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County Championship round-up: Warwickshire secure first win

A maiden Somerset century from Steven Davies against his former club put the hosts in a good position at the end of a rain-affected second day against Surrey at Taunton.On a day when 33.1 overs were lost because of the weather, overnight batsmen Davies and Tom Abell extended their scores to 142 and 96 respectively as the home side ran up 436 in their first innings. Dom Bess contributed a career-best 55. By the close, Surrey had replied with 69 for 1, with Mark Stoneman unbeaten on 34, and trailed by 367 in a match that could have a significant impact on the fight to retain Division One status.Somerset began the day on 234 for 4 and Abell, who began on 88, square drove Stuart Meaker to the boundary to move into the 90s. The home skipper looked to be heading towards his first century of the season, when he was caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes off Rikki Clarke.Abell’s partnership with Davies added 155 for the fifth wicket to take Somerset onto 251. Davies, who set out on 68, was lucky to survive a chance down the leg side to Foakes when he also edged Clarke. Meaker then struck twice from the River End when he had Jim Allenby caught by Foakes for 9 and two balls later accounted for Craig Overton, leg-before to a delivery that straightened.Bess quickly got into his stride and his first two shots found the boundary. The 20-year-old was the perfect foil for Davies, who apart from his one lapse, batted fluently. The wicketkeeper went to his first century for Somerset when he drove Tom Curran to the midwicket boundary, his runs coming off 147 deliveries and containing 11 fours and one six.Steven Davies made his maiden Somerset hundred against his old county•Getty Images

By the time lunch was taken Somerset had moved on to 357 for 7, Davies unbeaten on 128 and Bess on 41. Immediately after the break Bess came out and hit three successive boundaries off Clarke’s first over to go his maiden fifty for Somerset, which came off 66 balls and contained 10 fours.Shortly afterwards Gareth Batty accounted for Bess, bowled by a quicker delivery after adding 110 with Davies, a new highest eighth-wicket partnership for Somerset against Surrey.Davies had taken his own total onto 142 when he drove Sam Curran straight to Jason Roy at short cover leaving Somerset needing 12 more runs to reach maximum batting points. Last man Tim Groenewald wasted no time in setting about the task and his first shot found the boundary at midwicket off Sam Curran. However, then the rain started to fall and the players left the field for an early tea, with Somerset on 394.When they returned an hour and 40 minutes later Leach took the crucial single off Sam Curran to see up the 400, but Somerset weren’t done yet as the last pair added 48 together before Groenewald was caught by Scott Borthwick off his own bowling for 31 off 23 balls.With a possible 32 overs remaining in the day, Surrey had moved onto 58 when a mid-pitch mix-up with Stoneman led to Rory Burns being run out by Tim Rouse for 30.

Professional sportsmen claim the media serves mostly as a distraction, so they try to avoid it, especially mid-series. But for South Africa, the English press has been a barometer to measure how far under the opposition’s skin they are getting. If the reaction from Trent Bridge is anything to go by, they’ve burrowed deep into England’s epidermis.The immediate analysis focused on England’s batting issues, with several former players slamming their attacking approach. In the days since, everything from Joe Root’s captaincy, which is only two Tests old, to the mindgames England have had to play with Moeen Ali, which essentially involve convincing him he is not the best spinner in the squad even though it is obvious that he is, have come under the microscope. For Faf du Plessis, that only helps put the hosts under pressure, in much the same way as the Australian media did during South Africa’s tour in November 2016.”The situation feels very similar to Australia,” du Plessis said. “After the first game in Australia when we beat them, there was quite a bit of press against the Australian cricket team and then we stepped our game up even more in the second Test and then after that, it was a free for all. You could see the Australian team were feeling a bit of pressure.”Cries of a crisis dominated headlines in Australia after South Africa bounced back from losing Dale Steyn to a broken shoulder on the first day of the first Test in Perth – eventually winning that Test – and then handed Australia a hiding in Hobart. With the series lost, Australia’s then selection-chief Rod Marsh stepped down. England are not at the same tipping point, especially as they give new captain Root the leeway to let his leadership style settle. But, the questions over which direction the Test team is headed in under Trevor Bayliss will mount.Knowing that kind of angst is also hovering around England gives South Africa a vulnerability to try and exploit. “All teams don’t want to feel the pressure and you do feel the pressure when you don’t play your best cricket, that’s part of the game,” du Plessis said. “The England cricket team will be the first to say that they will accept criticism from the last Test match and they will try and brush it off straightaway and start a new game fresh and play some good cricket. And we will certainly try and make use of pressure wherever we can.”Exactly how South Africa will look to use the current uncertainties in the England camp is a detail du Plessis will keep to himself, but using the recent past as an indicator suggests that they will rely on their unity to force the opposition to question themselves. In the last season, South Africa have several members of the squad step up – rather one or two standout performers – and the absence of superstars like AB de Villiers and Steyn caused no hindrance, as predicted. It may even have helped South Africa because these days, despite having only lost one series on the road in ten years between 2006 and 2016, South Africa go into big contests under-rated. And that suits du Plessis just fine.”We don’t always have the names that we used to have and that is how I see our team’s strength. Our focus is on every guy in the team playing a small role to get us over the line. We’ve never wanted to rely on big names,” he said. “You get players that are consistent and put in big performances but if you look at our last year and a half or so of Test cricket, there’s been unsung heroes all the time that have stepped up and made plays for the team when we most wanted them to. I will be very happy to keep being the under-rated team and by making sure that if we keep putting in small performances, we put pressure on the big, strong teams around the world.”In Perth, it was Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj who picked up Steyn’s load. In Hobart, it was Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott. In Wellington, Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma shared in a series-winning partnership and in Nottingham, runs from Hashim Amla, an all-round effort from Philander and crucial contributions from the likes of de Kock, Maharaj and Chris Morris allowed South Africa to level the series. They’re now in prime position to take the lead and set themselves up for another away win, a result that would further accelerate du Plessis’ vision of the team he wants to create.”When I took over, it was at a time of real darkness as a Test team and I had a vision of where I wanted us to go, and a blueprint for getting there. But getting there doesn’t always happen, you have to be patient and wait for it to unfold. Luckily things happened a lot quicker than I thought it would,” he said. “We’ve won every series that we’ve played, it’s been a good year for the team and for my captaincy.”Du Plessis first led South Africa in August 2016, when they were ranked No.7. Under him, they have climbed to No.2 in less than a year. In that time, their only major gripe has been that none of their batsmen have scored big runs consistently, and that continues to be a challenge in this series. South Africa don’t have a centurion, but England only have one and conditions have not lent themselves to excessive scoring. Du Plessis would like to see that change but isn’t labouring the point, because he knows the media can do that for him.”The conditions that we’ve been playing in haven’t been massive for scoring big runs.I’m not concerned, it’s a case of trusting yourself, of backing yourself, because if you keep talking too much about it, it can I suppose derail you from keeping it really simple,” he said. “We know as a batting unit that we need to do it, and if someone gets an opportunity to score runs they just need to be hungry that’s all I can ask for. If you’re hungry to make big plays for the team then the hundreds will come.”

Time is fast running out to avoid damaging dislocation to Australian cricket, after precious little progress was made in two days of meetings between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association ahead of the June 30 expiry of the MOU.The negotiating teams for CA – led by Kevin Roberts – and the ACA – led by its chief executive Alistair Nicholson – met on Wednesday and Thursday, with plans for further discussions next week still being finalised. CA’s chief executive James Sutherland is in London for the Champions Trophy and ICC meetings.ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the two parties remain very much at odds over the fundamental of a fixed revenue percentage model for the next MOU, with CA as adamant as ever about breaking it up while the ACA seek to retain it, albeit in modified form.This impasse means fewer than two weeks remain to reach any sort of agreement about a way forward, opening up numerous grim possibilities. These include out of contract players being left unemployed from July 1, the players’ intellectual property passing from CA to the ACA’s new commercial arm The Cricketers Brand, and the board consequently being in breach of many existing commercial and broadcast contracts involving the use of players.CA is currently trying to secure a raft of new sponsors following the conclusion of major deals with the Commonwealth Bank and the alcohol sponsor CUB, while also entering the final year of its existing broadcast rights contracts with the Nine and Ten networks. Ten, this week, announced it was being placed into voluntary administration, potentially affecting its ability to bid for the Big Bash League after the current deal expires.While the women’s World Cup squad currently in England have been provided with short-term contracts that go beyond the start of July, CA has announced men’s squads for the Australia A tour of South Africa later in July and also the Test tour of Bangladesh in August, without reaching any agreement on how those players might be paid. State players are currently training having been given letters of intent to offer them contracts, but have no further certainty beyond the end of this month.”Selectors have also chosen this Bangladesh squad irrespective and independent of the status of the MOU,” CA’s team performance manager Pat Howard said. “We are working towards a resolution being in place by June 30 and look forward to continuing to support these players to perform at their very best on the global stage.”It is understood that the negotiator Roberts has remained totally committed to CA’s original pay proposal and its dismantling of revenue sharing. But the ACA has argued it cannot progress without knowing more of the financial detail behind it – mainly how the cash being allocated to male and female players over the next five years measures up if counted as a percentage of cricket revenue over that time.While CA has repeatedly offered up information relating to how much the players’ pay will rise depending on numerous scenarios in terms of broadcast and sponsorship revenues, it has equally declined to provide an illustration of how much it thinks the total “pie” will grow over that period. At the same time, it has contended that the ACA’s estimates have overinflated the amount of money available to the game from 2017 to 2023, the proposed term of the next MOU.Equally, the ACA has sought greater detail of how pay will be broken down for domestic players in particular, but to date has only been given the “average” figures present in CA’s initial pay offer. The board has argued that much of the detail sought by the ACA is commercial-in-confidence, and beyond the level of information a collective bargaining agent should be entitled to.Greg Hunt, Australia’s minister for sport, has indicated that the federal government would be willing to provide independent mediation should this dispute threaten the looming home Ashes series. Neither CA nor the ACA wished to comment on talks.Sutherland and Nicholson spoke last week in a rare instance of direct communication between the two CEOs, but CA’s chief executive and its chairman, David Peever, are now preoccupied by a raft of ICC issues. Chief among these items is work to ensure the passing of a new constitution for the global governing body that would fundamentally change the shape of cricket politics.

Liton Das’ 73-ball 85 led a strong batting performance by Abahani Limited, who brushed aside Prime Bank Cricket Club by 60 runs in the 2017 DPL’s first Super League game – a rain-affected affair at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.Das’ effort was complemented well by Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Mohammad Mithun, the Abahani captain, who both struck quick half-centuries of their own to lift Abahani to 321 for 6 in an innings curtailed to 47 overs. In reply, Prime Bank were snuffed out in 43.3 overs for 273.Das laid out a solid platform for Abahani with a century stand for the second wicket in the company of Saif Hassan who struck a more sedate 46. After Das fell, having struck eight fours and four sixes, Shanto and Mithun added 107 more for the fourth wicket. Atif Hossain and Manan Sharma then raced away to unbeaten cameos to shore up Abahani.Prime Bank’s innings was strewn with batsmen perishing after getting off to starts. Five of their top six made a score in excess of 20, but Zakir Hasan’s 55 was the highest score. Prime Bank captain Asif Ahmed mounted a late fightback, but ran out of partners. He struck 32 of the 44 runs his team scored after his arrival at 229 for 7, before becoming the last man to be dismissed. Manan led Abahani’s bowling efforts with 3 for 54, while Afif, Shuvagata Hom and Mohammad Saifuddin took two each.A 641-run slugfest at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium ended with Mohammedan Sporting Club prevailing by seven runs, consigning Gazi Group Cricketers to their third consecutive defeat.Mohammedan ran up 324 for 8 after half-centuries from Rony Talukdar (92) and Shamsur Rahman (74) at the top. Chasing a stiff target, Gazi Group were off to a flying a start, but ended up on 317 for 8.Anamul Haque and Munim Shahriar kicked off the chase with a 61-run opening stand in 6.4 overs. Kamrul Islam Rabbi struck in the seventh over to end Anamul’s burst on 36 off 22 balls. He had struck three fours and two sixes. Mominul Haque fell soon after, but Shahriar repaired the damage with identical stands of 64 for the third and fourth wickets, with Jahurul Islam and Parvez Rasool respectively.Shahriar fell for 88 in the 39th over, after which Suhrawadi Shuvo kept Gazi afloat with a 51-run seventh-wicket stand with Mahedi Hasan. Though Shuvo and Mahedi struck a combined 84 runs, they only managed three fours between them, and the lack of boundaries hurt Gazi in the end. Kamrul, Bipul Sharma and Sajedul Islam took two wickets each.When Mohammedan batted, they were lifted by a 148-run second-wicket stand between Shamsur and Talukdar. The stand ended with Shamsur’s dismissal for 74 that had one four and five sixes. Talukdar fell in the 35th over, after the score had crossed 200. Thereafter, Bipul (28 off 31) and Nazmul Hossain Milon (47 off 33) made handy contributions to propel them to a big total. Mahedi (1 for 49) and Rasool (1 for 51) impressed in their respective quotas.In another curtailed game, at the BKSP-3 Ground in Savar, Imtiaz Hossain’s career-best 128 vaulted Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club to a 40-run win over Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club.Imtiaz, who struck 17 fours and four sixes, made nearly half his team’s runs as Prime Doleshwar put up 274 for 7 in an innings shortened to 46 overs. In reply, Dhanmondi Club were bowled out for 251 after their batsmen failed to convert their starts.Imtiaz’s second-wicket stand of 176 with Shahriar Nafees (67) formed the bulwark of Prime Doleshwar’s total. Sharifullah later made a valuable late contribution through a 27-ball 35.Three of Dhanmondi Club’s batsmen made 40s, including Tanbir Hayder, who top-scored with 46, while Ziaur Rahman made 37. But none hung on to make a big score.Five of the six bowlers used by Prime Doleshwar were among the wickets. Chathuranga de Silva and Arafat Sunny were the most impressive of the lot with figures of 2 for 38 and 2 for 41 in their respective nine overs.

Darren Bravo appears to have rejected the chance of a return to the West Indies side by launching a claim for damages against the WICB.Bravo, who has not played for West Indies since he was sent home from Zimbabwe in November 2016 following his criticism of board president, Dave Cameron, is claiming lost earnings of around USD120,000 based upon what he could have made from ODIs against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, BPL and PSL contracts, and regional Caribbean competitions.The claim has come as a surprise to officials at WICB who believed they were on the verge of a reconciliation with Bravo. They are also surprised at the suggestion he was prevented from playing in the BPL or PSL as no application for an NOC (no objection certificate) was made ahead of either tournament and, when Bravo did apply for such a certificate ahead of the IPL, it was granted immediately.”It is true that Darren has initiated legal action against us,” WICB chief executive Johnny Grave told ESPNcricinfo. “It has come as a surprise as I was under the impression we had agreed a way back for him. I’m very disappointed and yes, a bit frustrated.”Grave believed he had made significant progress towards resolving the stand-off with Bravo. Having inherited the disagreement when he was appointed at the start of this year, Grave gained agreement from Cameron over a partial apology to Bravo (the president is prepared to acknowledge he was wrong to suggest Bravo had ever received a Grade A contract from WICB). He also thought he had agreed on the wording of an apology from Bravo to the president with Bravo’s legal advisors. Indeed, he was hoping news of Bravo’s reconciliation could be announced during the ODI series against England with a view to him playing in the Test series against Pakistan.As things stand, though, Bravo’s tweet calling the president a “big idiot” has not been deleted and the apology has not been made public by Bravo. The launching of legal proceedings against the board on the eve of West Indies’ series against Pakistan suggest a conflict still exists.”I just want what is best for West Indies cricket,” Grave said. “And having the best players available is part of that. Of course a player of Darren’s experience would be an asset.”I thought everything was agreed with his legal advisors. We didn’t want this to play out publicly but yes, it is true, his attorney is asking for damages and West Indies supporters deserve an explanation as to why he is not in the squad in Jamaica.”There is still a lot of sympathy for Darren. He was frustrated at the time of that tweet and we understand that. We want to move on and we want to move on with him. But that issue does have to be resolved before he can play for West Indies.”We have a talented young side who are working hard and have a great attitude. They may lack a bit of experience right now, but we’re playing a lot of cricket this year and we hope that will help them progress. If Darren wants to be part of that, he is welcome. You’d have to ask him whether he does.”The door remains open for Darren. We would love him to be playing for us and we will continue to work towards that. But I am scratching my head at this point wondering what more we can do.”One of the causes of disagreement between the board and the players in recent times has been the insistence that they should be available to play in domestic cricket in order to be considered eligible for the West Indies sides. While there is yet to be any formal announcement of a change in that policy, both Grave and new director of cricket, Jimmy Adams, have hinted they are in favour of a more flexible approach and it is likely a change will be confirmed in October when the new central contracts are announced. It is also likely WICB will bring in separate red- and white-ball contracts.It is also understood there will be no clash between West Indies’ international schedule and the IPL in 2018 or 2019. That would allow players to sign contracts with the WICB (worth somewhere in the region of USD130,000) and appear in the most lucrative T20 league. Bravo has an IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders worth around USD74,000 though he is yet to appear in this year’s tournament.

A batting meltdown at Eden Gardens cost Hyderabad dear as they were pipped for a knockout berth by Jharkhand on net run rate.Services’ pace trio of Suraj Yadav (3 for 36), Diwesh Pathania (4 for 21) and Sachidanand Pandey (3 for 22) skittled Hyderabad for 88, before the batsman wobbled and eventually got home by five wickets. Hyderabad ended their campaign with four wins in six matches.A stand of 39 runs for the sixth wicket between Tanmay Agarwal (16) and Chama Milind (32) saved some of Hyderabad’s blushes after they lost their first five wickets inside 11 overs. They were struggling at 25 for 5 when the duo added the only significant stand. Hyderabad’s bowlers, led by spinner Mohammed Siraj (2 for 31), made the Services chase difficult, but useful knocks from Gaurav Kochar (24) and G Rahul Singh (22) were enough to complete a consolation win.Karnataka completed their sixth-straight win to finish as Group D toppers after beating Chhattisgarh by three wickets . Captain Vinay Kumar snared three wickets while opener Mayank Agarwal slammed a half-century (66 off 76 balls) to help complete the chase of 200 at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University Ground.Vinay struck early after Chhatisgarh chose to bat; they slumped to 60 for 4 before Abhimanyu Chauhan (58 off 102 balls) and Mohammad Kaif (43* off 52 balls) put on a 75 for the fifth-wicket. Chauhan was the fifth man to go with the team on 135. They would lose their last four wickets for 12 to finish with 199.Karnataka’s started strongly after a 52-run opening partnership between Agarwal and Robin Uthappa (23). That was followed up by useful contributions from captain Manish Pandey (34 of 40 balls) and Stuart Binny (25 off 34 balls). Shubham Thakur’s three wickets kept Chhattisgarh in the hunt, but a batting collapse would eventually mean they didn’t have enough to defend in the end.Jharkhand qualified to the next round after Shahbaz Nadeem’s second List A fifth-wicket haul set up their five-wicket win over Jammu & Kashmir.A patient 78 from Kumar Deobrat led Jharkhand’s 185 chase. They got past the line with 90 balls to spare. MS Dhoni, who hit two fours and a six, was unbeaten on 19 when the winning run were scored. J&K got off to a strong start courtesy a 66-run third wicket partnership between Owais Shah (59) and Parvez Rasool (45 off 40 balls) but Nadeem’s introduction to the attack turned the game. He took four wickets off his last three overs to set up a comfortable second-innings chase.

The much-anticipated early-season match-up between Alastair Cook and James Anderson has been scrubbed with Cook, the former England captain, out of Essex’s opening Specsavers County Championship match against Lancashire with a hip problem.A scan on Cook’s left hip has ruled out a serious injury but he will undergo an injection to try and ease the problem he has been managing for “several weeks” according to an ECB statement and will therefore sit out the first round of the Championship.The match against Lancashire would have been Cook’s first first-class outing since the Test series against India in December after which he stepped down as England’s Test captain in January.”I’ve got a sore hip, which is not getting right,” Cook said. “We’re going to go for a different bit of treatment and hopefully it will be all right for Somerset. It’s just frustrating to miss the first game.”Even though his next England assignment is three months away, Cook added he did not want to risk making the problem worse. “That’s the key in one sense [not taking chances], the first Test match is in July. Ultimately the hip’s not quite right, so it needs to get right before you can play. It’s been going for a month or so now.”Earlier this week, Cook spoke to ESPNcricinfo about the transition from being a captain back to a player and said it was taking some adjusting to. “I won’t miss going into all the extra press conferences, he said. “But being at the centre of it, being involved in a lot of decision-making, was the excitement of the job. Not doing that any more, will probably take a while to get used to.”Ultimately I know it was the right decision for myself and the team but that doesn’t make it any easier. It has been time to move on as a person and a player.”He added that he was eager to return to the middle for Essex ahead of the resumption of England’s Test cricket in July when they face South Africa. “It’s the next phase of my career,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed playing for Essex in pre-season and that’s the most important thing. I’m refreshed and raring to go. It’s time to move on.”

Quetta Gladiators will turn up on the field for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final with a significantly altered line-up to the one that has seen them through in the first place. On Saturday, the morning after they discovered their opponents for the game in Lahore on Sunday, they secured the services of five foreign players to replace their contracted roster, none of whom were prepared to travel to Pakistan for security reasons.Their XI will feature a combination from Bangladesh’s Anamul Haque, South Africa’s Morne van Wyk, Zimbabwe’s Elton Chigumbura and Sean Ervine, and West Indies’ Rayad Emrit who have all agreed to travel to Lahore. They are not quite like-for-like replacements for Kevin Pietersen, Rilee Roussow, Luke Wright, Tymal Mills and Nathan McCullum but organisers will be relieved that they do at least have an overseas contingent to rely on for the final.Haque, van Wyk (both wicketkeeper-batsmen), Chigumbura and Erive (both allrounders) will join the team on Sunday morning, while logistics are being worked out to get Emrit (also an allrounder) to Lahore in time for the match that begins at 8pm local time. Pakistan pacer Aizaz Cheema has also been added to the squad, a replacement for the injured Umar Gul. Team mentor Viv Richards and fielding coach Julien Fountain – both overseas recruitments – are expected to arrive in Lahore for the game in the early hours of Sunday morning.”KP, Luke, Rilee, Mills would have been great but we respect their decision,” the franchise said. “We are still confident of winning the PSL final despite missing the big stars. For our local players, playing at home is a huge opportunity. The experience of playing in front of the home crowd is massive, and all of them are excited about it.”The local players of the Quetta squad are already in Lahore and have had training sessions at the National Cricket Academy, next to the Gaddafi Stadium where the match against Peshawar Zalmi will be played. As the city prepares for the much-awaited game with various security measures, an estimated 18,000 tickets have already been sold and a full house is expected.Their opponents Peshawar, meanwhile, will be able to call upon nearly all of their first-choice foreign stars, having successfully convinced their quartet to travel to Lahore for the game*. The captain Darren Sammy was asked after Friday evening’s win over Karachi Kings in Dubai about Lahore, but he evaded the question, saying only that he had to discuss the matter with the franchise owner Javed Afridi.Late on Saturday, however, league officials confirmed that Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Chris Jordan and Dawid Malan would be playing and were due to arrive in Lahore early Sunday morning – the delay in confirmation was due to the wait for Jordan’s clearance from the ECB. Their fifth foreign player, England allrounder Samit Patel, has not been given an NOC by his county Nottinghamshire, and will not travel to Lahore. In the squad are also two emerging Afghanistan players.The PCB has been firm on playing the final in Lahore – despite a spate of bombings rocking the city and other parts of the country too last month – as it sees the match as an opportunity to show that it is safe for international cricket to return to Pakistan. Zimbabwe and Afghanistan are the only international teams to play in Pakistan since the attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in March 2009. The Zimbabwe series in 2015 was not incident free, with a bomb blast occurring during the second ODI 800 metres away from the stadium and killing two people.Among the security measures in check this time are three layers of security checks, some as far as two kilometres away from the ground, a new range of scanning and CCTV equipment, and the deployment of over 10,000 security personnel including Pakistan’s paramilitary force, the Rangers.*18.40 GMT – This story was updated with confirmation from the PSL about the status of Peshawar’s overseas players

The two Under-19 Tests between India and England originally supposed to be held in Tamil Nadu have been relocated to Nagpur.

India Under-19 ODI squad

Heramb Parab, Het Patel, Himanshu Rana, Ayush Jamwal, Vivekanand Tiwary, Prithvi Shaw, Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Harvik Desai, Rahul Desraj Chahar, Kamlesh Singh Nagarkoti, Salman Khan, Priyam Garg, Shiva Singh, Yash Thakur, Mayank Rawat, Rohan Kunnumal, Ishan Porel

The four-day matches, starting on February 13 and 21, will follow five youth ODIs in Mumbai. Wankhede stadium will host the first, fourth and fifth 50-over matches on January 30, February 6 and February 8 while the Cricket Club of India will host the remaining games on February 1 and 3.The confusion around this tour began two weeks ago when the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, which was meant to host the two youth Tests, expressed its inability to do so because of “domestic programs”.On January 7, the TNCA had sent a letter to the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri asking to be excused from hosting duties. “We have a heavy backlog of matches because of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) and the Vardah cyclone,” RA Palani, the joint-secretary and interim caretaker of the TNCA, was quoted as saying in the .”We have to conduct the TNCA first division matches, lower division games and inter-university matches. We need grounds to hold our own matches. At a time like this, it will be extremely hard for us to take the responsibility for two under-19 Tests.”It is learnt the BCCI had checked with the Vidarbha Cricket Association last week about whether they would be ready to host the matches and had received a favourable reply immediately. Both youth Tests will take place at the VCA stadium in Nagpur.

AB de Villiers has stepped down as South Africa’s Test captain with immediate effect and has been ruled out of the three Tests against Sri Lanka as he continues to recover from elbow surgery. De Villiers endorsed his stand-in, Faf du Plessis, to take over permanently and the CSA board have confirmed du Plessis’ appointment.”The interests of the team must always outweigh the interests of any individual, including me,” de Villiers said. “It was a fantastic honour for me to be asked to captain the Test side but I have missed two series and I am still in doubt for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. Following the squad’s outstanding performances in Australia, it is clearly in the greater interests of the team that Faf du Plessis should be confirmed as the permanent Test captain.”De Villiers has been out of action since the Caribbean Premier League in July and was expected to be fit for the Sri Lanka Tests but still needs another three to four weeks before being declared fully fit. He will target the ODIs later in January, a format in which he remains captain, for a comeback.De Villiers had surgery on his left elbow in early October, after initially adopting a conservative approach to recovery, and his surgeon was aiming for a three-month rehabilitation period. De Villiers tried to push that forward and was even talking about a comeback in November’s Adelaide Test but only had his first net session last Tuesday. He has been practicing with his franchise, Titans, and had hoped to turn out for them in the ongoing domestic T20 competition but CSA’s medical committee did not give him clearance to play. He has also been instructed not to play in Friday’s final.”AB’s left elbow is much improved but is still regaining the last few degrees of straightening. Fitness to play requires full range of elbow movement and this may take another 3-4 weeks to achieve,” Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager, said.AB de Villiers needs another three to four weeks to recover completely after undergoing surgery on his left elbow•Associated Press

De Villiers’ unavailability means he would not have captained South Africa since he was named permanent Test captain in February, after taking over from Hashim Amla in the middle of the home series against England. South Africa lost one Test and won one under de Villiers. In his absence, du Plessis led the team to a 1-0 Test series win over New Zealand, a 5-0 ODI whitewash over Australia at home and a 2-1 Test series win in Australia and was widely praised for his leadership skills.Despite calls for him to stay on, du Plessis remained committed to being a deputy and said he was “100% behind” de Villiers, who also enjoyed the support of the convener of selectors Linda Zondi and premier fast bowler Dale Steyn. Both were quoted in these pages as saying they believed de Villiers was the man for the job, although they noted that du Plessis could not be ignored.But du Plessis is also under scrutiny because he too may be unavailable for the first Test against Sri Lanka, depending on the outcome of his ball-tampering appeal. Du Plessis was found guilty of breaching the code of conduct in relation to changing the condition of the ball after being caught shining the ball with saliva that also come into contact with a mint during the Hobart Test. He was fined 100% of his match fee but escaped a suspension. He is appealing the verdict and runs the risk of a one-match ban at the judicial commissioner’s discretion.The odds appear stacked against du Plessis after the MCC Committee meeting in Mumbai, where it was decided the body would not recommend any changes to the ball-tampering law, believed it to be clear despite CSA’s assertion that the definition of “artificial substance” needed clarity and John Stephenson, MCC’s head of cricket, who sat during du Plessis’ original hearing, said he had “flagrantly contravened the law”. ESPNcricinfo has learned that du Plessis has no intention of withdrawing the appeal. The hearing will take place on December 19, a week before the Test.In de Villiers’ absence, South Africa will also be looking for a reserve batsman. Rilee Rossouw traveled in that capacity to Australia but cannot be considered because he is nursing a foot injury that will sideline him for up to six weeks. Omphile Ramela, who will captain a South African Invitation XI against the touring Sri Lankans, could come into contention. Alternatively, the former Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Aiden Markram, who has been in fine form for Titans, may be considered.