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Even before reaching his maiden Test century, Nasir Hossain was thinking of how to celebrate the milestone. He got very close, within four runs, before his attempt to push the ball into the covers took the edge to the waiting Chris Gayle at slip. The world remains unaware of how he would have saluted the hundred, though Nasir said it would have “stunned everyone”.”I made plans for my [century] celebration too early, so it is my bad luck that I got out on 96,” Nasir said. “I was trying to give [Shahadat Hossain] Rajib bhai as less strike as possible. After [Mahmudullah] Riyad bhai got out, I decided to bat aggressively. I think it was the right thing to do at that stage.”Nasir, however, enjoyed every bit of the freedom of coming in to bat at 362 for 5, a rarity for a Bangladesh No. 7, whose usual role is to stop a batting slide. On a wicket which he described as “beautiful”, Nasir capitalised by hammering six boundaries and four sixes. He added 121 runs for the seventh wicket with Mahmudullah before taking full charge of the 61-run ninth wicket stand with Shahadat Hossain. He had reached fifty off 99 balls, with a pulled boundary off Ravi Rampaul, but scored the next 43 runs off 37 deliveries.Known for his temperament and ability to close out games in limited overs cricket, Nasir is aware of what he is going to face at this position in the longer-format. “I told the coach that I might have to encounter the second new ball in that position so I would say I was well prepared to bat at No. 7, because I had done the hard yards in the nets.”But there is not much of a challenge in batting at this position. In the national team I am willing to bat anywhere and as in domestic cricket where my performance is counted, I bat up the order.”In the national team, Nasir will likely have to continue in the lower-middle order for a little while longer after Naeem Islam confirmed his place at No. 4 with a hundred and Mahmdullah weighed in with a half-century of his own.Nasir is going to turn 21 at the end of this month and he plays the part of an exuberant youngster. Last year, he had asked Mahmudullah how to celebrate just as he was approaching his first ODI century. This time he was itching to get to the three-figure mark. “I can’t tell you what it is, but it would have been something that stunned everyone.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsCheteshwar Pujara, returning to the India team after 20 months, turned what he called his “second debut” into a statement of assurance•Associated Press

The first day of the Hyderabad Test gave India a sign of the leading contender for their vacant no. 3 slot. Cheteshwar Pujara’s maiden Test century, more than 20 months after he last played for India, helped his team come up for air more than once and they finished the first day on 307 for 5.Pujara’s unbeaten 119 was an innings of glacial composure and helped the Indians tide through their dips in a day that remained for the better part tightly competed. The game is more in India’s control now: the total has just crossed 300, captain MS Dhoni is batting on 29 alongside Pujara and the batsmen believe the wicket has begun to slow down, the ball started to turn. Regardless of how much of the turning is just hokey talk, New Zealand do bat last and India do have two spinners.Hyderabad was expected to offer proof of what India’s gen next middle-order was supposed to look like following the retirement of both Dravid and Laxman. If Pujara has just got his finger prints all over the No.3 slot, Virat Kohli had done enough in the last year to let it be known that his place in the team these days is a given.Pujara’s fourth wicket 125-run partnership with Kohli formed the centerpiece of India’s batting today. When Kohli came in to bat, India had lost their seniormost specialist batsmen – Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar – with more than half the day’s play remaining. The score was 125-3 and New Zealand’s three-man frontline seam attack (James Franklin’s military medium not exactly threatening) were asking enough questions of a side that has lost eight of its last 11 Tests.Pujara and Kohli paced and weighted their partnership well. They were helped by the fact that, the moment Tendulkar fell, New Zealand captain Ross Taylor continued to offer the batsmen Jeetan Patel at one end for as many as eight overs. No matter what or who came to them from the other end, for a passage of time Patel was, for all his containment, the pressure-releasing bowler.New Zealand were not helped by their slip cordon either – make that by their captain Taylor, whose nightmare could said to have begun in the morning, when he lost the toss. Three genuine catches went down today; these do not including Daniel Flynn backpedalling from square leg trying to get to one that Sehwag had ballooned up off Chris Martin or Pujara’s only chance all day, when on 60, to Flynn at short leg. The three New Zealand let go were all behind the wicket and Taylor featured in all of them: Sehwag on 35 hit one between Taylor and the keeper Kruger van Wyk; Patel had Kohli pushing at one when on 46, with Taylor caught on the wrong foot, and Dhoni went through Taylor’s hands off the second ball he faced.It was a pity because for most of the day New Zealand’s seamers had kept at their job. They made use of the new ball and the conditions that helped them eke out any swing, getting rid of the Indian openers inside the first session, Sehwag and Gambhir both falling to loose shots. Tendulkar was gone less than an hour into the second session, Boult bursting through his gate with one that swung late into him. Boult was New Zealand’s bowler for most of the day, sending down a controlled line, moving the ball both ways at good pace.When the third session began, however, Pujara and Kohli were able to lean on the bowling. India had knocked off 35 runs inside the first five overs after tea. Doug Bracewell limped off with a cramp in the second over, bringing on backup Franklin with makeshift spinner Kane Williamson turning up to bowl a few overs to inch New Zealand closer to the second new ball.

Smart stats

• Cheteshwar Pujara’s century is his first in Tests. He went past his previous best of 72 on debut against Australia in Bangalore in 2010.

• Pujara’s century is the fourth in Hyderabad and the second by an Indian batsman after Harbhajan Singh’s 111. The other two centuries have been scored by New Zealand batsmen.

• Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir became the tenth batting pair to aggregate 4000 partnership runs in Tests. The list is headed by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, who have an aggregate of 6920 runs.

• The 125-run stand between Pujara and Virat Kohli is joint third on the list of best partnerships in Hyderabad. It is also eighth on the list of top fourth-wicket stands for India against New Zealand.

• Tendulkar has now been bowled 49 times in Tests. Only Dravid (55) and Allan Border (53) have been bowled more often.

Franklin went for three boundaries in the second over after tea and Pujara deposited Williamson’s half-tracker in the stands over midwicket. Kohli looked in complete control, all classical style merged with contemporary improvisation. In the first hour after tea, India’s two middle-order tykes had put up 56 in 11 overs to the New Zealand allsorts combination of Franklin, Williamson and Patel.Martin was brought back to stem the tide and against the run of play Kohli, who had crossed his fifty by edging one off Patel, tried to square cut Martin, like Sehwag had. Like Sehwag, he too edged it to Martin Guptill at second slip, out for 58.By then Pujara was already on 95, having raced through the second half of his innings, close to a run a ball. This after his first 50 had come off 119 balls, batting alongside Sehwag and Tendulkar. Unmindful of the calm that is associated with India’s No 3 slot, Pujara glided one past gully for a boundary off Martin to reach 99 and blocked the next three. Only when Franklin drifted down leg did Pujara flick him to fine leg and sprint through for the single that took him to his century. His grin was the size of the stadium.Ten runs later, Raina was out, caught behind flicking Patel down leg. Which once again seemed to remind Pujara of his duties as anchor: Dhoni came in at 260-5, the two putting on 47 in the 15-odd overs they had to play out to stumps. Without Bracewell, New Zealand had to split the new ball between Martin, who had already bowled five spells in the day and Boult, who bowled his 16 overs in six lots.

Jesse Ryder, the New Zealand batsman, has been offered a contract with Wellington for the domestic season starting this year. Earlier this year, New Zealand Cricket and Ryder had agreed to avoid a national central contract – Ryder had been dropped from the New Zealand squad in March for breaking team protocol – but he had declared himself available to play for Wellington for the 2012-13 domestic season.Left-arm spinner Ronnie Hira, who played for Auckland Aces, has won a contract with Canterbury Wizards. Wicketkeeper Reece Young, who played for Canterbury, returned to Auckland.New Zealand’s six major associations have announced the first round of domestic contracts for 2012-13. The contracting process involves two rounds with the associations being allowed to pick 9 to 13 players in the first, and complete the process to have a final list of 14 in the second, which will be announced on August 9 this year.The two-stage process, according to a New Zealand Cricket release, was geared towards ensuring more competition for the final contracts and that the best players were contracted across the country. Five of the six associations have announced lists of 13; Northern Knights have named nine players.The domestic contracts offered today commence on October 1, 2012.Auckland Aces: Dean Bartlett, Michael Bates, Colin de Grandhomme, Gareth Hopkins, Anaru Kitchen, Bruce Martin, Michael McClenaghan, Tim McIntosh, Colin Munro, Bhupinder Singh, Daryl Tuffey, Lou Vincent, Reece Young.Canterbury Wizards: Todd Astle, Hamish Bennett, Brad Cachopa, Peter Fulton, Matt Henry, Ronnie Hira, Tom Latham, Willie Lonsdale, Ryan McCone, Henry Nicholls, Shanan Stewart, Logan van Beek, George Worker.Central Stags: Carl Cachopa, Jamie How, Marty Cain, Andrew Mathieson, Adam Milne, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Jeet Raval, Dean Robinson, Mathew Sinclair, Bevan Small, Ben Smith, Ben Wheeler, William Young.Northern Knights: Graeme Aldridge, Corey Anderson, Brent Arnel, James Baker, Anton Devcich, James Marshall, Daryl Mitchell, Brad Wilson, Joseph Yovich.Otago Volts: Derek de Boorder, Nick Beard, Michael Bracewell, Darren Broom, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Mark Craig, James McMillan, Jimmy Neesham, Aaron Redmond, Hamish Rutherford, Neil Wagner, Sam Wells.Wellington Firebirds: Harry Boam, Josh Brodie, Grant Elliott, Mark Gillespie, Scott Kuggeleijn, Andy McKay, Stephen Murdoch, Michael Papps, Jeetan Patel, Michael Pollard, Luke Ronchi, Jesse Ryder, Luke Woodcock.

ScorecardSean Ervine hit his first half-century in the Friends Life t20 for two seasons as Hampshire beat Middlesex by four wickets with four balls to spare at Richmond to record only their second victory in the South Group.Ervine struck five fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 75 and brought up the winning runs with a boundary off Tim Murtagh with just four balls remaining.Hampshire had been set a target of 157 after Paul Stirling, the 21-year-old Ireland batsman who has been tipped by Middlesex cricket director Angus Fraser to become one of the most dangerous batsmen in the world in limited-overs cricket, had batted through the innings to finish with 82 not out, which lead the hosts to a total of 156 for 2.Stirling, who made his third half-century in successive t20 innings and his highest score in this form of the game, struck seven fours and three sixes as he shared stands of 38 in five overs with Joe Denly, 67 in 10 with Adam Rossington and an unbeaten 51 in five with Dawid Malan.They should have made more than that but Denly contributed only eight off 16 balls before Dimitri Mascarenhas had him caught by Ervine at long off and Rossington had hit only one four in his 19 when he was bowled by Chris Wood.Glenn Maxwell conceded only 18 runs and actually bowled a maiden in four overs of offspin as Middlesex got bogged down in the middle overs and it was not until Malan hit 30 off 16 balls that Stirling got the support he needed..The Middlesex total still looked beyond Hampshire when they slumped to 41 for 3 in the sixth over but then Simon Katich, playing his first t20 match of the season because Michael Carberry is injured, and Ervine put on 69 in eight overs.Katich had scored 40 off 25 balls with four fours and a six when he drove Gareth Berg to Denly at long off and Hampshire stumbled when Maxwell was also brilliantly caught by the former Kent opener on the midwicket boundary, while Liam Dawson was bowled by Toby Roland-Jones.There was no stopping Ervine, though, as he made his 75 off 51 balls and Mascarenhas made 14 off eight deliveries to briskly help see Hampshire home.

Faf du Plessis, the middle order batsman, has been named in South Africa’s 15-man squad for the unofficial Twenty20 tri-series against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, in Zimbabwe in June, while Chris Morris, the Highveld Lions allrounder, has received a maiden call-up.The squad will be led by Johan Botha. AB de Villiers, allrounder Jacques Kallis and the fast-bowling pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel have been rested because all four played extensively during the recent IPL and will likely be needed in all three formats for the upcoming series against England.Du Plessis has played 21 ODIs for South Africa but has never been part of the Twenty20 squad. He staked a claim for a place in the shortest format after a successful stint with Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2012. Du Plessis, who opened the batting and scored three half-centuries, held the orange cap for being the leading scorer in the tournament at one stage, although he finished 13th on the batting charts.In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, du Plessis said, “If I could pick where to bat in 20-over cricket, I would say I’d like to open. It suits my style of batting because I am someone who can hit the ball over the top and along the ground, and I’ve learned when to hold back and when to go for it.”Du Plessis has been tipped to open the batting with world-record holder Richard Levi, although that would probably come at the expense of limited-overs vice-captain Hashim Amla. While du Plessis’ inclusion in the national squad was expected, Morris’ came as a complete surprise to everyone, including himself.”One of my former provincial coaches, Lawrence Mahatlane called me up to say congratulations and I wasn’t sure what he was talking about,” Morris, who has also been picked in the South Africa A side to play Sri Lanka A, told ESPNcricinfo. “I don’t know what to do yet. I’m not sure if I should jump and down or what. I was just happy to be playing franchise cricket and I didn’t even think about the national side at all. I’ve come such a long way in such a short time, that definitely wasn’t in my thoughts.”Morris has just completed his first full season as a franchise cricketer, having been spotted by former Highveld Lions coach Gordon Parsons in Centurion in 2009.

South Africa’s 15-man squad

• Johan Botha (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Marchant de Lange, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Richard Levi, Albie Morkel, Chris Morris, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Dane Vilas (wk)

“Gordon saw me there and asked me if I wanted to go to trials at the Lions and I did,” he said. “Before that I was playing club cricket in Pretoria and to be honest, I didn’t really set the scene alight. But then I got offered to go to the Lions academy and the rest is history. The Lions have taught me everything I know about my game.”After playing in the amateur competition for a season, Morris was contracted to the Lions for the 2011-12 season. He scored two half-centuries and took 23 wickets at an average of 26.00 in the first-class competition and was the leading bowler overall in the MiWay T20 competition, with 21 wickets.It was his performances in the shortest format that earned him his national call-up.”He was also very effective as a lower order hitter and played a very significant role in getting the Lions to the final,” Cricket South Africa’s selection convenor, Andrew Hudson, said.Morris opened the bowling and stepped up to bowl at the death as well, two roles he has enjoyed. “I wanted that kind of responsibility because when I have that, then I focus more,” Morris said.While Morris has played club cricket in England before, he has never travelled as part of a tour, except at school, and has also never been to Zimbabwe. Most of the national squad are relative strangers to him as he has only met them as opponents occasionally in the past.”I’m really excited and really looking forward to it,” he said. “The more I can talk to people, the more I am going to learn.”The rest of the squad includes players who have been given opportunity in the past. Both Farhaan Behardien and Dane Vilas featured in South Africa’s XI for a one-off Twenty20 against India in March. Behardien has been a consistent performer for the Titans in the last few seasons and will bat in the middle-order, while Dane Vilas will don the wicketkeeping gloves.Botha continues as captain, after he also led the team in the match against India, an indication that he remains part of South Africa’s World Twenty20 plans. He will be released from his national contract after the ICC event in September to captain South Australia and will not participate in the South African domestic season.

ScorecardMichael Carberry has earned a recall to the England Lions squad•Getty Images

Limping Michael Carberry helped Hampshire establish a sound first-innings position against Leicestershire and in the process justified his call to the England Lions squad to face the West Indies next month. On a second day hindered by rain, Hampshire closed at 181 for 4 with Carberry needing the aid of a runner in making an unbeaten 73.This was in response to Leicestershire’s first-innings total of 234 all out, made in 99.2 overs after a late rally led by wicketkeeper Ned Eckersley’s diligent 34.Carberry, whose solitary England cap came two years ago, is only now fully recovered from blood clots on the lung, a condition which stopped him playing until July and at one stage threatened his life. But while the lung problem may be part of his past, Carberry still struggled while batting on another cloud-covered day because of a recurrence of a groin injury.It did not stop him hitting pace bowler Alex Wyatt for six and striking 13 fours in his 138-ball innings as Leicestershire failed to build on a promising start which saw Wyatt dismiss openers Sean Terry and Liam Dawson cheaply.Terry, son of the former Hampshire and England batsman Paul, marked his championship debut with a duck, caught in the slips in Wyatt’s first over. When Dawson was caught behind for 19, Hampshire were 25 for 2 but then Carberry was joined by stand-in captain Simon Katich in a stand of 124 for the third wicket.Katich edged Nadeem Malik to the wicketkeeper after making 54 and James Vince followed five runs later at 154, caught at slip by Ramnaresh Sarwan off Wyatt. But Carberry remained firm and with Sean Ervine saw Hampshire through to the close, at which point they were 53 behind with six wickets in hand. The persevering Wyatt ended the day with 3 for 63.Earlier Leicestershire resumed at 159 for 6 and added a further 75 around Eckersley’s important contribution from number eight, after the loss of Joshua Cobb after four overs of the day’s play. Left-arm spinner Dawson, who had taken three wickets overnight, added two more in Cobb and Wayne White to finish with career-best Championship figures of five for 29.David Balcombe, who has had an outstanding season so far, took only one wicket in the innings, that of Eckersley to a slip catch by Vince, and David Griffiths finished off Leicestershire when he had last man Wyatt held by wicketkeeper Michael Bates.

ScorecardAndre Adams recorded career-best first-class figures to help skittle Lancashire•PA Photos

You cannot help but conclude that there is something odd going on when Glen Chapple and Andre Adams, quite probably the two finest bowlers on the county circuit, can reach the combined age of 74 and have only one Test cap between them.Chapple’s extraordinary overlooking by the England selectors has been noted with incredulity on several occasions during an exemplary first-class career and there is bemusement, too, that Adams stepped out for a five-day game only once, against England in Auckland, his home town, a decade ago.No one now bowls with greater consistency, both in terms of economy and strike rate, than the 36-year-old Adams, who hit another peak with career-best figures of 7-32 to give Nottinghamshire an unlikely first-innings lead on which they have so far built solidly enough to suggest that Lancashire, the defending champions, will struggle to avoid a third defeat in a season only four matches old.He was the chief architect of a post-lunch implosion that saw Lancashire’s last six wickets fall for 15 runs inside 12 overs, conceding a lead of 23 that Nottinghamshire did not envisage when they were bowled out for 169 on Wednesday, their downfall in no small part down to Chapple’s impressive support for a luckless James Anderson.Adams dismissed Steven Croft and Gareth Cross with consecutive deliveries to add another five-for to an impressive tally that now stands at 28 in his career, 13 of which have come in the last three seasons. He had set the ball rolling by bowling Karl Brown with the third delivery of the day and ended what was shaping up as a potentially threatening innings by Stephen Moore when he produced the ball he seems able to summon at will, drawing the batsman forward but not allowing him to drive and moving it away just enough to take the edge.His maturing years have been his best, yet he has no regrets that they did not come sooner and has never considered trying to force his way back into the New Zealand team.”I shut the door on international cricket when I came to Nottinghamshire as a Kolpak and to be honest my last few games for New Zealand were not an enjoyable experience,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to go back.”When I was in New Zealand I was always fighting for a place and in those circumstances you sometimes forget about getting better as a cricketer. At Nottinghamshire I have been able to work in an honest environment, where I’m responsible for what I do and I’m not fighting for my place. To be here enjoying my cricket is a big deal for me.”I know what I have to do, which is essentially to be as annoying as I can be with the ball, by which I mean trying to put the ball in the right place as often as possible. It is what makes Chapple so good. He is a fine bowler and he is very annoying in that he hardly misses.”Adams’s miserly economy, backed up by similarly tight bowling from Ben Phillips and Graeme Swann, tended to show up Stuart Broad’s less-than-economical figures more perhaps than they otherwise might. On an essentially slow pitch that afforded few chances for fluent strokeplay, the England strike bowler went for 60 runs from 14 overs.In his defence, it was his first competitive bowl since his calf injury in Sri Lanka and his natural pace probably worked against him as the only bowler who offered speed off the bat.”He has a great record for us and it is good to have him here,” Adams said, offering some sympathy. “He had not bowled for a while and maybe he bowled a bit too short at times but having not been able to make a contribution so far he will be really up for it when he bowls again.”Fortunately for Nottinghamshire, Adams more than compensated, as did Swann, who took perhaps the most important wicket of the day when he had Ashwell Prince caught at bat-pad and wrapped up the innings on a hat-trick after bowling his friend and England team-mate Anderson first ball.Anderson remains in the wars. Having damaged his thumb on Wednesday, he bowled only one over on Thursday, although not because of the pain but because of a flu-like virus which affected him overnight. He signalled to Chapple, his captain, that he was feeling unwell and left the field immediately and was not seen again for an hour and 40 minutes, reappearing only because he thought he would have to be in the field for as much time as he had been off it in order to bowl on the third morning. As it happened, the umpires were able to tell him to return to his impromptu sick bed in the dressing room because the slate would be wiped clean overnight.Nottinghamshire will resume with a lead of 145 and eight wickets in hand and the opportunity to build a lead of 200-plus that could be as much as they need if Broad clicks and Adams merely continues where he left off. Against a depleted attack they have batted with respect for the pitch, in particular Neil Edwards and Michael Lumb, the latter revealing the kind of diligent approach for which he wants to be appreciated more.

Allan Donald, South Africa’s bowling coach, left New Zealand before the start of the third Test in order to get time off in a busy year. Donald flew home on March 20, for what the team management has called “personal reasons” but no announcement was made to explain his departure.”It was always the plan when we left South Africa that Allan would leave during the third Test. The request came through before we left South Africa,” Mohammad Moosajee, the South Africa team manager, told ESPNCricinfo. “It’s always our plan to be flexible with team management.”Donald is involved in a travel-heavy year, which includes an IPL stint in India, tours to England and Australia and the World Twenty20 in September. Donald will meet up with the national team for the one-off T20 against India in Johannesburg on March 30 before his time at the Pune Warriors franchise, where he is the bowling coach. South Africa travel to England for two months from July, to the World T20 in Sri Lanka in September and to Australia in October.The players’ wives and girlfriends arrived in time for the second Test in Hamilton but Donald’s wife, Tina, did not accompany them. His two children are of school-going age and were unable to travel to New Zealand during the tour.

The BCCI is believed to have offered Nimbus Communications a settlement in its dispute over broadcast rights for cricket in India, ESPNcricinfo has learned. The board had terminated Nimbus’ contract in December, following which Nimbus filed a claim for damages of close to Rs 600 crores (approx. $121 million) in the arbitration process currently under way.Two BCCI officials contacted by ESPNcricinfo said they were not aware of the board offering such a settlement. However, a resolution of this issue would mean one less case for the BCCI to fight and would save the board the trouble of finding a new rights holder at a time when the Indian economy is slowing down.The settlement, this reporter understands, requires Nimbus to drop their claim for damages, which rests mainly on two contentions: that the Indian team rested top players for home series, contrary to the contract, and that there was no India-Pakistan series as stipulated. In return, the board will restore the broadcast rights to Nimbus. The agreement would need to be ratified by Nimbus’ shareholders to be accepted.Nimbus had secured the rights to Indian cricket for four years in January 2010, its second consecutive four-year deal with the Indian board. The agreement was valued at approximately Rs 2000 crore (then $436 million) for a minimum of 64 international matches and 312 days of domestic cricket until 2014. The deal was terminated after the BCCI claimed Nimbus had defaulted on payments and the matter then went into arbitration.A day after the contract was terminated, Nimbus released a statement saying it had “acted in compliance of its contractual obligations and variations agreed between the parties from time to time”. The company had reportedly asked the BCCI for an extension to their payment deadline, but the board turned down the request and decided to scrap their deal at its working committee meeting in New Delhi on December 12, 2011.The BCCI also tried to invoke the bank guarantees worth Rs 1600 crore (approximately $300 million) given by Nimbus, but the Bombay High Court ruled against them. However, in January the High Court gave Nimbus four weeks to deposit Rs 305 crores (approx. US$61 million) – the amount the board has claimed in unpaid dues – with the court as security.

South Africa squad

Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Rudolph, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Ashwell Prince, Alvrio Petersen, Mark Boucher (wk), Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir, Marchant de Lange.

Jacques Rudolph and Ashwell Prince, the two most under-pressure South Africa batsmen, have been put on notice after Alviro Petersen was retained in the squad for the deciding Test against Sri Lanka in Cape Town, following the visitors’ historic series-levelling victory in Durban. But the selectors have resisted more dramatic changes despite the hosts being bowled out for 168 and 241.Rudolph was recalled to the Test side against Australia after an absence of nearly five years but, in four matches since, has failed to take his opportunity with a top score of 44 from seven innings. Prince has managed one Test half-century this season and a useful 39 in Centurion, but endured a poor match in Durban with 11 and 7 which included falling to the reverse-sweep in the first innings. He then was involved in a horrid mix-up that resulted in Hashim Amla’s run-out on the fourth day.One option available for South Africa is to move Rudolph down the order and recall Petersen to accompany Graeme Smith in the opening partnership. Petersen certainly has form behind him after scoring 115 for the Lions in the current round of SuperSport series matches and has made 659 runs at 59.90 this season. However, Smith warned against any knee-jerk response to the 208-run defeat at Kingsmead. “A good reflection and good solid decisions are needed, not emotional ones,” he said.Elsewhere the selectors will have to decide how to accommodate Vernon Philander back in the team after he made good progress from the knee injury he picked up on the eve of the second Test. With Marchant de Lange having taken 7 for 81 on debut it will require a tough call over who to leave out although Morne Morkel has been below his best in the series. “It will come down to a tactical decision,” Smith said. “To have the stocks is great. It’s a nice challenge to have. The selectors like to remain consistent.”Smith, though, indicated his desire for the selectors to resist any temptation to field an all-pace attack and leave out Imran Tahir despite the legspinner being considerably outbowled by Rangana Herath at Kingsmead. Durban was the first time Tahir had been severely tested in the first innings of a Test and, unlike his predecessor Paul Harris, didn’t always offer Smith control.”It’s the first game that Imran has had a good bowl,” Smith said. “He is developing every game. He is still an exciting option for us and I would like to see the selectors stick with that for as long as possible.”