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Wright’s idea of the ideal bowling attackIndian coach John Wright has said he favours two or three spinners and four seamers prior to the selection of the Indian team to the tour of Zimbabwe. Talking to reporters at the end of the second day of the preparatory camp in Bangalore on Monday, Wright said “I personally favour the inclusion of two or three spinners as well as four seamers for the team which would tour Zimbabwe. But the matter has to be discussed and gone through.”Replying to a question on skipper Sourav Ganguly’s poor run in the recent series against Australia, the former New Zealand captain said it was only a matter of time before the Ganguly would regain his form. “Sourav is a world class player. He has got tremendous average in both forms of the game. Everyone goes through a lean spell. He looks very good at the nets and is working hard at his bating,” Wright said.Laxman, Ganguly eager to win a series abroadThe highest run getter in the recent series against Australia, VVS Laxman has said he was raring to go to help the Indian side to a series win abroad. The Hyderabadi batsman said “For a long time now, I’ve dreamt of being part of an Indian side that wins an overseas series.” Talking to reporters during the training camp at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, Laxman said “I’ll bethrilled if I could play some part in helping the team win in Zimbabwe.”Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly said it was necessary for India to win away from home to establish themselves as a major force in international cricket. “We’ve got to win an away series. One win abroad will set right a lot of things,” he said.English players want Christmas breakThe England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has requested the BCCI to split the forthcoming series into two parts against India later this year. The reason cited by the ECB is that the players want a break to go home and celebrate Christmas with their family and hence the request for change in schedule.A BCCI source quoted by PTI said “The England and Wales Cricket Board has requested a 26-day break between the two series. “They wanted the Test series to be played from December 3 to 23 and leave for home on December 24 and be back in time for the one-dayers from January 22 to February 3, 2002.” He added “The proposal will be discussed at the BCCI’s technical committee meeting in New Delhi on May 16.”

Alex Gidman has been appointed as England Women’s assistant coach, after moving on from his batting-coach role at Kent.Gidman, the former Gloucestershire batter who went on to coach Worcestershire to the 2019 T20 Blast title, will be working under his former county team-mate Jon Lewis, England Women’s head coach, whom he succeeded as Gloucestershire’s captain back in 2009.His appointment means that Lewis will now be supported by three permanent assistant coaches, with Gareth Breese and Matt Mason making up the trio. Gidman’s first involvement will be for the tour of India in December, where the team are due to play three T20Is and a one-off Test in Navi Mumbai.”Alex joins us at a very exciting time as we start to prepare for what will be the busiest 15 months of women’s international cricket,” Jonathan Finch, the director of England Women’s Cricket, said. “To be able to bring in someone of Alex’s experience is fantastic news and will only add to the support we can provide to players to continuously move the team forward.”I would also like to thank Kent CCC in allowing Alex to make the move to his new role so quickly and support our preparation for the upcoming tour to India.”Gidman added: “I am delighted to join the England Women’s coaching team.”There is a great blend of experienced and young players within the squad and I can’t wait to get started and add value over the next few years during what is an exciting period for the women’s game.”I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Kent. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time there and wish them all the best for the future.”An England A squad will also tour India this winter, and in preparation for that, another Jon Lewis – JJB Lewis, the former Durham head coach – has joined the ECB on a permanent basis as performance batting coach. A performance pace bowling coach will be appointed in due course.”The performance coach roles will ensure we can provide more consistent coaching and leadership to our England Women A and England Women U19s programmes as we look to develop a group of players ready to perform for England Women moving forward,” Finch added.”Having these roles will enable us to grow the opportunities to those players looking to make the transition into the England Women squads across all formats.”

Sophia Dunkley, the South East Stars allrounder, has replaced Kirstie Gordon in the only change to England Women’s central contracts list for the year 2021-22.Dunkley has played in each of England’s last five T20Is after impressing in the bio-secure bubble in Derby last summer, and has started the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy with scores of 104 not out, 0 and 92 this season. She was previously on an England rookie contract.Gordon, who has not played for England in any format since the Ashes Test against Australia in 2019, has started the season strongly with two four-wicket hauls in three appearances for Lightning, but has been pushed down the spin pecking order by Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn and Mady Villiers.Related

• Alice Capsey among new batch awarded ECB women's domestic contracts

• Sophia Dunkley asserts her England credentials to leave Sunrisers seeing Stars

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Gordon moves to a regional domestic contract, though the shift has not been straightforward since the dates of central contracts do not currently align with regional system. As a result, the new tranche of central contracts run from May 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022, longer than the usual year.England are due to name their squad for the one-off Test against India on Wednesday, with Dunkley among those expected to be included after her strong start to the summer, albeit in a different format.Georgia Elwiss’ inclusion on the central contracts list, nearly two years after her last appearance for England (she missed last summer through injury), also implies that she is likely to be named in that squad. The Test starts on June 16 in Bristol, with three ODIs and three T20Is to follow.Jonathan Finch, the director of England Women’s cricket, said: “We’re pleased to confirm a strong group of centrally-contracted England Women’s cricketers ahead of a really exciting two years for Lisa, Heather and the team.England Women’s Central Contracts for 2021-22•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“The central contracts, along with the roll-out of professional women’s domestic contracts, provide a fantastic opportunity to develop a larger pool of players pushing for selection and help strive for success on the field for England Women.”We’ve continued to work closely with the England Women’s Player Partnership (EWPP) and the PCA to establish a comprehensive and objective process that underpins the awarding of central contracts. We will keep working in collaboration for the benefit of the players as we continue to grow and develop the professional women’s game.”

The chances of AB de Villiers featuring in this year’s T20 World Cup have dimmed, with Cricket South Africa stating that he has decided “once and for all, that his retirement will remain final”.Related

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• de Villiers to discuss T20 WC comeback with SA coach Boucher

• If de Villiers is ready and willing, he will be at the T20 WC – Boucher

de Villiers retired from all international cricket in May 2018, but has been active in franchise T20 competitions. Last month, when he was playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2021, it emerged that he was in discussions with South Africa coach Mark Boucher over a possible comeback with a view towards featuring in the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in October-November in India.On Tuesday, CSA announced in a release that discussions with de Villiers have concluded. There was little other detail on this development, with the release largely focusing on the squads that have been named for South Africa’s upcoming Test and T20I tour of the West Indies.At the time when de Villiers revealed he had been in talks with Boucher, he had sounded enthusiastic about the prospect of a South Africa comeback.”Last year, he asked me if I would be interested. And I said, ‘absolutely’. And come the end of the IPL, we will have a look at where we are at with regards to my form and my fitness,” de Villiers had said.”Also, the situation with his team – he’s got to look at his guys who have been performing well over the last while. If there’s no space for me, so be it. If I can slot in there, it will be fantastic if all those things fall in place. Waiting for [the chat with] Bouchy towards the end of the IPL, and we will then plan accordingly.”Ever since his sudden retirement announcement in 2018, talk of a comeback has constantly surrounded de Villiers. He came closest to ending his retirement on the eve of the 2019 ODI World Cup, when he made a last-minute offer of an international return, but was rebuffed by the then team management.Hopes of a de Villiers comeback had intensified after a new leadership group including director of cricket Graeme Smith and coach Mark Boucher – both former international team-mates of de Villiers – took over the national team’s reins towards the end of 2019, but those hopes now seem extinguished.de Villiers, 37, is among South Africa’s greatest-ever batters, their fourth-highest run-getter in Test cricket and their second-highest in ODIs and T20Is. He remains one of the world’s finest T20 players, and was in red-hot form during IPL 2021 before the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic brought the tournament to a premature halt, scoring 207 runs in six innings at an average of 51.75 and a strike rate of 164.28.

Against an opponent without a win in this competition in 27 attempts. Durham might have fancied themselves to get their LV= Insurance County Championship season off to a positive start but they will feel the opening day here was one of wasted opportunities as wickets were lost at key moments, before a fightback of sorts from eighth-wicket pair Bryson Carse and Ben Raine.Asked to bat first on a typical green-tinged early-season pitch, they recovered well from a stuttering start against a Nottinghamshire seam attack that looked potent even with overseas signing Dane Paterson not yet match fit after a long-term injury.The returning Scott Borthwick’s second county debut ended in a four-ball duck but Alex Lees and David Bedingham each made half-centuries and Jack Burnham was well placed to match them if not do better. Yet none was able to progress.”I think after being five for two to be still batting at the end of the day we would take that,” Bedingham said. “On the other hand we were also 144 for three at one stage, so you could look at the day in two ways. But in saying that it is early season and the ball was nipping around a bit so although we might not take the score after being five for two we can be happy and I think that last partnership between Brydon and Ben at the end made it just about our day.”Having them at eight and nine is great because they can both bat higher and if they can push us towards 300 in the morning we will feel in a good position.”The swift demise of Borthwick, surprised by a Jake Ball yorker that trapped him leg before, followed that of opener Mike Jones in the same over, the fifth of the innings.Jones, who also failed to score, edged to third slip, where Haseeb Hameed held the catch at the second attempt, and Borthwick’s dismissal left Durham 5 for 2. Ball’s inclusion was something of a surprise given he had not played any warm-up matches after his involvement with England in India but 2 for 10 from his six-over new-ball spell was ample justification.Otherwise, it was Durham’s morning until the last over, after Nottinghamshire had successfully lobbied to squeeze in an extra one before lunch. Bedingham, who had taken his opportunities efficiently in a 76-ball fifty, faced a decent ball from Luke Fletcher but seemed momentarily indecisive as he edged to wicketkeeper Tom Moores, ending an 88-run partnership for the third wicket.Durham needed to graft after lunch, but Lees cashed in on a rare loose over from Ball with three boundaries to complete an 118-ball fifty that looked like a strong platform. Soon afterwards, however, he was wastefully run out as the non-striker, beaten by Joe Clarke’s pin-point throw to the bowler’s end after new partner Burnham had attempted a chancey second run to deep backward square off Lyndon James.Burnham survived to reach 42 at tea but perished in the first over of the final session, caught behind on the leg side as he flicked at a delivery from Fletcher, after which Ned Eckersley and Stuart Poynter fell in quick succession, the latter a deserved wicket for a tidy display from medium pace allrounder James.It was left to Carse and Raine to survive 16 overs against the second new ball and they have added 45 so far, dragging back some of Nottinghamshire’s advantage.”It’s a good cricket wicket compared with what you often see at this time of year and I thought we bowled really well to keep them to this score,” Ball said. “We got wickets at important moments. The one just before lunch made it our session and the run-out of Alex Lees was a big one for us because he was playing really well and looked settled. You could see it gave us a lift and we got two or three more wickets soon afterwards.”From my point of view, although I got through three sets of hand-warmers it was that cold in the wind, it was good to have the red ball in hand and get into a bit of rhythm. I have not had much cricket lately but I felt in good shape going into the match and it was good to get out there playing.”

Match facts

December 6, 2016
Start time 1420 local (0320 GMT)1:18

‘We need to take our innings deeper’ – Munro

Big Picture

New Zealand must have left the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday night thinking, “if only”. If only they had asked for a review when Steven Smith was given not-out by umpire Mick Martell after being trapped lbw on 14, the first ODI might have unfolded quite differently. Trent Boult’s fine delivery had swung in and trapped Smith in front, but New Zealand declined to refer Martell’s decision upstairs. “There was plenty of chat afterwards about that,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said. “There were two sounds and the possibility of an inside edge. We’re all well aware there wasn’t. That was the thinking and you could understand it. It was a little bit frustrating.” The reason it was frustrating was that Smith went on to accumulate 164 and set up a big win for Australia.The teams now move on to Canberra with Australia 1-0 up in the three-match series, so New Zealand must win at the Manuka Oval on Tuesday to have any hope of retaining the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. The good news for New Zealand is that they had one batsman who looked every bit as dangerous as Smith at the SCG, but unfortunately for them, Martin Guptill couldn’t go quite as deep into the innings as Smith, and fell for 114 off 102 balls. The toss may be particularly important in Canberra, where big runs are generally available, and the team batting first has won the six most recent ODIs.

Form guide

Australia: WLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
New Zealand: LLWLW

In the spotlight

A golden duck in Sydney was hardly the start Aaron Finch wanted in this series, but he will be pleased to arrive in Canberra for the second game. Take a look at Finch’s scores in his three ODIs at the Manuka Oval: 38, 109 and 107. His last two hundreds at the venue have come against South Africa and India, and Finch could use a big score again: in 18 ODIs since the end of the previous home summer, Finch has averaged just 26.25.After New Zealand lost Guptill, their hopes of chasing down the hefty target in Sydney faded. But, while Colin Munro was at the crease, there remained at least a tiny glimmer of hope. Munro struck four fours and one six in his innings of 49, and put on 50 for the eighth wicket with Matt Henry. While they were together, the required run rate hovered around nine an over, but at least it didn’t balloon too much further. But when they both holed out in one Pat Cummins over – the 44th of the innings – the dream was dashed. “It was a different sort of knock than what I’m used to playing,” Munro said. “Given that role to try and take things a bit deeper in the innings sort of suits my game. Hopefully, in the games to come, we can have a few extra batters around me at the end and have a bit of a hit.”Lockie Ferguson had a forgettable debut in Sydney and may make way for Tim Southee•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Team news

Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner were the two members of Australia’s 13-man squad left out in Sydney, and the selectors may wish to retain the winning XI in an attempt to secure the series.Australia (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3, Steven Smith (capt), 4 George Bailey, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 Travis Head, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Pat Cummins, 11 Josh Hazlewood.Lockie Ferguson picked up a wicket in his first international over, but the rest of his debut was rather costly: he leaked 73 runs from nine overs, sent down four no-balls and therefore four free hits, and also cramped up. Tim Southee might come in for Ferguson in Canberra. New Zealand may also wonder if their batting order could be strengthened by the inclusion of Henry Nicholls.New Zealand (possible) 1 Tom Latham, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Jimmy Neesham, 5 Colin Munro, 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Colin de Grandhomme, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Trent Boult.

Pitch and conditions

Manuka Oval is the kind of venue where big totals are on offer batting first, and chasing can be a challenge. The forecast for Tuesday is for a shower or two and a top temperature of 28 degrees centigrade.

Stats and trivia

• In Sydney, Guptill became the tenth-fastest player to 5000 ODI runs, behind Hashim Amla, Viv Richards, Virat Kohli, Brian Lara, Gordon Greenidge, AB de Villiers, Sourav Ganguly, Dean Jones and Graeme Smith.
• This will be Kane Williamson’s 100th one-day international.
• Adam Zampa enters this game as the world’s leading ODI wicket-taker in 2016, with 30 scalps at 27.80. His feat is all the more impressive given he didn’t make his ODI debut until February in New Zealand.

Quotes

“We were a little bit frustrated with the fact we chased the game with the ball. We had some good plans in place and perhaps we need to back those a bit more. We weren’t far off.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:41

Ganguly: Haven’t seen a surface as dry as this in Mohali

“There was a glint in his eye,” Alastair Cook said of Jonny Bairstow’s reaction to being moved up England’s order amid a batting reshuffle for the Mohali Test. After a year of rescuing the side from No. 7, this time he kept their head just above water from No. 5 after England had gift-wrapped the advantage for India despite having won the toss.England’s 268 for 8 was a huge missed opportunity especially as India dropped four catches. But without Bairstow’s 89 off 177 balls – ended when he was lbw the ball after being dropped by Parthiv Patel – this Test would have escaped them already. And they would only have had themselves to blame. Winning the toss needs luck, but when the important ones fall your way it is careless not to embrace the opportunity.Five of England’s eight wickets fell to shots that could be classed as careless at best, reckless at worst. Bairstow, who helped add consecutive stands of 57, 69 and 45, gave them a chance although the late loss of Chris Woakes dented the prospect of a lower-order boost. Compared to last year’s Test involving South Africa, the total is already handsome although local judgement is that this pitch is not at that level of mischief.

184 runs, 1 dismissal

• 184.00 Jonny Bairstow’s batting average in this series against spinners – the highest for any batsman from either side. India’s Cheteshwar Pujara averages the next-best among batsmen who have faced at least 50 balls from spinners.

• 10 Number of fifty-plus scores by Jonny Bairstow batting at No. 5 or lower this year. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in 2002, and Angelo Mathews, in 2014, are the only other batsmen to get as many fifty-plus scores from that low in the order in any calendar year.

• 72.73 Bairstow’s average batting in the first innings of Tests. Among batsmen to score at least 1000 runs, his average is the sixth-highest. Bairstow has made 1091 runs in the first innings of a match, including three hundreds and six fifties in 17 innings.

• 4 Number of catches dropped by India’s fielders on the first day. Alastair Cook was given two reprieves and Bairstow benefited from the other two drops.

• 60.75 Jos Buttler’s batting average in Tests against India – his best against any team. He has scores of 85, 70, 45 and 43 in his four innings against them. Buttler is playing his first Test and only his second first-class match in over a year.

India’s bowling was exacting throughout the day. Ravindra Jadeja performed an excellent holding role either side of tea and claimed two wickets, after the run rate had briefly got away from India in the afternoon session, the pacemen challenged with new ball and old and Jayant Yadav continued his impressive start to Test cricket with the scalps of Bairstow and Joe Root.There was turn from early, but nothing extravagant, and after the brutish delivery received by Haseeb Hameed, which reared off a length, the bounce largely behaved itself. Reverse swing, especially a spell before tea by Umesh Yadav, posed a significant challenge which was repelled by Bairstow and Jos Buttler, but in the final session it was the squeezing of the run rate – a boundary took Bairstow to 53 off 76 balls, then he needed 99 balls for his next 36 – more than devilish deliveries that made life hard work.Buttler, playing just his second first-class match since being dropped from the Test side last October, played the other significant innings of the day. Ended with a loose drive to cover, as India throttled the scoring after tea, it was not substantial enough to satisfy England’s needs but he played with confidence that belied his lack of recent cricket.During a frenetic morning, Alastair Cook and Root gifted their wickets to India, as did Moeen Ali to leave England 92 for 4 at lunch. In the afternoon, Ben Stokes joined the list of haphazard dismissals when he charged at and missed a straighter delivery from Jadeja. He had begun the rebuilding job alongside his regular partner-in-crime, Bairstow, as the pair added 57 for the fifth wicket, rather than their usual sixth, which took their tally together for the year to over 800 runs.Only Hameed could reflect that he did not have a hand in his dismissal in the first session. England were 32 for no loss in the tenth over when the first sign of the tricks that the surface could play brought Hameed’s wicket. A delivery from Umesh spat off a length and smashed into Hameed’s top glove, forcing him to drop the bat as the ball looped to gully. As with the grubber he received in the second innings of the previous Test, there was little Hameed could do except curse his bad luck.Cook’s was an incident-filled stay as he was twice offered lives. His first came in the third over of the day when he had 3 and was squared up by Mohammed Shami. The leading edge flew quickly towards third slip where Jadeja did not even get a hand on the chance. Then, when Cook had 23, R Ashwin spilled a simple chance at midwicket as Cook flicked at Shami’s first ball from round the wicket.It was shaping up as a morning to forget for Ashwin who also made a mess of trying to intercept a leg-slide flick from Root – with Virat Kohli’s expression growing more angered by the minute – but he quickly made amends when tossed the ball, striking first delivery as Cook thin-edged a cut off a wide delivery.Cook’s dismissal meant England had lost their two key batsmen in the space of seven deliveries after Root had absent-mindedly swiped across the line at Jayant having skipped his way to 15 at better than a run-a-ball. After his first-innings dismissal in Vizag, it was another poor moment that England could ill-afford from their best player.Moeen, one of the England batsmen most comfortable using his feet against the spin, attempted a counter-attack when he came down the pitch to Jayant, who had started with four consecutive maidens, sending back-to-back deliveries straight for four and six. But a return to pace ended his stay when Shami produced a well-directed bouncer towards Moeen’s shoulder that he could not control and a top edge picked out fine leg.It meant a familiar pairing had to come to the rescue. During Bairstow’s stellar year there has been much debate as to whether he is wasted down at No. 7, particularly given the struggles of others tried higher up by England. His footwork was confident whether playing forward or back, which enabled him to pick the lengths of the spinners instead of being caught betwixt and between.Stokes, too, had looked in good order – with a stinging straight drive off Shami being particularly eye-catching – before Jadeja earned reward for keeping him quiet. He had only been able to take Jadeja for three runs off 30 deliveries before using his feet and driving around a delivery that did not turn, giving Parthiv plenty of time to complete the stumping. Words were briefly exchange between Stokes and Kohli, two cricketers who don’t take a backward step, leading the umpires to intervene.Bairstow was reprieved on 54 when Parthiv, playing his first Test for eight years and now slated to open the batting after an injury to KL Rahul, could not hold a thin edge off Ashwin. Initially it appeared to be a missed stumping, as Bairstow dragged his back foot out of the crease, but subsequent replays confirmed the nick. Parthiv later spilled another as Bairstow edged Jayant but he only needed to stew for a matter of seconds before Jayant straightened one into Bairstow’s front pad.Woakes and Adil Rashid almost made it through to the close but Umesh capped India’s day by knocking back Woakes’ off stump after working over the outside edge. Both sides will know they made mistakes, but India will feel like they got away with theirs. For England it was a day of what could have been.

Usman Khawaja expects to be dropped from Australia’s ODI team the moment Aaron Finch is fit after a finger fracture, despite his Man of the Match-winning turn against Ireland in the opening match of the South Africa tour.Clearly benefiting from conditions more familiar than those witnessed recently in Sri Lanka, Khawaja stroked his way to an unbeaten 82 in the company of David Warner and Steven Smith. While hopeful the innings meant a turnaround from his wretched times in Sri Lanka, Khawaja had no illusions about where he now stood in the limited-overs order of preference.”You can never count your chickens in cricket or in life, you can’t get too far ahead,” he said. “I’m only here because Shaun Marsh hurt a finger and Finch was out with a broken finger as well, so I got an opportunity opening the batting. To get out there and be Man of the Match first game of the tour is a really nice feeling.”Nice to get out there early on, I enjoy opening the batting in shorter form cricket, so it was good fun and with Davey at the other end going berserk it made life a lot easier.”It was a tough time over there [in Sri Lanka], it’s been a tough couple of months. So from an individual point of view it’s nice to get out there and score some runs. We played some really good cricket the back half of Sri Lanka, but I still didn’t contribute the way I wanted to contribute over there, so I had a tough time there, but glad I could contribute to a win first up here.”The Australians were quickly into a groove against Ireland, and now face a South Africa side shorn of AB de Villiers due to injury. Khawaja said it was useful to pick up the winning habit instantly in South Africa, and acknowledged the hosts would have to be weakened by de Villiers’ enforced absence.”We won and that’s the main thing,” Khawaja said. “You want to win as much as you can and keep reaffirming that winning feeling. Winning is a habit, it’s a cliche but it’s true, the more you win, the more natural it becomes. Every game you play we want to win every time, whether it’s a dead rubber or a final, because that’ll keep us in good stead for really close games.”I don’t know who’s going to take over [AB’s] role but they’ve got big shoes to fill, he’s one of the best batsmen in the world. Looking at it from that point of view it’s never nice to see a player not play, especially someone like AB because he brings a lot of people through the gates and that’s what it’s all about in the end. But he’s a big player for them, so they are weakened, but South Africa have a lot of depth.”

ScorecardRob Keogh will be signing more autographs after his eye-catching feat•Getty Images

Rob Keogh’s 9 for 52 and Ben Duckett’s 185 from 159 balls put Northamptonshire in complete control after day two against Glamorgan at Wantage Road. The home side declared their second innings 305 for 7 leaving Glamorgan 451 to win and they survived three overs to the close without score.The day turned remarkably after Rob Keogh’s morning spell – his 9 for 52 was the sixth-best return in Northamptonshire’s history – helped bowl Glamorgan out for just 124 in the morning session.”Three-for was my best before so it wasn’t expected but it’s spinning, we saw their young bowler spin a couple and we were saying if he can get wickets, we must have a chance too,” Keogh said. “It’s been coming out really nicely this year, I’ve been bowling pretty well but I haven’t had much luck but together it came together.”With the ball spitting out of rough outside the right handers’ off stump from the Wilson End, it appeared the game would move on very quickly after Glamorgan lasted only one session on the second day. But Duckett was seemingly playing on a different wicket as Northants looked to build on a first-innings lead of 145.He slapped seven fours and two sixes – the second a graceful lofted drive off Owen Morgan – to race to fifty in just 30 balls. His second fifty was more sedate but a glorious extra-cover drive off Michael Hogan and a steered pull against Tim van der Gugten, raised a century in 81 balls and then past a thousand Championship runs for the summer for the first time – the first Northants batsman to achieve the feat since Stephen Peters in 2010.Duckett went on to post his third best first-class score. Taking three consecutive boundaries from Graham Wagg – bowling his left-arm spin – with sweeps either side of deep midwicket. But trying to loft van der Gugten down the ground, he found Michael Hogan at mid-on. His season strike-rate (from all the cricket he has played) stands at 99.42It ended the second fabulous performance of the day after Keogh’s exploits in the first session. His return was the seventh instance of a nine-wicket innings haul for Northants and the best figures for the county against Glamorgan.Finding significant help outside the right-handers’ off stump from the Wilson End – from where Kiran Carlson took four of his 5 for 28 on day one – Keogh floated Glamorgan to destruction. Genuine dismissals were mixed in with poor strokes as the visitors found no way to overcome the off spinner.Keogh struck in the fourth over of the morning with Nick Selman sharply held at short leg by Saif Zaib. Will Bragg followed lbw to Keogh’s arm ball. David Lloyd tried to be positive and use his feet but found a sharply turning ball beat his off drive.Then followed two naive sweeps from out of the rough by Anuerin Donald and Carlson – both caught by Chad Barrett at backward square-leg. Graham Wagg advanced to both his deliveries – the second of which he wasn’t to the pitch off and gloved a catch to short leg.At that stage, Keogh had 6 for 25. But any dreams of just the second 10-wicket haul for Northamptonshire were dashed as Graeme White found turn into the left-handed Jacques Rudolph, whose composed innings of 37 came to an end with a catch at leg slip. But Keogh cleaned up the tail to complete a nine-for and put Northants firmly in control of the match.

ScorecardHaseeb Hameed continued to notch up the landmarks in a memorable season•Getty Images

A day that began with the acclamation due to a new young champion ended with many spectators questioning the tactical judgement of the current champions after the 269th Roses match had ended in a somewhat mystifying draw at Old Trafford. However, since cricket is, above all, a team game, let us leave the glittering talent of Haseeb Hameed for later consideration and proceed immediately to the issues that were puzzling some spectators as they left the ground on Tuesday evening.The facts are these and it is important to keep a tight grip on them: in the morning session Lancashire scored 162 runs in 23 overs before declaring on 232 for 3. That closure challenged Yorkshire to score 367 in 71 overs to win the game and thereby close the gap on  Middlesex to 15 points, with Andrew Gale’s team having a game in hand on the leaders.Although Adam Lyth was dropped in the gully by Alviro Petersen when he had made 3, he and Alex Lees batted in untroubled fashion for the entire afternoon session and Yorkshire were 148 for 0 off 41 overs at tea. At that point the visitors needed 219 off 30 overs, an asking rate of 7.3 runs an over. Demanding? Most certainly, but nothing that this Yorkshire side is not used to tackling in an era of T20 cricket.This is not T20, though, and that needs to be borne in mind when considering Yorkshire’s decisions. Bowlers can bowl higher and wider than they can in the short-form game and they can bowl as many overs as needed. Moreover, fields can be set more or less as a skipper wishes: nine men on the boundary if you like. This was also, of course, a fourth day wicket, although the ease with which Lees and Lyth added 188 runs in 52 overs suggested that it was hardly littered with unexploded bombs.All the same, with absolutely nothing to lose but a few wickets in an attempt to secure what would have been a most wonderful victory Yorkshire agreed the draw when they required 179 runs off 19 overs with all their wickets to spend. Fifty years ago such a decision may have seemed explicable although it is doubtful whether Brian Close would have opted against having a gamble. After all, who turns down a free lottery ticket, even if the odds are massively stacked against winning? Yorkshire, one thought, might at least have given it a go.Their first team coach, Jason Gillespie, took a different view. “Chasing was in the back of our minds. We thought we’d assess at tea, which we did. We thought ‘let’s keeping batting and we’ll get feedback from Lythy and Leesy’ he said. “They are the two lads who were out there. Their feedback was that with the deteriorating pitch, it would be a big challenge for them to go for it, let alone a new batter coming in. If it was 40 or 50 fewer runs, absolutely we’d have had a crack.”There were a couple of those moments where we thought ‘come on, we can do this’. Leesy and Lythy are always very much if push comes to shove, they want to take the attacking option. But both their feedback was the same. They felt that the pitch was deteriorating.”Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lancashire’s director of cricket, Ashley Giles, took a slightly different view. “We were a little bit nervous on the balcony,” he admitted. “When they got to that position with none down we perhaps thought they might have gone on a little bit longer. But that’s their decision and nothing to do with us. We are happy to come out if it with a strong draw against a very good team.”And perhaps no one wearing the red rose was happier in his humble, self-effacing fashion on Tuesday evening than Hameed, who, when he reached a century off the ball immediately before Lancashire’s declaration, became the youngest batsman in the history English first-class cricket to score two centuries in a match.There is going to be ballyhoo and there is going to be hype. That was almost certain well before half-past twelve when Hameed pushed Adil Rashid to cover point for the single which made him the first Lancashire batsman to score two centuries in a Roses match and only the third batsman from either side to do so. Percy Holmes, in 1920, and Ted Lester, in 1948, were the others. Once Hameed had joined them, however, a tide of remarkable statistics continued to flow in, proclaiming the emergence of one of the most talented opening batsmen the English game has seen, at least since the emergence of Alastair Cook.When he reached 70 in this innings, Hameed became the youngest Lancashire player to make a thousand runs in a Championship season. He is also the first teenage opener from any county to make four centuries in a Championship season. And he hasn’t stopped breaking records yet. In fact, he has only just begun.So the glare of national publicity will soon be turned on the head of this 19-year-old Boltonian who wants nothing more from life than to be allowed to pursue his vocation as a professional cricketer. Fortunately, one senses that despite his inexperience, Hameed is well able to cope with all the attention that will come his way. Amid all the questions and doubts that surrounded this day’s cricket, that much is certain. It is a comforting thought on a strange evening.