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Ashley Giles, the England one-day coach, has vehemently denied accusations made by the Bob Willis that England have been tampering with the ball during the Champions Trophy.Willis, a former England captain and one of their most prolific fast bowlers, claimed on Sky Sports that there was no other reason for the umpires to change the ball part-way through Sri Lanka’s run chase at The Oval on Friday.”Let’s not beat about the bush – Aleem Dar is on England’s case,” Willis said. “He knows that one individual is scratching the ball for England – who I am not going to name – and that’s why the ball was changed.”Giles launched a strong denial ahead of England’s crucial final group match against New Zealand, which England must win to be certain of their progression in the tournament.”We don’t tamper with the ball and I hope we can talk about something else,” he said. “It is disappointing because we have a huge game, a quarter-final must-win, and there are a lot of headlines about the wrong stuff.”With the situation the other day, the ball was changed because it had gone out of shape. We asked the question, the captain asked that question to the umpires which he has a right to. The ball was changed, the rest is history.”I guess we always take allegations seriously. People have the right to say what they say, we can’t stop them. It sounds boring, but we have to focus on what we want to do. The most important thing is winning cricket matches and not what Bob Willis says.”Willis questioned the official line – universally repeated by ICC, ECB, umpires, match officials and the England captain, Alastair Cook – that the ball had been changed because it was misshapen.”Have you ever heard of the batting side complaining about the shape of the ball, or the umpires saying ‘we’re going to change the ball because it’s out of shape’?” he asked.”The bowling side change the ball because it’s out of shape because they think it’s gone soft. That’s the reason, pure and simple. How naive does Alastair Cook think we are? The ball was changed because it was out of shape? He didn’t want the ball changed, so why was it changed?”Cook has been England’s preferred ball hander during Tests. Because he sweats so little, his hands remain relatively dry and maintaining the dryness of the ball is a crucial component in getting it to reverse swing.That role has primarily been handed over to Ravi Bopara during the Champions Trophy.Giles complained: “There is even mention of one of our player’s specific roles and that player is an extremely good cricketer and has had an extremely good series so far and we would like to let him concentrate on playing his cricket as best as he can.”He insisted that reverse swing was being achieved by fair means.”The one big thing about this tournament so far, particularly at Edgbaston where we did get reverse swing, is how dry the squares are. That is a mixture of the amount of watering you are allowed to do, the new drainage systems, which saps the moisture out of the squares, and the amount of wickets that have been cut on those squares because there have been practice games and a number of internationals played on those squares.”There are loads of different methods. At Edgbaston we were probably bowling cross-seamers as early as the third or fourth over. From the boundary you go for a throw on the bounce because not everybody can throw it in on the full from 70 metres and that is permitted by the regulations, to bounce it in once.”Alastair Cook was unhappy about the ball being changed•Getty Images

The problem started for England when umpires Dar and Billy Bowden changed one of the two balls in the 26th over of Sri Lanka’s successful run chase at the Oval on Thursday evening.Within minutes, an ICC spokesman officially told ESPNcricinfo that the ball had been changed because it was misshapen.An ECB spokesman later took the same line, saying: “The umpires and match referee cannot talk about specific incidents during a tournament. But our understanding is that the ball was changed because it went out of shape.”England were unhappy as their attack was starting to gain reverse swing, which was key to their opening victory over Australia, with Cook leading the protests.The replacement ball moved little and Kumar Sangakkara went on to complete a superb unbeaten hundred to guide Sri Lanka to victory.After the match, Cook said: “The ball was changed because it was out of shape. The umpires make these decisions and you have to accept them. Sometimes you don’t think they are the right decisions.”Confusion also surrounded whether the officially misshapen ball went through the gauge that is used to check whether a ball is out of shape.One member of England’s management team said that the ball went through the hoop and that explained Cook’s anger, as it was still fit for purpose. But England’s fielding coach, Richard Halsall, claimed the ball did not pass through the device. Neither the ICC not the ECB has provided clarification.Australian umpire Darrell Hair, together with West Indies’ Billy Doctrove, docked Pakistan five runs for ball-tampering during a controversial Test against England in 2006.Pakistan refused to take the field and forfeited the match in protest – the first time this had happened in Test history. They were subsequently exonerated by an ICC investigation and the ensuing row ultimately cost Hair his career as a senior international umpire.However, the match officials in the England-Sri Lanka match took no similar action and the ICC explained that, as the umpires haven’t reported anything and no team has complained, they were not planning to take any action.

ScorecardMiguel Cummins ripped through the Trinidad & Tobago line-up to dismiss them for 110 on the first day of the regional four-day final at Kensington Oval. The Barbados top order built on Cummins’ third five-wicket haul of the tournament to end the day 34 runs in front with eight wickets standing.T&T were in early trouble after Barbados chose to bowl on a grassy surface, Cummins taking four of the first five wickets to have the visitors limping at 19 for 5. He had Adrian Barath and Yannick Cariah caught off successive deliveries in his second over, and sent back Jason Mohammed in his third. At the other end, Kemar Roach accounted for Lendl Simmons.The T&T lower order fought briefly, No 9 Rayad Emrit leading the way with 34 and No 7 Stephen Katwaroo chipping in with 24. Cummins completed his five-for, removing Emrit to end the innings in the 38th over.Kraigg Brathwaite and Rashidi Boucher, with a breezy 46, put on 62 upfront for Barbados and captain Kirk Edwards followed up with 48 before falling late in the day to Simmons. Brathwaite was unbeaten on a patient 49.Cummins’ showing took the 22-year old’s tournament haul to 31 wickets, the most by a fast bowler. “Things have been going great for me this season,” Cummins said. “This is my first full season playing for Barbados at the senior regional level. I had one match last year and it didn’t work out that well, but I was determined and came back and told myself ‘this year would be my year’.”We are going to look to bat the whole day on Friday, but if we have to bowl at all, I’ll be looking to come out bowling as hard again as I did on the first day.”

Geoff Miller, England’s national selector, has given the strongest suggestion yet that there was an element of complacency in the series against New Zealand and that the same mistakes from that tour will not be tolerated when the return series starts at Lord’s next week.In the aftermath of the recent tour, where England only escaped with a 0-0 draw after outstanding innings from Matt Prior and Ian Bell on the final day, the players have been adamant that there was no element of taking the task lightly after the high of winning in India or being lulled by pre-series talk of only needing to turn up to whitewash New Zealand.While Miller, who has not been known for particularly strong public statements during his six years in the main job, did not to use words such as ‘complacent’ or ‘underestimated’ there was a clear indication that a repeat of the performances in New Zealand will have significant ramifications at the beginning of an Ashes year.”It keeps your feet on the ground. It makes you realise you can’t just go into a game and go through the motions and win the game because, on paper, you are supposedly superior. It doesn’t work like that. These boys know they have to perform,” he said after announcing England’s first Test squad of the summer. “It was very disappointing and we talked about that but they are capable of playing far, far better than that – and know that – and hopefully, I’m quietly confident, they’ll show they are a better side.”The selectors have shown faith in the players on duty in New Zealand – Monty Panesar has been dropped, but that is to accommodate Graeme Swann’s return – and continuity, a hallmark of Miller’s tenure, was at the forefront of his mind, as well as avoiding knee-jerk reactions to one disappointing series.”All right, they under-performed there, but they’re capable of playing better than that and you don’t just discard somebody because they have had a bad time as a unit,” he said. “You just say ‘right, not good enough, improve’. That’s exactly the message they have been given.”New Zealand are a good side, they have shown what they are capable of doing. Maybe we were forced to under-perform but we didn’t play to the capabilities they have shown in the past so that has got to be rectified.”If the first part of the year had fitted England’s perfect script, they may have eyed this series as a chance to rest a senior bowler or two but after the significantly below-part display in New Zealand it made it virtually impossible for the selectors to name anything other than a full-strength side for this series, even though opportunities to give players a break are now few and far between.Alongside Swann’s return, Tim Bresnan has also been brought back into the squad following his recovery from the elbow problem that hampered him last year, which means there are two players in the 12 who have recently been on the operating table but Miller insisted there was no risk attached.”They have gone through the process with their counties, showing there was no reaction to it,” he said. “They have both been very, very positive, and there has been nothing at all. The reason for the operations was to get rid of the pain which they were showing and disability as such, which wasn’t allowing them to perform to their best. Now they’re pain free and bowling like they were before they had the problems.”

Worcestershire 123 and 186 for 5 (Samaraweera 71*, Moeen 55) lead Glamorgan 295 by 14 runs
ScorecardGlamorgan go into the final day in Cardiff as favourites to win but half-centuries from Thilan Samaraweera and Moeen Ali ensured Worcestershire would not lose by an innings and by the close they had reached a lead of 14.Glamorgan’s most effective bowler was Will Bragg. His part-time medium pace accounted for Moeen and Alexei Kervezee in the space of four balls either side of tea as he recorded figures of 2 for 7.Glamorgan resumed the third day on 235 for 7, a first-innings lead of 112 with Jim Allenby (71) and Dean Cosker (8). The duo moved the score onto 244 before a light shower forced the players off the field. When they returned Allenby’s 212 minute vigil ended when he edged Gareth Andrew to Daryl Mitchell at second slip. Allenby made 78 from 162 balls.Michael Hogan was dismissed three balls later when a ball from Chris Russell trickled onto his stumps. The last wicket of Cosker and Mike Reed produced some entertainment as they put on 36 before Russell brought the innings to a close when he yorked Reed for 15 with Cosker unbeaten on 44 from 88 balls with five fours. Gareth Andrew was Worcestershire’s best bowler ending with figures of 4 for 79.Glamorgan struck in the first over of the Worcestershire second innings when Graham Wagg bowled Matt Pardoe for 0 shouldering arms before the visitors reached 5 for 1 at lunch, still 167 runs adrift of making Glamorgan bat again.Worcestershire had reached 50 for 1 before Jim Allenby made the breakthrough to remove skipper Daryl Mitchell with Bragg making a fine diving catch at midwicket. Moeen went on to make 55 with nine fours in a stay in the middle of two hours 39 minutes before perishing in the final over before tea. Moeen’s defiance ended when he chopped a ball from Bragg on to his stumps.From 97 for 3 at tea, Worcestershire lost another wicket three balls after the break when Kervezee went for a duck – the second victim of Bragg’s medium pace after he was caught at slip by Allenby. But Samaraweera and Michael Johnson ensured a lead as well as no more scares for Worcestershire, putting on 48 for the sixth wicket by the close.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRavindra Jadeja picked up three wickets on the fifth day to help dismiss Australia for 223•BCCI

Long awaited for India, too little and much too late for Australia. MS Dhoni’s team completed a six-wicket victory in Mohali and regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-0 with a Test to play, but not before the tourists had made India scrap for every run. Sachin Tendulkar’s run-out was engineered purely due to the pressure brought to bear by Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc, before a few bold strikes by Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja settled matters.India’s victory meant they had won three Tests in a series for the first time since Mohammad Azharuddin’s side swept Sri Lanka in as many matches in 1993-94. Australia’s defeat meant they had lost the first three matches of a series for the first time since 1988-89, when Allan Border led his developing side to a 3-1 defeat at home to West Indies, a sobering gap of 25 years.Like the results in Chennai and Hyderabad, India’s win was built on the guile of their spin bowlers and the verve of their top-order batsmen. Shikhar Dhawan was indisposed on day five due to a jarred hand suffered in the field, but his coruscating debut innings defined the match, making Australia’s 408 appear utterly puny. The Indian bowlers contributed evenly, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha sharing the wickets on day five after Bhuvneshwar Kumar had tilted the match decisively towards India by knocking over Australia’s top three on the fourth evening.The most unsettling thing about the tense way in which the match concluded was that this kind of contest had been so absent from the earlier and more critical passages of the series. Australia may take some solace from the fight displayed in the dying hours of the match, but the mere fact they were left scrapping for a draw that would still have lost them the series underlined how far they have fallen on this tour. It cannot be forgotten that this was a third consecutive hiding inside four days, after the first six hours of this match were lost to rain on Thursday.

Smart stats

• India have won three Tests in a series for only the fourth time (first against Australia). Their previous two such series wins came against England (1993) and Sri Lanka (1993-94).

• India have won each of their last six home Tests against Australia. Including their win in the Mumbai Test in 2004, India have won eight and drawn two matches.

• Australia have lost the first three Tests of a series for the first time since the home series against West Indies in 1988-89. They have been whitewashed in a series of three or more matches only twice (South Africa in 1969-70 and Pakistan in 1982-83).

• India have now won their last three Tests against Australia in Mohali. Their only loss at the venue was in 1994 when West Indies won by 243 runs.

• Australia have now lost 13 times after scoring 400-plus in the first innings (batting first). Five of the last six such defeats have come against India.

• Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Michael Clarke for the fifth time in the series. This is only the fourth time that a batsman has been dismissed five times by a particular bowler in an India-Australia series. Among spinners, only Anil Kumble has dismissed Clarke more often (six times).

• Australia’s last-wicket pair added 44 runs in 109 balls. The number of deliveries faced is the fifth-highest for a last-wicket stand for Australia (second-highest against India).

In Dhawan’s absence, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Tendulkar all made the handy scores required to win. At no stage did Australia appear likely to win the match, but equally they made no effort to cynically slow the game down. They face an uncertain team selection for the final match in Delhi due to Michael Clarke’s tender back and the looming return of the vice-captain Shane Watson.For a time it appeared that India’s target would be merely a token amount. Australia slid to 179 for 9 in their second innings, only Phillip Hughes and Brad Haddin offering any kind of prolonged resistance, but Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty then hung around for 18.1 overs and 44 runs. Starc’s innings followed his admirable 99 on day three, while Doherty demonstrated his impressively correct technique for a No. 11. Their efforts put those of many of the batsmen to considerable shame – David Warner and Moises Henriques in particular.Before Starc and Doherty, Hughes and Haddin provided the only token barrier for India’s bowlers. Hughes reached 69 before he was the victim of a questionable lbw shout and Haddin made 30 before he was undone by a perfectly pitched carrom ball from Ashwin, who now has 22 wickets for the series. After the back troubles that curtailed his contribution on day four, Clarke came out to bat at No. 6 but was still visibly restricted by the ailment. His dismissal was notable for a desperately tight call on whether or not Jadeja’s foot had overstepped.In the morning, Hughes and Nathan Lyon had resumed with Australia still 16 runs short of making India bat again, and Lyon was snapped up, edging Ojha behind, before the deficit was wiped off. Clarke walked to the middle after plenty of back treatment but looked not much more limber for the sleepless night, struggling to use his feet and battling visibly to run between the wickets.Having made a swift start to his innings on the fourth evening against pace, Hughes again found himself becalmed against spin. In all he spent 35 balls on 53 before a top-edged sweep reaped a couple of runs, and he struggled noticeably to regain the momentum of the previous day. Nonetheless, Hughes fought hard, and it was his captain who fell next.Most of Clarke’s 18 runs came from leg-side deflections, and his dismissal was to a delivery he attempted to work in that direction, only to nudge a thin edge onto pad and up to short leg. Clarke delayed his exit while the umpires checked on a no-ball, and despite scant evidence Jadeja had landed any of his foot behind the line, the dismissal was rubber stamped.A few minutes later Hughes was following Clarke, given lbw by Aleem Dar to a ball from Ashwin that pitched marginally in line with the stumps but did not straighten enough to be hitting them. It was a poor decision and a rum twist of fortune for Hughes, who had battled so hard after a dire series. Whatever the merits of the call, it now meant Australia’s innings was swiftly deteriorating.Henriques and Siddle did not last long, though the latter at least struck a pair of solid blows before playing down the wrong line at an Ojha delivery that plucked off stump. Starc, Haddin and Doherty were left to attempt a salvage operation, but despite their best efforts far too much damage had been done earlier.1245 GMT, March 18: The several mix-ups between the wickets Ravindra Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha took were corrected.

Ashton Agar will add English experience to his current Indian internship with the Australian Test team after being chosen as one of six AIS scholars to spend the northern summer at Hampshire’s academy.Swiftly gaining a reputation as one of the most promising spin bowlers in Australia, Agar was sent to India as a developmental member of the squad for the early days of the tour, and claimed a wicket in the recently completed warm-up match in Chennai.He is now set to spend more time bowling to Australia’s batsmen in the nets in England during their Champions Trophy and Ashes assignments, while also spending time at Hampshire’s Southampton training facility and playing league cricket.Joining Agar will be the Victorian allrounder Alex Keath, another West Australian spin bowler in Ashton Turner, plus the batsmen Scott Henry (NSW), Travis Head (South Australia) and William Bosisto (WA). The national talent manager Greg Chappell said the Hampshire experience would add greatly to the young players’ poise.”This year’s squad of scholars includes players that were part of the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup squad as well as some new young talent and experienced first-class cricketers,” Chappell said. “It is exciting that six of these young players, largely from our 2012 Under 19 program, will have the opportunity to go over and spend six months in England linking up with the Hampshire Cricket Club.”The players heading to England are talented young cricketers who will benefit greatly from the exposure to the different conditions they will see over there. They will also link up and train with the Australia A side, as well as the ODI team during the ICC Champions Trophy and the Test squad ahead of the Ashes.”Mitchell Marsh, meanwhile, is among the 12 chosen to hone their games in Brisbane. Marsh was kicked out of the Centre of Excellence last year for disciplinary reasons. Joining him will be Pat Cummins, Gurinder Sandhu and Adam Zampa, among others.”The AIS scholars based in Brisbane will be fortunate enough to spend a considerable amount of time during the winter working with the Centre of Excellence staff in specialised training programs,” Chappell said. “The pace bowlers will also get to spend some time with one of Australia’s greatest pace bowlers, Glenn McGrath, at the MRF Pace Foundation in India, while the spinners and batsmen will head to Sri Lanka to experience the different conditions the sub-continent brings.”This is a very exciting program for these young cricketers and is part of CA’s plan to develop and expose the next generation to conditions and challenges they will face when they play on the international stage.”Hampshire Scholars: Alex Keath (Victoria), Ashton Agar (Western Australia), Ashton Turner (WA), Scott Henry (New South Wales), Travis Head (South Australia), William Bosisto (WA)Brisbane Scholars: Adam Zampa (NSW), Billy Stanlake (Queensland), Gurinder Sandhu (NSW), James Muirhead (Victoria), Joel Logan (Northern Territory), Joel Paris (WA), Kurtis Patterson (NSW), Mark Steketee (Qld), Mitchell Marsh (WA), Pat Cummins (NSW), Peter Handscomb (Vic), Sam Whiteman (WA)

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEoin Morgan was intent on righting his reputation after a disappointing one-day tour of India, smashing 46•Getty Images

It was the sort of night that batsmen dream of. The drop-in pitch at Eden Park was hard and true, the straight boundaries were of dimensions more normally associated with the village green, and there was havoc to wreak. England did just that, registering their highest Twenty20 total as one batsman after another played with total freedom.A target of 215 was all too much for New Zealand, even on a warm and bountiful night when batsmen could have hit straight sixes with a stick of rhubarb, if it was stringy enough. They fell 40 runs short to go one down in a three-match series which now moves on to Hamilton on Tuesday.Stuart Broad, England’s captain, looked fit and happy again in his first international outing for two-and-a-half months and, if his best T20 figures of 4 for 24 and the fact that he is now England’s leading T20 wicket-taker will gain most attention, his renewed ability to clock more than 140kph will have brought him equal satisfaction.England’s total not only surpassed their 202 for 6 against South Africa in Johannesburg three years ago, it also equalled the highest score at Eden Park.Australia made 214 for 5 here in the first T20 international in 2005, a rum affair complete with retro clothing and false moustaches and proud, insecure players insisting that they were not taking it very seriously. It is all very different now, the revelry in the crowd combined with a determination by the players to succeed in cricket’s most chaotic, unmanageable format.New Zealand, normally so reliable in the field, handicapped themselves by dropping five catches. The fifth of them, in the penultimate over, would have required a neat lay-off by James Franklin at long-on to a fielding colleague as he ran tight to the boundary – for New Zealand, it was not a night for such achievements.”You can’t afford to drop five catches, especially with the power England have got,” said Brendon McCullum, New Zealand’s captain. “We were badly exposed, we let England hit to the short boundaries a lot and we have to work out some better strategies.”Two catches were spurned by Ross Taylor, of all people, who was acclaimed by a crowd of 24,000 on his return from his self-imposed international exile, but who had a nightmarish return, as if the Gods were inclined to poke more fun at him than an overwhelmingly supportive New Zealand public.He dropped two within four balls and, if the first was difficult as Luke Wright drove Nathan McCullum to cover, his failure to cling onto Michael Lumb’s skier was suitably embarrassing. In the interests of reintegration, Taylor grinned in a who-would-have-believed-it sort of way and received pointed expressions of sympathy from nearby team-mates.England struck 15 sixes in all, only two below the record of 17 sixes conceded by England against South Africa at Centurion three years ago, nine of them hit by Loots Bosman on a night which saw Sajid Mahmood’s T20 international career come to a sticky end. New Zealand managed only seven in reply as England increased the short stuff to force them to hit to the longer, squarer boundaries.Their calculating, aggressive mindset was ingrained from the start. The left-arm spin of Ronnie Hira, introduced for the fourth over, had Alex Hales stumped by Brendon McCullum, but his second over had less to commend it. It disappeared for 21, with Wright and Michael Lumb sharing two sixes and two fours. England completed the six-over Powerplay healthily placed at 62 for 1; the mood was set.The introduction of Andrew Ellis’ medium pace brought even more havoc – 18 runs, sixes for Lumb and Wright, Taylor’s drop at deep midwicket and the dismissal of Wright who planted a length ball straight to deep midwicket. Lumb, starved of the strike, eventually gloved a pull to short fine leg.A stand of 81 in 43 balls between Eoin Morgan (46 off 26) and Jonny Bairstow (38 off 22) was the center-piece of England’s innings. England’s fourth-wicket pair needed a restorative evening like this. Morgan was intent on righting his reputation after a disappointing one-day tour of India and Bairstow was back in the side after compassionate leave because of a family illness. Morgan said he had never batted on a better surface.The worst of New Zealand’s four drops was down to Mitchell McClenaghan – Morgan, on 33, offered a simple opportunity to McClenaghan at backward point, but he never laid a hand of it, blinking as if he had been affected by the reflection of the sun on the stands.England achieved higher standards in the field. New Zealand sensed it would not be their night when Morgan took a brilliant catch, running back from point, to dismiss Brendon McCullum, the batsman most likely to summon a response.That cleared the way for Taylor. He took guard with New Zealand’s task ever more daunting – 161 from 91 balls – and departed to an ugly leg-side smear at Steven Finn.Wright’s 42 from 20 balls had been as destructive as anything England produced with the bat, but for him to return 2 for 29 in four overs as England’s sixth bowler would have given his captain, Broad even more cause for gratitude.Wright had quite a night as England’s sixth bowler, as full of activity as a wound-up clockwork toy. He wound up the crowd when he claimed a return catch off Colin Munro’s boot – a close call worthy of a check with the third umpire – had Martin Guptill, whose 44 from 32 balls represented New Zealand’s best response, caught at mid-off and added Nathan McCullum with his penultimate ball. At one point, he even bowled four successive dot balls to Munro. Now that took some doing.

Should Glenn Maxwell go to India on next month’s tour it will only be as Australia’s third-choice spinner, with Michael Beer heavily favoured to be named the second spinner behind Nathan Lyon, for the four-Test series.Earlier this summer, Maxwell was chosen ahead of Beer as the lone spinner in the Australia A team that faced the South Africans at the SCG, and was later 12th man for the Test on the same ground. But his struggles for wickets against Sri Lanka’s batsmen have made it clear that the Victorian allrounder is still well short of international standard as a bowler.Known for his customary brio in interviews and the dressing room, Maxwell has admitted that so far, the Sri Lankans have had much the better of him. In this his comments recalled Stuart MacGill when he was rendered bereft by India’s batsmen during the 2003-04 summer. Giving away 50.78 runs per wicket during the series, MacGill remarked that it wasn’t so much that the visitors could read what he was bowling, more that they didn’t care.”Their (Sri Lanka’s) feet are a lot crisper, they go forward and back a lot easier and they seem to have a lot better idea on where they can hit and where they can score,” Maxwell said. “They’ve been excellent in the few games I’ve played against them. It’s been tough. I played the Chairman XI’s game [in Canberra] and they played me really well and hit me to wherever they wanted.”I’ve been coming on when they’ve been consolidating their partnership or there wasn’t a whole lot of pressure. The other night they were 30 runs away from winning. Any time when you come on as a spin bowler on a seaming wicket it’s not a good time to come on, especially if we’ve only got 170 on the board and that was the batters’ fault. I’ve got to keep hanging in there.”Six matches into his ODI career, Maxwell remains wicketless, and scores of five and eight in the first two matches against Sri Lanka did not inspire a great deal of confidence with the bat either. Beer meanwhile has been bowling solidly as ever for the Perth Scorchers in the BBL, digging the ball into the pitch and changing his pace in a manner reminiscent of the best method for taking wickets in India.Beer’s summer has not always appeared likely to end with a spot on Australia’s next Test tour. At the start of the summer the national selector John Inverarity indicated that another left-armer, Jon Holland, was the man next in line behind Lyon. Holland was then invalided out of the season with a serious shoulder injury, but Maxwell was preferred for Australia A. Before that match, Inverarity spoke of Beer in measured and not altogether promising tones.”Michael is well regarded and is a good, steady spinner,” Inverarity had said. “We feel that he’s a known quantity, we don’t need to find out a lot more. And he’ll be bowling in the Shield game [for Western Australia v Victoria]. It’s an ideal opportunity for Glenn Maxwell. You’re the spinner, you get on with it, and see how he responds to that.”Now that Maxwell has admitted this spin-bowling business is not easy, Beer’s known quantity will be more reassuring for Inverarity and his panel.

Having graced Sri Lanka’s last Test match visit to Hobart with an unforgettable century on a pitch that retained its good humour throughout, Kumar Sangakkara is hopeful of an altogether different surface when the tourists meet Australia in the first Test at Bellerive Oval on Friday.Sangakkara’s fourth innings rearguard in 2007, against an Australian bowling attack then featuring Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Stuart MacGill alongside Mitchell Johnson, took place on a surface far less capricious than the strip that has furrowed plenty of brows since being relaid before this summer.After the fashion of last season when New Zealand regrouped after a hiding in Brisbane to capitalise on a green seamer with a dramatic victory, Sangakkara reasoned that another “sporting” wicket in Tasmania would be of similar benefit to Sri Lanka. Any lateral movement may be exploited quite handily by the thrifty Nuwan Kulasekara, the slippery Shaminda Eranga and the left-armer Chanaka Welegedara.”We’ve seen some of the games that [Australia] has played. There’s been a bit of nibble about but it’s been sporting to both sides,” Sangakkara said. “Wickets like this make fast bowlers really enthusiastic to play, and it elevates guys who don’t have that much pace. If it stays the same, I think our fast bowlers will have a really good chance against the Aussie batsmen.”While Sangakkara’s hopes may yet be fulfilled, the surface appears to have settled somewhat in recent weeks. It also appeared to be quite friendly to Australia’s players when they inspected it on Tuesday afternoon, and trained local eyes reckon it is flat enough to reap plenty of runs once the extra bite offered by the new ball has been negotiated. The other variable is the weather forecast, with rain and cloud slated to arrive in time for day one.Sri Lanka’s batsmen have some considerable adjusting to do over the next two days, as the wicket they were presented with at Canberra’s Manuka Oval was amenable to centre wicket net practice but almost devoid of the kind of life commonly associated with Australian pitches. Sangakkara admitted the tourists would have liked something a little more lively for their only warm-up fixture: “We probably would have preferred a more sporting wicket for the practice game but that’s the way it goes.”One young batsman seeking to make an impression will be the opener Dimuth Karunaratne, who blazed a rapid, unbeaten 60 on his debut against New Zealand in Galle, rebounding from a first innings duck in the process. Karunaratne was subsequently dropped for the second Test when Tillakaratne Dilshan returned from injury, but Sangakkara said the tour selectors would consider the 24-year-old’s merits against those of Tharanga Paranavitana, who has been only moderately successful in his 32 Tests to date.”There’ a spot up for grabs to open along with Dilshan, and Dimuth would be looking forward to trying to grab that particular spot,” Sangakkara said. “It’s between him and Paranavitana I think. Paranavitana has played 30-odd Tests, Dimuth is pretty fresh and has played just one Test match but he’s shown a lot of intent and good things. I think it will be a tough battle.””I thought Dimuth batted really well in the second innings. We had to get 93 to win in Galle and he knocked it off almost at a run a ball, so that was fantastic to watch. It shows that he has confidence and the ability to bounce back from disappointment.”

The PCB has announced a new format and a new team for its domestic Twenty20 tournament, and created a window for it in the 2012-13 season by indefinitely pushing back the President Trophy final, which was scheduled to begin on December 3. Bahawalpur is the new team in the T20 competition.The Faysal Bank T-20 Cup will begin on December 1 and its final will be on December 9, and it will be held entirely in Lahore. The 14 teams were divided into two groups of seven each and the tournament will comprise 45 matches. The top two teams from each group will contest the semi-finals.Defending champions Sialkot Stallions were pooled in Group A with Lahore Lions, Islamabad Leopards, Karachi Zebras, Abbottabad Falcons, Quetta Bears and Multan Tigers. Group B comprises Karachi Dolphins, Rawalpindi Rams, Faisalabad Wolves, Bahawalpur Stags, Peshawar Panthers, Lahore Eagles and Hyderabad Hawks. Apart from Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore City Cricket Association Ground and the historical Bagh-e-Jinnah Ground will stage the games.The tournament was originally scheduled to be played in Karachi from December 2 to 10. “Karachi was our a definite choice but we have been monitoring the circumstances in Karachi, so in the larger interest of the cricket we have decided to hold the event in Lahore.” Zakir Khan, PCB’s director of domestic cricket operations, said.Last year, Rawalpindi was first given hosting rights but after the local authorities could not complete renovation on the dilapidated stadium in time, the event was shifted to Lahore. In 2010-11, the T20 tournament was shifted from Lahore to Karachi owing to the outbreak of dengue in the Punjab province.