seamers who might have been expected to press their claims in these three games, but injury has struck them all down and instead the stage is set for the likes of Liam Plunkett, Steven Finn and Tom Curran – newly inducted into the squad after a hefty journey from the heart of Sri Lanka.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies: LLTWL
England: WLLWL

In the spotlight

Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight, out in the middle of a cricket field. That is rather how Ben Stokes feels, after admitting his discomfort at talking about his status as England’s most newly-minted cricketer. And yet, even without the small matter of USD 2.16 million in his back pocket, following his stunning acquisition by Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL, Stokes was destined to be the talk of Antigua, given what happened to the last four balls he sent down against West Indies, in the World T20 final in Kolkata. And, even if that experience had all been a bad dream, we’d still have Stokes’ last visit to the Caribbean to look back on, and that broken hand courtesy of a punched locker in Barbados. In an otherwise low-key series, his presence alone adds an element of vital intrigue.It takes two to tango, however, and in the maroon corner, Carlos Brathwaite is revving up to resume his heavy bombardment against an England bowling line-up that – for all their strides as a team – has been under the cosh in recent contests. At least, that’s how the narrative is meant to pan out. Unfortunately for Brathwaite, life hasn’t been quite that simple since Kolkata. Expectations, both personally and from West Indies’ fans, have been through the roof in the past 12 months, much like those four sixes had been. “Unfortunately, it went downhill quickly,” he told the Daily Mail. “Because of what happened that night, people expected things and I guess, for a brief period, I expected them as well. It became a negative.” He has the chance, over the course of these four matches, to reset his ambitions, and those of his team.

Team news

Kieran Powell, back in West Indies’ one-day squad for the first time in three years, could pick up where he left off by facing England in an ODI at Antigua, just as he did on his last appearance in March 2014. If selected, he is likely to open the batting with Evin Lewis, who cemented his claim to a top-order berth with 148 in a thrilling run-chase against Sri Lanka in November.West Indies (probable) 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kraigg Brathwaite, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jonathan Carter, 6 Carlos Brathwaite, 7 Rovman Powell, 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Ashley Nurse, 11 Shannon GabrielThough Ball remains with the England squad, he didn’t look comfortable during training and is unlikely to be risked following his knee injury. Alex Hales is likely to sit out as well as he fine-tunes his recovery from a broken hand, while Tom Curran is still in transit and won’t be in the frame until the second match at the earliest. Therefore, Sam Billings is expected to open with Jason Roy, with Jonny Bairstow squeezed out of a strong middle order. Plunkett and Finn could both feature, along with both the front-line spinners, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Steven Finn.

Pitch and conditions

In a development that would make Antigua’s local heroes Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts weep, Caribbean wickets tend to be pretty slow and low these days. Nevertheless, England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, admitted he had been surprised by the amount of grass still in evidence on this surface. With a 9.30am start in the offing, there may be some early assistance for his seamers if he manages to call correctly and bowl first.

Stats and trivia

• Stokes’ locker punch in 2014 was not the wisest shot he has ever played, but dare one say it, his frustrations were justified. In his last three ODIs in the Caribbean (all in Antigua, in fact) he made a grand total of nine runs in three innings, and took no wickets in six overs.
• Brathwaite’s struggles to live up to his Kolkata heroics have been telling. A grand total of 248 runs at 16.53 in 18 subsequent innings, with his solitary half-century coming in his one-off Test appearance against India in Antigua. Having struck four sixes in as many balls in Kolkata, he’s managed 11 more in 301.
• It is technically an away fixture for England although, in keeping with recent Test tours of the Caribbean, the visiting support is likely to be vast. Of a ground capacity of 13,000, some 7,000-8,000 tickets have been sold to England supporters.

Quotes

“I know the media will bill the series as Carlos Brathwaite v Ben Stokes, but it’s West Indies v England.”
“We do have one eye on the Champions Trophy, getting a reasonable squad together before then and one idea of nailing down our team.”

Former left-arm spinners Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar will receive the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award this season. Starting this year, the BCCI has also decided to institute the Lifetime Achievement Award for Women with India’s first Test captain Shanta Rangaswamy being the inaugural recipient of the honour. The trio would each get a cash prize of INR 25 lakhs too.

The unheralded four

Goel and Shivalkar are two of only four non-Test players, the others being wicketkeeper Bhausaheb Nimbalkar and journalist KN Prabhu, to receive the BCCI’s lifetime achievement award. Here is the full list
1994 – Lala Amarnath
1995 – Mushtaq Ali
1996 – Vijay Hazare
1997 – KN Prabhu
1998 – Polly Umrigar
1999 – Hemu Adhikari
2000 – Subhash Gupte
2001 – MAK Pataudi
2002 – Bhausaheb Nimbalkar
2003 – Chandu Borde
2004 – Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkatraghavan, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar
2007 – Nari Contractor
2008 – Gundappa Viswanath
2009 – Mohinder Amarnath
2010 – Salim Durani
2011 – Ajit Wadekar
2012 – Sunil Gavaskar
2013 – Kapil Dev
2014 – Dilip Vengsarkar
2015 – Syed Kirmani

The winners were chosen by a three-person jury comprising the pair of Ramachandra Guha and Diana Edulji (both of them sit on the Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators that presently supervises the BCCI) along with senior journalist N Ram. Former India and Tamil Nadu legspinner VV Kumar and the late Ramakant Desai, former India and Bombay fast bowler, will have been named as recipients of a Special Award for their yeoman services to Indian cricket. This award also carries a cash prize of INR 15 lakhs each.Both Goel, who played for Haryana and Delhi, and Shivalkar, who represented Bombay, never played for India. Still, their legend is well-known in Indian cricket history. In the mid-1960s, when Bishan Singh Bedi was making his mark, the question that was asked was, “is he as good as Goel?” Ironically, one reason Goel never played for India was because Bedi had cemented his position in the Indian team. The closest Goel came to play for India was in the unofficial Test against Ceylon in 1964-65.In 1985, Goel retired aged 43. He had 637 wickets in the Ranji Trophy, a record that stands to date, going past VV Kumar’s tally. He had an incredible 53 five-fors and 17 ten-wicket match hauls. Overall, Goel played 157 matches and got 750 wickets.Another young man who was denied an India berth as his career clashed with that of Bedi was Shivalkar. A product of the famous Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Shivalkar’s accuracy to land the ball repeatedly on the same spot and then spin it viciously made him unique. He made his Ranji debut at 22 and retired when he was 48. During that time, Shivalkar finished with an aggregate of 589 first-class wickets at an average of 19.69 in 124 matches, between the 1961-62 and 1987-88 seasons. Shivalkar’s 361 Ranji wickets came for Bombay, most by any bowler. He had 11 ten-wicket hauls (joint-second).Rubbing shoulders with the greats: Rajinder Goel (left) with MAK Pataudi•Rajinder Goel

While recognizing their efforts, the awards committee praised Goel and Shivalkar saying: “The two left-arm spinners traumatized the batsmen picking wickets in a heap.”Rangaswamy, who is 63, played 16 Tests for India out of which she led in 12 matches. In her own words, Rangaswamy was a batting allrounder. She shared the new ball and was a hard-hitting, middle-order batsman. There were many other notable firsts attached to her name: she scored the first Test century, hit the first six and led India to their first series victory (against West Indies in 1976). Rangaswamy, who was the chairman of the selectors till 2016, had also won the Arjuna Award in 1976.Rangaswamy was thrilled to receive the BCCI honour, and felt it was a reward to the collective brilliance of the “pioneers” of Indian women’s cricket. “It is more a recognition of the services rendered to the game of Indian women’s cricket by the pioneers, those founding mothers if I can use the word. Because had we done badly in the initial stages the game would have just withered away. We did well. We could rub shoulders with international teams and that ensured the longevity of the game. And that I feel is the single-most significant contribution of all of us. With pride I can say – yes, we did it.”

Lasith Malinga will be unavailable for the forthcoming T20 and ODI series in South Africa after a bout of dengue forced a setback in his return from injury, Malinga’s management team has confirmed.A bone bruise in his left knee had forced Malinga to withdraw from the World T20 and the IPL last year, and though he had returned to training as early as September, he had been increasing his workload in careful increments in order to regain match fitness without aggravating the injury.His illness prior to Christmas had prompted him to slow the increase in intensity of his training, however, and Malinga will now only attempt to return in time for the three-match T20 series against Australia, scheduled to begin on February 17.Malinga has played only one international match since November 2015, with multiple leg injuries having caused him substantial problems since at least the middle of 2014.In his absence, Sri Lanka will have to pick their frontline seamers from a pace battery that includes Nuwan Kulasekara, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Gamage.The first of the three T20s is scheduled for January 20; the first of the five ODIs for January 28.

ScorecardFile photo – Rob Nicol nearly took his side to victory with an innings of 68•Getty Images

Wellington staved off a challenge from Auckland captain Rob Nicol to defend their total of 182 by two runs off the last ball of the Super Smash match in Auckland.Asked to bowl the last over, with Auckland needing 11 runs, Jeetan Patel dismissed Nicol for 68 off the second ball. The pair of SM Solia and Ben Horne brought the equation down to four off the last ball before Solia’s reverse sweep trickled down the ground to a fielder for two runs.Nicol, along with Hong Kong international Mark Chapman, had put Auckland back on track in the chase of 183 from a position of 52 for 3 in the eighth over. Both openers were dismissed in the first two overs for single figures while Jeet Raval scored 26 off 19 balls before falling to Patel. The fourth-wicket stand between Nicol and Chapman yielded 89 runs, after which Nicol and Solia shared a brisk partnership of 43 to bring Auckland closer. Nicol brought up his fifty with a flat six off 43 balls and his innings of 68 came off 52 deliveries, which included six fours.Earlier, fifties from wicketkeeper Tom Blundell and Michael Pollard held up Wellington’s innings. The pair scored a total of 135 runs in Wellington’s 182 even as only one other batsman got into double-figures. The fifth-wicket partnership between Blundell and Pollard – 116 off 61 deliveries – took Wellington past 150 after they had been struggling at 41 for 4 in the seventh over, with Nicol taking two of those wickets. Blundell scored 61 off 41 but Pollard was brutal, smacking eight sixes and two fours in a 36-ball 74.