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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNasir Hossain collected three wickets to rattle Chittagong•Raton Gomes/BCB

Dhaka Dynamites bounced back from their defeat on Wednesday, securing a convincing six-wicket win against Chittagong Vikings. In yet another low-scoring encounter, Dhaka’s bowlers showed good control, rolling over Chittagong for 92. The top-order batsmen then complemented the bowlers as Dhaka chased down the target with 17 balls to spare.Chittagong’s innings began on an undesirable note: Tamim Iqbal was given out caught behind despite the ball not grazing the bat or the glove on its way to Kumar Sangakkara. Tamim dragged himself off the field, after which Anamul Haque was out lbw, trying to pull Farhad Reza in the next over.The 19-year old Yasir Ali, however, started off with three fours off Abul Hasan. He drove past cover, over mid-off, and pulled over midwicket to briefly revive the innings. However, he nicked a Mustafizur Rahman cutter behind in the next over.Tillakaratne Dilshan struck a four and a six soon after, but left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain had him lbw for 20. Chittagong promoted Mohammad Amir to No.6 but he made only 2 before chopping on Yasir Shah as Chittagong slumped to 50 for 5 in 8.4 overs. Naeem Islam, playing his first match of the season, hung around with the lower order after Jeevan Mendis (1) and Ziaur Rahman (9) were undone by Nasir Hossain.Naeem launched a six in the 18th over but ran out of partners and finished unbeaten on 29 off 38 balls. Mustafizur and Nasir claimed combined figures of 7.4-1-26-6.Shykat Ali and Shadman Islam, playing his first T20 game, laid a solid foundation, for the chase, with a 45-run opening partnership. Shykat went about his work impressively, the highlight being a pick-up shot that sailed over square leg for a six. However, he holed out to long-on for 23 off 17 balls.Nasir Jamshed then was caught at long-off in the 13th over, for 12, and Nasir was bowled by Naeem two overs later. Shadman, who was largely becalmed early on, then unleashed two square-cuts off Shafiul Islam. The opener fell with his side two runs away from the target but Kumar Sangakkara completed the chase with a pulled four.

The West Indies Players’ Association has expressed concern over the forthcoming A-team tour of Zimbabwe which is due to get underway in early July.Dinanath Ramnarine, the WIPA chief executive, said that the doubts “resulted from discussions with various stakeholders and persons with intimate knowledge of the existing situation in that country”. He added: “They have spoken of security treats, violation of human rights and a highly volatile situation that could threaten the safety of the players.”WIPA has been placed in a further quandary by media reports that a team has already been selected and that a decision to proceed on this tour will be contingent on the advice the WICB receives from the CARICOM Secretariat. Furthermore, under the Memorandum of Understanding between the WICB and WIPA both parties are required to agree on the tour.”Although WIPA has no knowledge of the team selected, it has, nevertheless, taken the opportunity to speak with some likely candidates and the CARICOM Secretariat about their views on the tour to Zimbabwe. Their input will be critical to WIPA’s determining its final position later this week.”We appreciate the difficulty of this situation for all parties concerned given the importance of such tours for the development of West Indies cricket. However the safety of our players is of paramount importance.”

Bob Woolmer says that Shoaib could be fit for the third and fourth Tests © AFP

Shoaib Akhtar, the Pakistan fast bowler, will train with Warwickshire as he recovers from a stress fracture of the ankle that ruled him out of the initial part of Pakistan’s tour of England.”They [Warwickshire] will try to arrange a couple of club matches to help him come back from his injury,” Shahryar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) told bigstarcricket.com. He is improving quickly but needs match practice and the weather in Pakistan right now is not conducive to him playing there – it is either too hot or raining. So he will train in England and will be checked up by our medical team.”Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, was hopeful that shoaib would be fit towards the end of the series. “We’ve not completely given up hope,” Woolmer told BBC Test Match Special. “We’re looking to get him going and – touch wood – he might be available for the third and fourth Tests.”We’ve had some good news recently. His fracture’s virtually healed, so he should be able to start bowling again. We’re going to bring him over to England and try to find him some cricket. So if there are any clubs interested in having him bowl for them on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon then that would be useful for us.”Shoaib had earlier expressed plans to be fit in time for the second Test at Old Trafford from July 27. But Shahryar made it clear that it was not a possibility. Shoaib last played for Pakistan in the Karachi Test against India in January this year. He has been out of action for the best part of the last five months after undergoing a twin knee surgery in Australia in February. He was named in a provisional Pakistan squad for England earlier this summer but was left out of the 16-man touring party after it was revealed that an earlier ankle fracture had not healed.

Stephen Harmison celebrates Damien Martyn’s dismissal in the NatWest Series final © Getty Images

Stephen Harmison, England’s outstanding bowler of the season so far, got a rare compliment from his opposite number, Australia’s Glenn McGrath, after the NatWest Series final at Lord’s on Saturday. Both bowlers took three wickets in the tied match, and McGrath was later full of praise for Harmison.”I think Harmy is a class bowler,” McGrath told reporters. “There’s no doubt about that and I think he’s one of the main reasons England have improved over the last 18 months and one of the reasons why they’vebeen so successful. To have a bowler bowling at that pace with that lift and bounce, it’s got to give the rest of the team confidence.”Harmison and Andrew Flintoff choked the Australians after they had got off to an impressive start in the final, reaching 50 in less than seven overs. Harmison, brought on only as a second-change bowler, nailed Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn, and later added Brad Hogg to his tally, making him the highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 15.There had been fears about Harmison losing his way in international cricket after his lackluster performances in South Africa in 2004-05, but Michael Vaughan, England’s captain, was quick to defend his ace bowler. “Just because you have a couple of bad games in the winter doesn’t make you a bad bowler. I thought Harmy today was, as he has been throughout the whole series, outstanding.”While McGrath was generous in his praise for Harmison, he was quick to fire a salvo against England’s opening batsmen, who haven’t had much success so far against Australia’s new-ball attack. “If you look at these three matches, our opening bowlers have been pretty successful against [Andrew] Strauss and [Marcus] Trescothick,” said McGrath. “They’ve been another key as to why England have played so well, setting a foundation, so that’s one positive we’ll take out of this series.”McGrath’s partner, Brett Lee, bowled an outstanding opening spell too, nailing Strauss and Kevin Pietersen, but Lee was also pulled up for bowling a pacy swinging beamer which Trescothick barely managed to avoid. Ponting, however, clarified that a problem with the foot-hold had caused the incident.”I had a look at where he landed, you could see where his front foot was slipping. It knocked the confidence out of him straight away. After that beamer he was holding back within himself because he just can’t keep his front foot.”It’s just a really difficult thing for Brett. Someone running in that fast, bowling that fast, if you can’t keep your front foot, it’s going to happen every now and then. I’m not trying to defend it but if you could slow it down and have a look at his front foot you’d understand. There were no hard feelings, everyone just go on with it.”

England won’t have much time for festive fun and frolics this year, after it was agreed they would play three back-to-back Tests against South Africa in a punishing Christmas schedule.After two warm-up games, the first Test will begin on December 17 in Port Elizabeth, and will be followed by matches in Durban on Boxing Day and Cape Town on January 2, before a seven-day break to recharge the batteries ahead of another pair of back-to-back matches in Johannesburg and Centurion.As if that is not punishment enough, the squad will then embark on a series of seven one-day internationals in the space of a fortnight, the last of which will end on February 13. For Michael Vaughan, it is a disappointing itinerary, especially given the way in which England capitulated in Sri Lanka at the end of a similar string of matches last December. The final match, which England lost by an innings and 215 runs, was described by Vaughan as "a game too much".The tour will follow England’s busiest home summer yet, with seven Tests and at least 11 one-day internationals already scheduled. The players are, on the other hand, virtually guaranteed a decent break at the end of the English season, as the proposed tour to Zimbabwe in October and November is almost certain to be cancelled, despite the pressure being exerted by the ICC.Tour itinerary
December
5 England squad arrives
8 v Nicky Oppenheimer XI, Ranjesfontein
11-13 v South Africa A, Potchefstroom
17-21 1st Test, Port Elizabeth
26-30 2nd Test, Durban
January
2-6 3rd Test, Cape Town
9 v South Africa A, Kimberley
13-17 4th Test, Johannesburg
21-25 5th Test, Centurion
28 v South Africa A, Benoni
30 1st ODI, Johannesburg
February
2 2nd ODI, Bloemfontein D/N
4 3rd ODI, Port Elizabeth D/N
6 4th ODI, Cape Town
9 5th ODI, East London D/N
11 6th ODI, Durban D/N
13 7th ODI, Centurion

Consistency is what both New Zealand and India are looking for in the second match of the National Bank One-Day International Series in Napier.Consistency in the playing surface which will allow for consistency in application, especially by the batsmen who have been threatening to join the ranks of the unemployed in the cricket played in the series overall.New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said today that the batting problems being experienced were probably due to the poorer quality of the wickets the series has been played on but he was hopeful that Napier’s McLean Park will at last provide some rewards for batting.However, so gun shy are players from both sides after all they have been through that it will be the side which best handles the transition to a friendlier surface that will have the best chance of success in this match.”I’m sure that both batting teams are looking forward to getting onto a consistent surface and then they can show some consistency which is what everyone is looking for and haven’t seen so far this summer,” he said.Fleming has been reasonably happy with his own form, although he would like more solid evidence that how he is feeling can be translated into some runs. He thought he was reasonably sound in the first Test in Wellington and felt “pretty good” in the second Test at Hamilton.”But when you’re nicking three or four in the nets or getting your off pin knocked over every second ball the general feeling is, ‘I don’t know.'”The only time you can get reasonably close to the middle of the bat is when you have throwdowns, which to me doesn’t equate. You can work on elemental stuff.”The bottom line is that we are crying out for some quality practice surfaces and some quality playing surfaces as selfishly as a batting unit and as a batter,” he said.The Auckland practice wickets had finally allowed some quality work to be done but it was getting quality runs in the middle that was most concerning him.But as far as his batting form was going, he just didn’t know.And he said a lot of his players were feeling confused about just where they were at.”When you feel like that you start searching for form or an indication that you are in form. It would be nice to rack up a good score tomorrow,” he said.Whether tomorrow is an occasion that the selectors will look to rest their bowling ace, fast bowler Shane Bond, is something that has not yet been decided. Fleming said it was a case of how Bond was holding up, and what the selectors wanted to see in this game because it was important for the selectors to get some answers from what will be their final look for the World Cup squad which has to be named by January 1.Fleming said it would be nice to go 2-0 up in the series here because it would be a big advantage in the seven-game contest and New Zealand would be determined to achieve that.”It’s all about momentum. If you can keep momentum going in a long series, I think every team is going to have the day at some stage and when you have your day you just have to clock it up which we were happy about doing the other day,” he said.

Fazl-e-Akbar is to replace Shoaib Akhtar in Pakistan’s squad in England.Shoaib has been suffering from a stomach complaint for some time. It delayed his arrival in England, and has forced him from the field on several occasions.Fazl has played four Tests and a One-Day International in the past. He is currently playing league cricket in England.”We don’t think he is fit enough for international cricket," said Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed, clearly in some exasperation. “There are only another 10 days left of the one-day tournament and if he can’t bowl 10 overs for us he’s not a lot of use.”He was spitting blood over the weekend and has seen seven doctors in the last six days; we don’t know what is wrong with him.”He went for a run yesterday and got tired very quickly. We have released him from the squad. He may be able to bowl in club cricket but not at international level at the moment,” he continued, referring to Shoaib’s inclusion in the Lashing’s team to play on Friday.”What he does from here is between him and the board,” added Saeed. “We are very disappointed because we wanted him to play for us and there are a lot of people in this country who wanted to see him play.”Meanwhile David Folb, chairman of Lashings Cricket Club, said: “Shoaib will play for us on Friday. That’s never been in doubt. I don’t think I have ever announced that anyone is going to play and they have not. He’s told me he’s available from Friday and I am not interested in politics."Lashings are a high-profile club side, boasting the services of Richie Richardson, Stuart Williams, Junior Murray, Jimmy Adams and Franklyn Rose at present. Brian Lara also has also represented them this season.Lara, like Shoaib, enjoys a lucrative endorsement from Intertops.Com, a bat manufacturer and Lashings’ club sponsor.

While Davinson Sanchez’s £42m arrival back in the summer of 2017 has been something of a blemish on Tottenham Hotspur’s record of centre-back signings, generally speaking, Spurs have recruited extremely well in the position in recent years.

Indeed, this season, the £42m Cristian Romero has made a fantastic addition in the heart of the Tottenham defence, while Toby Alderweireld’s £11.4m signing back in 2015, Eric Dier’s £4m arrival in 2014 and Jan Vertonghen’s £9.5m acquisition back in 2012 all proved to be incredibly successful moves by the north London side.

However, there is one player who Daniel Levy will undoubtedly rue missing out on back in the summer of 2015 – when Tottenham reportedly had the opportunity to sign Dayot Upamecano for as little as £300k.

Sold at £1.98m, now worth £101m

Indeed, after watching the then-16-year-old in action for France at the U17 European Championship in Bulgaria, Spurs scouts are believed to have been left in awe at the defender’s athleticism and ball-playing ability, identifying the youngster as the perfect candidate for Mauricio Pochettino’s project in north London.

However, Tottenham ultimately missed out on the signing of the 6 foot 1 centre-back to Red Bull Salzburg, with the Austrian side willing to pay FC Valenciennes a much higher fee than the Premier League outfit, with Upamecano making a £1.98m move to the Red Bull Arena.

Just two years later, after highly impressing for Salzburg, the then-18-year-old was on the move again, securing a £16.65m switch to RB Leipzig – a club where the defender went on to establish himself as one of the most exciting talents in European football.

The player who Rio Ferdinand dubbed “formidable” completed his rise to the very top of the professional game last summer, sealing a £37m move to Bayern Munich – who handed the £101m-rated machine a five-year deal on a reported £132k-per-week.

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As such, while hindsight is a wonderful thing, it is clear for all to see that Daniel Levy had a shocker when failing to secure the signing of Upamecano back in 2015, as the France international is now not only one of the most valuable defenders in world football, he is also one of the most talented.

AND in other news: Paratici in talks over “breathtaking” THFC deal for £220k-p/w ace, AC would “love” him

	Muttiah Muralitharan: “I think bowling coaching is not about technique but how to access the conditions and bowl in those conditions” © Getty Images

Muttiah Muralitharan has plans to work alongside Anil Kumble to coach subcontinent players in spin bowling after his retirement. “He [Anil] is one of the greatest bowlers I have seen and he knows a lot”, Murali told , a Mumbai daily.”We will see which country needs help. We are looking at subcontinent countries and academies.” Murali said they wanted to spend one to two weeks working with each academy. “I think bowling coaching is not about technique but how to access the conditions and bowl in those conditions. When both of us call it a day we will look at coaching together. Hopefully, it will help future generations.”Murali said he hoped to play for at least three more years so that he could complete 20 years in international cricket. “I am enjoying Twenty20 now so much so I might play a few years. I have signed for three years so I have to play for these three years. Then I have to see if I can play for one year or more. It depends on how I bowl.” In the IPL so far, he has taken three wickets in three matches for the Chennai Super Kings, who are at the top of the points table having won all their games.Murali said Twenty20 was as much a game for bowlers as it was for batsmen. The key, for bowlers, he said, was to read what the batsman is going to play very early. “Mainly people like to see sixes and fours and if there are wickets where batsmen can’t score then people will get bored. But bowlers also have to give themselves chances.”

Gareth Hopkins will no longer be seen in Otago colours © Getty Images

Gareth Hopkins has transferred to Auckland for the 2007-08 season to avoid a clash with Brendon McCullum, who has returned to Otago. The two are New Zealand’s contracted wicketkeepers and the move should allow each of them to play first-class cricket while not on national duties.Hopkins joined Otago four seasons ago but spent the last two years commuting from Auckland, where his wife lives and works. With McCullum’s move back to Otago the time seemed right for Hopkins to switch teams. “I have enjoyed playing for Otago very much and it was a hard decision to make,” Hopkins said. “I appreciate the opportunities that have come playing for Otago Cricket, and the support they have given me.”Hopkins had a prolific season for Otago last summer, scoring three centuries and averaging 85.66. However, Auckland now have the challenge of deciding how to use Hopkins and their current wicketkeeper Reece Young, who has played 68 first-class matches.”Auckland Cricket is delighted to welcome a player of Gareth’s obvious class and quality,” Auckland’s CEO Andrew Eade said. “His batting will clearly strengthen our top order and our selectors will have an interesting choice to make regarding the wicketkeeping berth, as the incumbent Reece Young is also very accomplished behind the stumps and has served Auckland well for many years.”Ross Dykes, the CEO of Otago Cricket, said it was disappointing to lose Hopkins but he understood the decision. “We appreciate that in each of the last two years it has been difficult for Gareth to make the migration to Dunedin due to personal circumstances and we wish him every success in his future cricketing endeavours,” Dykes said. Hopkins, who is currently playing club cricket in Netherlands, will join the New Zealand A squad in Australia early next week.