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Knights handed Cape Cobras a 148-run drubbing after Rudi Second’s sixth List A century set up Knights’ bonus-point victory in Cape Town, a result that helped them remain in contention for the title. It was the Knights’ biggest win in tournament history.Coming off the back of a last-over defeat in the previous game, Knights were dealt the early loss of opener Diego Rosier (16), after being put in to bat. Second, the Knights wicketkeeper, anchored the innings thereon with a 128-ball 104, hitting including eight fours. He was ably supported by Tumelo Bodibe who struck a career-best 93 off 107 balls – studded with eleven fours – and shared a 183-run stand for the second wicket with Second.While the partnership took Knights’ past 200 in 37 overs, it was David Miller’s quickfire 58 that helped Knights amass 300 in 50 overs. Miller, batting at No. 4, hammered six fours and two sixes in his 37-ball knock, and put on 75 off 52 balls with Second for the third wicket before falling to Rory Kleinveldt, who claimed the best returns (3-41) for Cobras.In reply, Knights medium-pacer Shadley van Schalkwyk’s double-strike in the third over set the Cobras back. Dillon du Preez then removed Andrea Agathangelou (24) and Zubayr Hamza (2) as regular wickets had the Cobras reeling at 40 for 5 in the 12th over.Dayyaan Galiem top-scored with 41, and put on 43 runs for the sixth wicket with Aviwe Mgijima (19). Rosier (3-29) then chipped away at the tail with his legspin to help Knights skittle Cobras out for 152 in 32 overs.Farhaan Behardien top-scored for Titans with a 50-ball 45•Gallo Images

Titans beat table-toppers Dolphins by 33 runs in a rain-curtailed contest in Durban to move to within one point of the top spot. Defending 205 from 40 overs, Titans removed the Dolphins openers inside the first three overs, before rain reduced the game further. Just 16 runs, and six overs, were knocked off the revised D/L calculations. Handy cameos from Sarel Erwee (38) and Khaya Zondo (41) kept Dolphins in the hunt, but regular wickets effectively killed the game. Left-arm spinner Shaun von Berg finished with figures of 4 for 40, while medium-pacer Junior Dala took 3 for 26.That Titans had 205 to defend was down to a 71-run, fifth-wicket stand between Farhaan Behardien (45) and Albie Morkel (38), after they were reduced to 73 for 4 in the 21st over. David Wiese provided the required impetus towards the end with a 25-ball 37 that included three fours and two sixes. All five Dolphins bowlers picked up at least one wicket each.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChris Woakes and Joe Root saw England home with an unbroken 102-run stand•Getty Images

England’s limited-overs resurgence may have been built upon aggressive batting but it was, for the second game in succession, their calm under pressure that led them to victory in Antigua.With their side reeling against a familiar foe – spin bowling – at 124 for 6 and having just lost 4 for 16, Joe Root and Chris Woakes produced an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 102 to take England to a four-wicket victory with 10 deliveries remaining. It means England have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, with only Thursday’s game in Barbados to come.This was a far from straightforward win, though. On a two-paced, slow surface that rendered it difficult to time the ball, the batsmen of both sides struggled to dominate.And, had one of the edges offered by Root (on 0 and 51) gone to hand or Rovman Powell and Jason Holder been able to cling on to relatively straightforward chances offered by Woakes on 42 and 58, things might have been different. But Root’s first edge landed just in front of first slip and his second bisected slip and the keeper, and West Indies sorely missed their premier fast bowler, Shannon Gabriel, who was forced off the pitch with a side strain after three overs of his spell.Jason Roy also enjoyed a moment of fortune. He survived a strong appeal for caught behind off Holder before he had scored. And though replays suggested a possible deviation of the ball and there was a sound on the stump microphone, the TV umpire concluded reasonably enough that he did not have enough evidence to overturn the on-field umpire’s not-out decision. Had the host board or host broadcaster been able to come to a deal over the use of ultra-edge – understood to have been priced at £8,000 for this series – there might well have been a different result.Gabriel’s absence allowed Root and Woakes to play out the spinners, rotate the stroke and pick off the runs. The run-rate never rose close to five-an-over and, with Carlos Brathwaite unable to sustain the pressure of the senior bowlers, England simply had to wait for his return and the relatively easy runs that followed. Crucially, while Ashley Nurse and Devendra Bishoo claimed five wickets for 77 from their 20 overs combined, Brathwaite conceded 38 runs in four wicketless overs.It was only Woakes’ second List A 50 for England, with the first (an unbeaten innings of 95) coming in the dramatic tie against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge last year. He might not be the most pleasing or powerful allrounder in this side, but he has a wonderfully equable temperament and perhaps only Root has a better technique with the bat. His six off Carlos Brathwaite, driven over long-off, was one of the shots of the day.Root, playing within himself, hit only three boundaries. But this was exactly the sort of mature contribution that his captain had provided in the first ODI and, in its way, a masterful demonstration of how to control a limited-overs chase.All of which probably makes it sound like an exciting game. And it is true, it rose to a climax of sorts. But just as a rock fall might be dramatic, it doesn’t make the thousands of years of erosion that lead to it great entertainment. This match was not played on a surface that encouraged attractive or, for long periods, entertaining cricket.It may be widely presumed in these parts that hosting England is something close to a licence to print money. And it is true that somewhere approaching 8,000 travelling supporters made up the bulk of the crowd. But if Antigua continues to greet them with tired hotels, roads that make even the shortest journey laborious and wretched pitches that produce stultifying cricket, they may find they spend their money – and their holiday allowance – elsewhere. Nobody wants the homogenisation of pitches but, with the game fighting for its place among other leisure pursuits, we have to provide better entertainment than this to appeal to an audience beyond the die-hard cricket fan.Still, England can’t hide behind that as an excuse for their middle-order fragility. Instead they will accept that the accuracy and variations of the offspinner Nurse and the turn offered by the legspinner Bishoo illustrated flaws that never linger too far from the surface of English cricket: a weakness against spin bowling.Roy ensured a bright start for England with a fluent half-century but it was his dismissal, caught at long-on, that precipitated a collapse that saw England lose five wickets for 37 runs in 10 overs. Morgan was bowled by one that appeared to skid on with the arm, before Jos Buttler edged a late cut – a poor choice of shot with a slip in place – and Moeen Ali was punished for playing back to one that drifted in, pitched and turned to hit the top of off stump. It was fine bowling by Nurse, who didn’t concede a boundary in his 10 overs, in particular. He has looked the best spinner on either side in this series.But with the specialist spinners bowled out, Holder had no choice but to turn to Carlos Brathwaite and his part-time spinners. Brathwaite’s first over back conceded 10, including that six from Woakes, and the pressure eased never to return.West Indies’ batting was inadequate, though. While Kraigg Brathwaite and Jason Mohammed were able to add 72 for the fourth wicket, West Indies’ power hitters failed once more as England’s seamers varied their pace cunningly on a surface offering them enough assistance to render length bowling a reasonable tactic. West Indies were bowled out with 13 deliveries of their allocation unused and mustered only 15 fours in their entire innings.While Root and Woakes attempted, for the most part, to keep the ball on the ground, five of West Indies’ batsmen fell to catches lofted up to the cordon as a result of mis-timed strokes. Liam Plunkett, varying his pace cleverly, added three wickets to the four he took in the first ODI, while Steven Finn became the tenth England bowler to claim 100 ODI wickets. He is also the third quickest in terms of games (he has played 67 ODIs) behind Darren Gough and Stuart Broad, who both achieved the milestone in 62 ODIs.

Australia batsman Nic Maddinson, who missed New South Wales’ clash against Victoria last week, will miss the game against Queensland too, starting February 10, because of “personal reasons”.”Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW advises that Australian and NSW batsman Nic Maddinson will not be available for selection due to personal reasons, until further notice,” CA and CNSW said in a joint statement.In the absence of Maddinson, 18-year-old offspinner Arjun Nair, who made his Shield debut against South Australia in Coffs Harbour last year, has been added to the squad for cover.Maddinson made his Test debut against South Africa in the day-night game in Adelaide, where he fell for a duck. He then made modest scores of 1,4,22, in his next three innings against Pakistan, before being dropped for the third Test against Pakistan at the SCG.”At the end of the day I’ve had my chance and I couldn’t grab it,” Maddinson said last week. “I actually haven’t even thought about playing Test cricket again since.”After being left out of the Test squad, Maddinson linked up with Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League. He scored 75 runs in seven innings.

Ajay Shirke, who was removed as BCCI secretary by the Supreme Court of India, had expressed “concerns” to ECB president Giles Clarke over the BCCI’s ability to host the limited-overs series against England, despite no longer holding office in the Indian board. That was the claim made by Clarke in an email to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, in an email seen by ESPNcricinfo.On January 6, four days after the court ordered Shirke and BCCI president Anurag Thakur to give up their posts with immediate effect, Clarke wrote to Johri about a conversation he had with Shirke. In the email Clarke did not indicate when he received the calls from Shirke, but he refers to him as not being secretary any longer. Both Clarke and Shirke, when contacted, chose not to comment on any communication.Johri, in reply, has offered the ECB assurances of the limited-overs series against India going ahead as planned.”I have received calls from Mr Shirke who I understand is no longer the Honorary Secretary of BCCI,” Clarke wrote. “Can you please confirm to me that the England team will continue to be looked after by the BCCI in the usual fashion, with proper security, player daily allowance payments, hotel bills covered and the like, with transport organised at all times.”Obviously it is entirely a matter for BCCI where matches are played, but please advise soonest that the schedule will be adhered to, or any changes.”Johri replied the same day and assured the ECB that the series would go ahead as planned and that the England squad had “arrived and settled well”.”The BCCI has announced the teams for the warm-up matches, the ODIs and the T20 matches, the ticket sales for which have kicked off with the first game sold out, as of last week,” Johri wrote.The venue of the first ODI between India and England on January 15 is incidentally Pune, where Shirke was president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) for more than nine years. Apart from losing his post as BCCI secretary, Shirke was also unable to continue as MCA president after the court order on January 2 because his term had exceeded the Lodha Committee’s nine-year cap on tenure for BCCI and state office bearers.MCA officials confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that tickets had been sold out nearly three weeks before the match.Johri also told Clarke that the remaining five venues had confirmed hosting the matches. His email stated the BCCI was in control of the situation and that he would oversee the process.”The other venues have shown similar uptake in anticipation of an exciting contest between our teams. As you must have followed, the Supreme Court has delivered their verdict early this week, and we are expected to work with the court-appointed administrators, who will be appointed by the 19th of this month and till such time, we are making every effort to ensure that the matches live up to the expectations of all our stakeholders, including ECB.”We have been in touch with all the hosting centres and they have expressed confidence that the games will be managed successfully, just like always, and as on date, we do not anticipate any form of disruption to the series. Rest assured, I will personally monitor the series as it unfolds and will keep you posted on the progress.”In another email on January 7, Johri asked Clarke to divulge what Shirke had “communicated” in his “calls” in order for BCCI to “assuage any other concerns” the ECB may have.Clarke replied: “His concern was the BCCI and relevant association having funds and expertise to manage security and safety of our players, and transport, allowances, all usual issues for a tour.”In the email chain, ECB chairman Colin Graves also acknowledged Johri’s assurances.Clarke declined to comment on the exchange when contacted. “I am not going to make any comment,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I don’t even know what this is.”Shirke would not confirm whether he had made the call to Clarke and did not comment on the email exchange either. “I have no comments to offer,” he told ESPNcricinfo. Shirke said that people with “obvious malicious and vested” interests were trying to suggest that he was trying to scupper the Pune ODI.”I have got messages from some people in the media that we are obstructing the match [from taking place],” he said. “This is a record opportunity for MCA: my gate collection is INR 6.2 crore and my in-stadia sales is INR 2.2 [crore]. So we have got a total collection of about INR 8.5 crore.”With regard to funds for the associations hosting the matches, on December 7 the court had approved a maximum of INR 25 lakh for each state hosting the three ODIs and three T20Is. The court had rejected the BCCI’s request to release INR 3.79 crore as advance for the limited-overs series.On January 7, Shirke along with other longstanding office bearers of the BCCI and state associations who were removed by the court order on January 2, had an informal meeting in Bangalore to discuss their next step. That meeting had been called by former BCCI president N Srinivasan and included about 24 state associations.The Lodha Committee was formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for some of the officials involved in the 2013 IPL corruption scandal, and also to propose changes to streamline the BCCI, reform its functioning, prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.In January 2016, the committee released its report, which recommended an exhaustive overhaul of the BCCI’s governance and administrative structures. On July 18, the Supreme Court of India approved the majority of the recommendations and directed the Lodha Committee to supervise the BCCI’s implementations of the same. However, despite the Lodha Committee laying out timelines and other directives, the board did not cooperate because it said that its state associations objected to the recommendations. This impasse eventually led to the Supreme Court removing Thakur and Shirke from office on January 2, 2017.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShahid Afridi celebrates with the game’s highest scorer Mohammad Shahzad after taking a wicket•BCB

Six Rangpur Riders bowlers were among the wickets as they strangled Barisal Bulls’ batting to win by 29 runs in Mirpur. Notching up their first win in four matches, Rangpur moved to third while Barisal ended their season in last place.Defending 154, Rangpur’s bowlers never let Barisal settle. Sohag Gazi struck in the first over, removing Rayad Emrit, who had been promoted to open the innings, and dismissing Mushfiqur Rahim in his next over, before Naeem Islam sent back a dangerous-looking Jeevan Mendis, whose five-ball stay included two sixes.Fazle Mahmud added 39 with the opener Dawid Malan before he was dismissed on 21 by Shahid Afridi’s third ball of the match, leaving Barisal 68 for 4. Four balls later, Malan fell for 30 to Anwar Ali with the team’s score unchanged. Rangpur had sent back half of Barisal’s batting within their first ten overs. Thisara Perera looked to hit out, and struck two sixes as he attempted to chase down a now improbable target before Afridi had him caught by Naeem Islam for a 17-ball 24.Liam Dawson then had Shahriar Nafees top-edging to short third-man before pinning Taijul Islam plumb in front with a yorker to finish with figures of 2 for 11. Rubel Hossain, wicketless till then, ended the match with successive, inch-perfect yorkers – the second one a slower version of the first – to rattle the stumps of Monir Hossain and Kamrul Islam Rabbi.In the first innings, Rangpur’s 154 could best be described as a patchy performance. Opener Mohammad Shahzad scored a 40-ball 48 and added 76 for the second wicket with Mohammad Mithun after Soumya Sarkar fell for 17. Shahzad’s innings, which contained four fours and one six, ended in the fifteenth over after he missed a full ball from Emrit that struck him flush on the pad.The 63-ball partnership ended with the team 105 for 2, bringing Afridi to the crease. He played a typical three-ball innings: taking a single, hitting a six – a short ball dispatched straight over the bowler – and holing out to mid-off, off Kamrul. The pacer was expensive – although he took two crucial wickets – going at an economy rate of 9.75 in his four overs.Just as Rangpur seemed set to post a really big total, Mithun, who made a controlled 41-ball 38 attempted a lofted shot off Perera but failed to connect cleanly, only managing to hit it as far as deep midwicket. Perera then removed Anwar Ali as well, before Ziaur Rahman and Dawson added 16 in the last over – including a last-ball six – to take Rangpur to 154.Rangpur Riders have their future in their own hands. A win in their last match against Comilla Victorians assures them of a semi-final spot, while a loss will leave them waiting anxiously on other results to know their fate.

ScorecardFile photo – Stafanie Taylor shared a 61-run opening partnership with Hayley Matthews, who scored a 22-ball 47•AFP

West Indies Women completed a 3-0 sweep of the T20I series against India by comfortably defending 139 in Vijayawada.The hosts, chasing 140, lost opener VR Vanitha for 0 to a run-out by Stafanie Taylor. Smriti Mandhana and opener S Meghna were also dismissed in the Powerplay, reducing India to 32 for 3 at one stage. Veda Krishnamurthy and Harmanpreet Kaur then batted together till the end of the match, adding 92 runs for the fourth wicket.Krishnamurthy struggled to keep the asking rate even as Kaur managed a 100-plus strike rate, the only batsman to do so in the innings. Krishnamurthy failed to hit a boundary in her 40-ball 31, while Kaur struck three fours and three sixes in her 51-ball 60. India fell 15 runs short with seven wickets still in hand.After West Indies opted to bat first, they were given a strong start with openers Hayley Matthews and Taylor adding 61 for the first wicket in 6.4 overs. Matthews did the bulk of the scoring – her 22-ball 47 included seven fours and one six – before Poonam Yadav had her caught behind. Taylor anchored the rest of the innings and finished not out on 44. She added useful partnerships with Kycia Knight (16) and Britney Cooper (11).

Vidarbha slumped to their fifth-lowest score in Ranji Trophy history as Maharashtra bowled them out for 59 runs in Kolkata, on the back of Anupam Sanklecha’s career-best figures of 7 for 25.Shalabh Shrivastava top scored with 19, but with no other batsman reaching double figures. Sanklecha cleaned up the tail as they lost their last five wickets in the space of eight runs. In response, Maharashtra’s Naushad Shaikh scored his second-consecutive ton. He remained unbeaten on 111 with Ankit Bawne (75) as Maharashtra finished on 240 for 3, with the partnership worth 181.In Agartala, Prerak Mankad’s 137-ball 96 helped Saurashtra post 277 against Jharkhand. Asked to bat, Saurashtra fell from 11 for 0 to 38 for 4, before the captain Jaydev Shah (51) and Mankad put together 62 runs to take them to 100, following which Jaydev was bowled by Samar Quadri. Mankad reached his second fifty in his second first-class match before falling short of a maiden century when Ashish Kumar dismissed him four shy of triple figures. A 40-run last wicket partnership between Vandit Jivrajani and Kushang Patel took them to 277. Kumar and Shahbaz Nadeem were the pick of the Jharkhand bowlers picking up four and three wickets each, respectively. In the 9 overs Jharkhand batted, openers Anand Singh and Pratyush Singh scored 29 runs by stumps, trailing by 248.Three half-centuries from Karnataka’s batsmen powered them to 345 for 6 at stumps against Rajasthan in Vizianagaram. Choosing to bat, openers Ravikumar Samarth and KL Rahul scored 111 runs before Rahul, returning to first-class cricket to prove his match fitness ahead of the third England Test, was dismissed on 76 by left-arm pacer TM Ul-Haq. Mayank Agarwal, who has just one fifty-plus score this season, stitched together a 68-run stand with Stuart Binny. He made 81 and was dismissed with Karnataka on 283 for 5. The lower middle order then conjured up a fight to take them close to 350.Assam scored 224 for 5, on the back of a 131-run partnership for the fifth wicket, against Odisha in Hyderabad.After losing their first three wickets for 37 runs, Sibsankar Roy laboured to a 142-ball 37, before being dismissed after adding 60 runs for the fourth wicket. Kunal Saikia and Arun Karthik then batted till second-last over of the day, adding 131 before the latter was dismissed by Basant Mohanty on 62. Saikia finished not out on 88 – his highest first-class score – with Arup Das (0) as play ended on day 1. Mohanty and Suryakant Prasad finished with two wickets each for Odisha.

Fans in Bulawayo have been asked to join a peaceful protest during the second Test between Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Bulawayo as part of the #thisflag demonstrations that have been held throughout the country in recent weeks. The movement, started by Pastor Evans Mawarire, encourages Zimbabweans to take ownership of their flag, and by implication their country, through mass action.In a video posted on YouTube, Mawarire instructed supporters to stand at the start of the 36th over on day one – to coincide with the country’s 36th year of independence – and sing the national anthem in the hope of attracting global media attention to the cause.Mawarire’s statement references the protests by Henry Olonga and Andy Flower in 2003 and says it wants to honour them for starting that first protest. It calls on spectators to go to the ground on Saturday with their flags and, at the start of the 36th over, stand up and sing the national anthem. The 36 refers to the years since Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe came to power.Mawarire is currently in South Africa, where he has been since he was released on bail after being arrested for leading last month’s stay-aways. On July 6 and again on July 13 and 14, Zimbabweans did not go to work for peaceful protests. Following that, there have been several clashes between protestors and police as well as further demonstrations, mostly in Harare. Bulawayo, where both Tests against New Zealand are being played, has remained largely unaffected.Should the action go ahead, this will be another instance that cricket would be used to send a political message in Zimbabwe. The black armband protests by Olonga and Flower to mark what they called the death of democracy resulted in both men leaving the country and marked the end of their playing careers.Since then, Zimbabwean cricket itself has been fairly politicised with events such as the white-player walkout and moves to aggressively transform the national team, aligning it closer to the state. However, interest in cricket has waned as poor results and the economic downturn caused self-imposed exile from Test cricket and fewer fixtures than any other ICC Full Member. Still, cricket remains one of Zimbabweans’ few connections to the outside world and is being used for political aims again, even though coverage of the current series is scant.Television apart, the series has not received a high level of coverage within the local newspapers, often finding itself relegated below football, there are no traveling New Zealand writers and only two other journalists from outside Zimbabwe.Attendance could also be an issue. The first match saw a crowd of a few hundred throughout the game, of which a large percentage was school children being bussed in. With school holidays commencing on Friday, that is unlikely to be the case for the second Test. However, crowd numbers are likely to be bolstered by the weekend start and the fact that four of the five match days take place over a long weekend. Monday is Heroes’ Day and Tuesday National Armed Forces Day.A police presence is also expected at the second Test, as was the case in the first, with no indication of whether the numbers will be greater than before.

SL squad for Australia Tests

Angelo Mathews (capt), Dinesh Chandimal (vice-capt), Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Janith Perera, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Roshen Silva, Nuwan Pradeep, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Suranga Lakmal

Fast bowlers Vishwa Fernando and Asitha Fernando, and left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan have been flown in from Sri Lanka A’s tour of England to the national squad for the first Test against Australia.With so many frontline Test bowlers currently unavailable due to injury, Sri Lanka’s selectors have been forced to look to the next tier of players for replacements. The three bowlers – all of whom are uncapped – have been in form in recent months, either for the A team, or in domestic cricket.Also flown in from England is batsman Roshen Silva, whose consistency has long made him a Test prospect. Dhananjaya de Silva, who has made ODI and T20 international debuts, and had been in the national team’s Test squad to England, has also been named. There is no place, however, for allrounder Milinda Siriwardana, despite him having made an encouraging start to his Test career so far.At 18, Asitha Fernando is by a distance the youngest member of the squad, and has only played two first-class matches so far – both of them against Pakistan A, in England. He took eight wickets at an average of 23 in those matches, and had bowled Sri Lanka A to a tight victory in the first game, in Leicester, taking 5 for 33 in the final innings of that game. He was also a part of Sri Lanka’s side for the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year.Left-armer Vishwa Fernando, 24, had been in Sri Lanka’s Test squads to the UAE and Bangladesh in 2014, but had largely been overlooked since then. He now returns having taken a five-wicket haul in the first-class match against Durham in late June, before taking seven wickets across two games against Pakistan A.Sandakan, 25, took five wickets in a List A match against Derbyshire earlier this month, and has also been one of domestic cricket’s most consistent wicket-takers over the past three years. He was the most successful bowler in the 2015-16 Premier League Tournament, claiming 52 scalps at an average of 23.19 for Colombo Cricket Club. He had also topped the wicket-taking charts in 2014 – the same year he made it to a Sri Lanka one-day squad, though he did not play a game.Roshen Silva, 27, had also been impressive in the first-class tournament, hitting 678 runs at 56.5, but his selection has been spurred by his recent scores for Sri Lanka A. He recently hit a century and an unbeaten 43 in a first-class match against Durham, and followed it up with scores of 48, 17, 57 and 40 in the first-class games against Pakistan A.Siriwardana’s half century in the first-innings of the Australians’ practice match in Colombo was not enough to see him retain a place in the Test squad. He had been particularly impressive with the bat in New Zealand, and has taken 11 Test wickets at 23.36 – even winning the man-of-the-match award in his second Test – and yet has dropped out of favour with the selectors.Siriwardana’s absence, as well as the omissions of Lahiru Thirimanne and Dasun Shanaka, means one of Roshen Silva or Dhananjaya de Silva looks likely to debut in Pallekele. Elsewhere, the same top order that played in the Lord’s Test is likely to take the field again.Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal provide some leadership to the fast-bowling battery, in the absence of Dhammika Prasad, Dushmantha Chameera and the suspended Shaminda Eranga. Rangana Herath is likely to be the first-choice spinner, and Sandakan will have to edge offspinner Dilruwan Perera out of contention if he is to debut in Pallekele.With both Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Perera in the squad, and probably in the XI, Sri Lanka have to make a choice as to who will keep wickets.

File photo – Ish Sodhi finished with match figures of 6 for 52 as the New Zealanders put in a strong bowling performance•AFP

The New Zealanders allayed coach Mike Hesson’s fear that taking 20 wickets in Zimbabwean conditions would be tough as they bowled the A side out twice in two days to claim a resounding 259-run win in the three-day warm-up match. Not only did the New Zealanders’ attack manage to run through their opposition, but they also ensured they were not bowled out in either innings to sound a warning about the difficulties the hosts may face in the two-Tests series.After running through Zimbabwe A on the second day, the New Zealanders resumed their innings on 154 for 4 on the third morning. Captain Kane Williamson had his first outing with the side after joining them from a county stint and added 12 runs to his overnight score of 37 before retiring without reaching a milestone. Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell were give some time in the middle as the New Zealanders let their lower order face some bowling. After 11.5 overs of batting in the morning session they declared, setting Zimbabwe A an improbable 433 for victory.Zimbabwe A had a better start than in their first innings, in which they had slipped to 0 for 3, but they still had early stumbles. Nkosana Mpofu managed just 6 before becoming the first victim. Vusi Sibanda, who opened in place of his injured captain Tino Mawoyo, scored 37 but it was up to the Test middle order to resist for as long as possible. Sean Williams added to his first-innings fifty with 46, while Regis Chakabva contributed 48, but once they were dismissed Zimbabwe A fell away rapidly.Southee, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and Neil Wagner all finished with two wickets each, and a member of New Zealand’s support staff was on the field to grab a catch, as only one of Zimbabwe A’s bottom six batsmen got into double figures.Zimbabwe A’s worries are not limited to their poor showing, but extend to personnel as well. Opening batsman Mawoyo had to retire hurt on the second day, having faced just four balls, after being hit on the hand by Southee. Mawoyo did not bat in the second innings, which could put his participation in the Tests in doubt. Sibanda, who was dropped from the Test squad, may be in line for an emergency recall.