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Ajit Agarkar, the former India fast bowler, has been officially appointed Mumbai captain for the first time in his 16-year-long career. Agarkar has been stand-in captain before but has now been named captain of Mumbai for the whole of the league phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.The announcement marks a complete turnaround in relations between Agarkar and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). In November 2011, Agarkar had left the team in Cuttack as he was disappointed to not be picked in the XI for a Ranji Trophy match against Orissa. He consequently withdrew from the squad for the entire Ranji season but reconciled his differences with the board in a meeting with Milind Rege, Mumbai’s chairman of selectors, Ratnakar Shetty, the MCA vice-president, and Nitin Dalal, the MCA secretary, in February 2012.Agarkar was then named in the probables for the Vijay Hazare Trophy and has now been named captain, replacing Wasim Jaffer, who stepped down as captain in February after holding the post for four seasons. Agarkar, 34, has got the job ahead of the younger Ajinkya Rahane, who has been named vice-captain, and Abhishek Nayar. Both Rahane and Nayar had been spoken about as possible future captains of Mumbai.Squad: Ajit Agarkar (capt), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-capt), Wasim Jaffer, Ramesh Powar, Suryakumar Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Iqbal Abdullah, Sushant Marathe (wk), Ankit Chavan, Kshemal Waingankar, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (jr), Siddharth Chitnis, Shoaib Shaikh, Anup Revandkar

Jesse Ryder, the New Zealand batsman, has decided to take an indefinite break from cricket to resolve some personal issues after a “deeply stressful and emotional time”. His manager Aaron Klee released a statement on Thursday saying Ryder had pulled out of Wellington’s squad for their next Plunket Shield match, against Northern Districts starting Friday, and had not decided when he would make himself available again.Ryder had been training with the Wellington squad but has withdrawn from the team after a joint decision by him, Klee, Karen Nimmo – the clinical psychologist he works with – and New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief executive Heath Mills.”We hope that Jesse will be available for Wellington selection again in the coming weeks, but it would be imprudent of me to try and put an exact date on this,” Klee said.Ryder was dropped from New Zealand’s squad for the third one-day international against South Africa after he and teammate Doug Bracewell broke team protocol by going out at night when injured and getting involved in an argument with someone at a hotel. Ryder had returned for the series against South Africa after a two-month layoff due to a calf injury and split the webbing in his hand during the second ODI, in Napier, after which he, Bracewell and Tharun Nethula went to a hotel.New Zealand coach John Wright said after the incident that Ryder, who has had several problems with discipline before, was testing his patience, while Brendon McCullum, who captained New Zealand in the ODI series, said the team were disappointed that Ryder had gone out after a heavy loss. Ryder was also left out for the Tests against South Africa due to form.Klee said Ryder’s return to the New Zealand setup had perhaps been too rushed, and that being in the public eye had taken a toll on Ryder. “There were some pretty stressful times for him. We are not dealing with this from a professional perspective as a cricketer; this is all about Jesse as a person. That is my total focus as his manager and as his friend.”Ryder had also faced criticism earlier in the series against South Africa, when former New Zealand batsman Craig McMillan called his performance in the third Twenty20 against South Africa “selfish” and the reason for New Zealand’s loss in a match they were on course to win. Ryder had taken seven deliveries to get from 49 to 50 and New Zealand ended up losing after needing 17 to win off four overs.Klee admitted that criticism had hurt Ryder. “That criticism would hurt anyone. He wasn’t just questioning Jesse’s batting, he was questioning his integrity.”Edited by Dustin Silgardo

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Jamaica made it six wins out of six by completing a clinical victory over Combined Campuses and Colleges in Bridgetown, Barbados. It was a team effort from Jamaica, with a string of useful contributions from the batsmen taking them to decent totals, and the bowlers hunting in packs to dismiss CCC cheaply.CCC were set a target of 321 runs, a tough ask in a season in which the highest fourth-innings total to win a game is 219. They managed to last only 56.1 overs and were all out for 166 early on the fourth morning. Legspinner Odean Brown picked up a five-wicket haul as CCC lost their last five wickets for only 23 runs.CCC had a chance to put Jamaica under pressure after bowling them out for 200 on the first day. Medium-pacers Jason Dawes and Jason Holder had taken three wickets each to inflict the damage. However, CCC failed to capitalise and crashed to 137 all out. Shacaya Thomas, who scored 78, was the only batsman who showed resistance against Jamaica’s persistent bowling attack.With a 63-run deficit to deal with, CCC were unable to restrict Jamaica’s top order, with Tamar Lambert getting a half-century. Although no one else got to 50, each of the top five made contributions, and Jamaica added enough runs to take the game away from CCC. Ryan Austin bagged five wickets but he too struggled to curtail the scoring and gave away 89 runs.Jamaica will face Guyana in the semi-finals, in Kingston from March 30.

Khurram Manzoor’s hundred went in vain as Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) beat National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) by three wickets and three balls to spare at Gaddafi Stadium. PIA’s Najaf Shah and Anwar Ali picked up two and three wickets each to rip through NBP’s batting order, though Manzoor (121 off 142 balls) and Fawad Alam (67 off 88 balls) resisted and led their team to 230. NBP fought hard to defend but Faraz Ali (73) and the captain Shoaib Malik (64) set up the victory and secured PIA a place in the semi-finals.The Farhat brothers, Imran and Humayun, scored centuries to help Habib Bank Limited (HBL) beat State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) at Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. Imran Farhat (105 off 111) and Humayun Farhat (100 off 51 balls) boosted HBL to 310, while Mohammad Naved and Kashif Siddiq managed to take three wickets each. SBP made a decent chase but a fifty from Mohtashim Ali and century from Rameez Aziz went in vain. Aftab Alam took 2 for 27, while Danish Kaneria claimed 3 for 57 to dismiss SBP for 291.Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) beat Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) by two wickets in a dead rubber at Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. Zulfiqar Babar and Imranullah Aslam took four wickets each to cut through ZTBL, dismissing them for 143 in 32.4 overs. Sharjeel Khan top scored with 53 off 50 balls. WAPDA made a poor start to the chase and were 7 for 2 after the openers fell. Rafatullah Mohamad scored 69 off 67 balls and led his side to victory in 35.1 overs. Junaid Nadir, Junaid Zia, Jawad Hameed took two wickets each for ZTBL.Half centuries by Kamran Younis and Mohammad Ayub steered Sialkot Stallions to a six-wicket win over Karachi Dolphins at Jinnah Stadium. Dolphins, with half-centuries from Shahzaib Hasan (72) and Asad Baig (80), managed to post 232 before they were dismissed in 49 overs. Atif Jabbar took 4 for 48 for Sialkot. During the chase, Sialkot lost four wickets before achieving the target in 39.3 overs to book their place in the semi-final.Zeeshan Mushtaq’s unbeaten century led Islamabad Leopards to a thrilling, one-wicket victory against Rawalpindi Rams at Diamond Club Ground. Chasing a target of 224, Islamabad were reeling at 51 for 5 but Mushtaq kept his cool with Naeem Anjum, who made 48 off 47 balls, to secure victory with four balls to spare. Earlier, Nasrullah Khan dented Rawalpindi’s innings with four wickets to restrict them to 223. Shoaib Ahmed top scored with 56 while Babar Naeem made 49.Faisalabad Wolves beat Abbottabad Falcons by two wickets at Abbottabad Cricket Stadium. Asked to bat first, Abbottabad rode on Mohamamd Naeem’s hundred to post 292. Ehsan Adil and Aqeel Ahmed took two wickets each, while Waqas Masood conceded 63 runs for three wickets. Murtaza Anees (51) and Hasan Mahmood (71) scored half-centuries and Faisalabad eventually secured victory in the final over.

ScorecardAndrew Strauss leaves the field after falling one run short of his half-century•PA Photos

It was a stop-start day in north London. Just as he was really getting started, Andrew Strauss was abruptly stopped. In overcast conditions that three times interrupted proceedings before bringing about an early close, Strauss played a bright and breezy innings, riding his luck until the point where he appeared to have rediscovered some missing vim, only to fall to the second ball delivered by Worcestershire’s England U-19 allrounder Aneesh Kapil.Kapil was making his first appearance at Lord’s so dismissing the England captain was quite a way to celebrate. Strauss played around a straight one – pretty much the only straight one in Kapil’s opening over as he struggled with the slope – and shortly afterwards the players went off for bad light and an early lunch.If that was hard luck on Strauss, then he had already used up a chunk of fortune in the first half-hour, when he played and missed, grafted and poked, and generally looked so out of nick that the only positive was that he did not actually get out.On two occasions edges failed to carry and he was also aided by a drop at third slip when he had made 5 only to settle and thereafter display some of the positive strokeplay either side of the wicket that is the mark of his batting at its best.Twice he cut Jones hard to the square boundary and, having hooked Richardson into the Grand Stand, looked well set to capitalise on his early reprieve. In fact, he might have reached 50 had his opening partner Sam Robson been quicker between the wickets. Strauss wanted three after a clip off his legs and could be seen gesturing as much to Robson, whose turning rather resembled an MCC member who had forgotten to make his order at the bar. Instead, it was Robson who saw out the next over, a maiden, and Strauss who fell lbw for 49 to Kapil’s medium pace.”It was a great honour to get out the England captain in my first over at Lord’s,” Kapil said. “I didn’t bowl as well as I could after that but I need to make sure I’m back on it tomorrow. I didn’t realise how big the slope actually was. People always talk about the slope and it’s the first time I’ve actually experienced it. It’s quite a big difference.”Kapil, who regards himself as a batsman who bowls, has impressed for Worcestershire since returning from England U-19s duty in Australia and he might one day get the opportunity to master the slope in an England shirt. At 18, he seems eager to prove himself. “Impossible is nothing,” was his response to being asked whether a result was still achievable, after a day and a half was lost to inclement weather and poor light, although that may have betrayed his youthful exposure to marketing as much as a attitude.Following Thursday’s wash out, conditions didn’t augur much better for Strauss’ third knock of the season, as Worcestershire predictably chose to bowl under grubby, cotton-wool clouds. Chris Rogers may have temporarily replaced Neil Dexter as Middlesex captain but he maintained their losing run at the toss and for the fourth time in four matches they were inserted. The expected tumble of wickets did not ensue, however, despite the tight lines initially bowled by Alan Richardson, the Middlesex old boy, and David Lucas.After a cautious start, in which they scored 16 runs from the first eight overs, with one boundary, Strauss and Robson soon found that this pitch had no anti-establishment leanings and proceeded to pull, cut and drive with alacrity. Michael Klinger was guilty of failing to cling on to a Strauss edge off Richardson – a sharp but catchable chance – and the pair went on to record Middlesex’s first 50-run opening stand of the season, before Kapil struck in the 21st over.A three-hour delay then ensued, during which a brief shower augmented the poor light, but when they got back on Robson sped to his half-century in a flurry of blows, taking just 11 balls to go from 29 to 50. Middlesex added 34 in 5.1 overs before another short interruption and then just as he and Joe Denly began to look increasingly comfortable, Robson got one that bounced and left him from Richardson and this time Klinger lived up to his name. Denly displayed some sweet timing, particularly driving down the ground, but after a length ball reared at him out of the gloom, the batsmen were offered the light one final time.Worcestershire’s most recent visit to Lord’s came during their promotion charge of 2010, in which they won three of their last four matches to gazump Glamorgan for second spot. On that occasion, they dismissed Middlesex for 66 on the final day to complete an unlikely 111-run victory. It might require a similarly remarkable feat for them to pick up their first win of the season here.

ScorecardKent edged towards safety in their Division Two match with Northamptonshire at Canterbury as they closed a rain-affected third day on 280 for 6. Crucially, they managed to inch past the follow-on figure of 269 to keep themselves on course for their fifth draw in six.With the floodlights on and the square swathed in sheets and pitch covers, match umpires Nigel Cowley and Nick Cook had no choice but to call proceedings off at 6pm, with Kent still 138 behind their opponents’ first-inning total of 418. It was all a familiar tale for Northamptonshire, who have already lost a total of 656 overs to inclement weather so far this season.Having resumed on 123 for 3, Kent lost overseas all-rounder Brendan Nash in the fourth over to only the seventh ball of the day from England Lions’ seamer Jack Brooks. Fooled by a slower off-cutter, Nash mistimed an on-drive into the hands of Stephen Peters at mid-wicket to go for 11 and make it 130 for 4.That brought Michael Powell and Darren Stevens together for a vital fifth-wicket stand that put Kent in a position to save the game. Both right-handers are renowned for their counter-attacking style but they soon realised they needed to curb their natural aggression and grind out precious runs.As a result, Powell got his first half-century for Kent at Canterbury from 119 balls, while Stevens, a Twenty20 star in the Bangladesh Premier League during the close season, limped to the same milestone from the same number of balls and with only seven fours.Their backs-to-the-wall effort finally ended when Powell, in attempting to work across the line against Lee Daggett, went lbw for 61, scored in a shade more than three hours. Stevens followed soon after for an equally stoical 57 when he nicked an attempted push drive against Andrew Hall into the gloves of wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien.Brothers-in-law James Tredwell and Geraint Jones also dug in for a further 16 overs before the rain arrived to wash out play for the day. Jones posted an unbeaten 26 from 58 balls with four flashing drives to the boundary, while Tredwell kept him company with a gritty unbeaten 11 scored in just over an hour.

ScorecardSteven Croft steered Lancashire away from a tricky position•PA Photos

You could, were you so inclined, use Steven Croft as an example of many of the things that are wrong with English cricket. He is unlikely to represent England, he is not, at the age of 27, particularly young, and he is not particularly likely to bring crowds flocking to see him in action.But Croft is a valuable player. A valuable county player. And it is such players who, by keeping the standard of county cricket high, ensure that future England players develop in a tough, intense environment that allows them to quickly adapt to the international game. Croft actually represents much that is right with county cricket.Here, with his side in danger of squandering their strong start, Croft produced a characteristically pugnacious innings. Particularly strong on the pull, he also clips off his legs neatly, produced a few nice drives – including the one that took him to the fifth first-class century of his career and the second of this campaign – and one delightful late cut. And he did it against an attack containing five international bowlers.It was a point made by Lancashire’s head coach. Peter Moores, the former England coach and the only man to have led two clubs to the County Championship title, who believes the standard of county cricket remains high and sees great significance in that fact that four of England’s current top seven scored centuries on Test debut.”County cricket undoubtedly plays a significant role in the development of the England team,” Moores told ESPNcricinfo. “You just have to look at the success of players coming into the team to see that.”The standard is good and there are really good cricketers coming through. I don’t see that the quality has been lowered at all. And, just as importantly, we have very few dead games or manufactured results these days. County cricket provides good entertainment. Perhaps we should push it more, just as we did when T20 was first introduced?”When I played, from 1983 to 1998, there were some great players. But you could effectively have matches off as there was only one division. Now just about every game in the top division of the championship means something so the cricket is more intense and competitive than it used to be.”Moores refutes the suggestion that the increased difficulty in singing overseas players and Kolpak registrations and the incentive to field young players had resulted in any dilution in quality. “The reason the ECB made those changes was to encourage young, England-qualified cricketers the opportunity to develop,” he said. “And it has. Fewer Kolpak players is no great loss, though I do think the rules over signing overseas players could be looked at. It would be nice if we could sign an outstanding young overseas player, but sometimes we are blocked because they haven’t played sufficient international cricket to gain a work permit.”Moores is also coming round to the idea of domestic T20 being played on a Friday night through much of the season, but fears that producing a predictable schedule is difficult bearing in mind the introduction of the Champions League, which is usually played from mid-September, and the volume of domestic cricket played.”The introduction of the Champions League has shortened the season,” Moores said. “There are several carrots for participating in it, but the fact is that it is very difficult to find an acceptable schedule if you play the same amount of cricket within the same time frame. Playing T20 in a block may be best for cricketing reasons, but we are in the entertainment business and, if we want people to come and watch us, we need them to know when we’re playing. People come on Friday nights and we need to have a season with rhythms that people understand.”Moores accepted that Lancashire, the defending champions, had not enjoyed the best start to the season, but felt the squad were developing nicely. “I think we have to accept that we haven’t played quite as well as last year,” Moores said. “We dominated 11 or 12 of the 16 games we played last year and that hasn’t been the case this time around. But we have quite a lot of young guys in this team and, when that is the case, you are bound to have some inconsistency.”Certainly Lancashire were grateful for Croft’s intervention on the second day of this game. Having slipped from 233 for 2 to 298 for 6, it appeared they were allowing Surrey back into the game. Ashwell Prince, vindicating Surrey’s decision to delay taking the second new ball, was beaten by some turn and hooked his attempted drive to be caught at deep midwicket, before Tom Smith’s optimistic attempt at a single was beaten by Zander de Bruyn’s direct hit from mid off. Gareth Cross then attempted to pull but hit the ball straight to midwicket.Glenn Chapple helped Croft add 121 for the seventh wicket in 29 overs. Chapple, who pulled Meaker for six and lofted Murali Kartik for four, was the aggressor at the start, but Croft was increasingly positive and at one stage took 15 off an over from de Bruyn. While he had enjoyed reprieves on 0 and 3 the previous day, he gave no further chances on day two and took advantage of a pitch that has become even slower and easier to bat upon to steer his side away from trouble.Not that it will probably make much difference. Heavy rain curtailed the day by 49 overs, which means Lancashire have now lost 1,030 overs to bad weather so far this season. By comparison, they lost only 234 in the whole of 2011, though that was an unusually good year. The forecast for the next couple of days is not wildly encouraging either.That will not help Kevin Pietersen. While, on the bright side, Pietersen has enjoyed five sessions of fielding practise, there is a real prospect of him going into the Test series against South Africa having had just one first-class innings since the last week of May.

That Bangladesh have made it through to the quarterfinals of the Under-19 World Cup by finishing second in Group D may surprise most people, but it hasn’t surprised them. They are a competitive team at this level and neither the captain Anamul Haque nor coach Sarwar Imran considered beating Sri Lanka to book their places in Townsville, where they will face Australia on Sunday, to be an upset.”We are a capable Under-19 team,” said Anamul after arriving in Townsville on Friday afternoon. “At Under-19 level, we aren’t very different from other teams. We’re equal. We beat Sri Lanka, it’s not a big deal. We are capable of beating any other team.”Bangladesh were pooled in perhaps the toughest group of the tournament along with South Africa, Sri Lanka and Namibia. They played four warm-up matches in the lead-up to the group games and had positive results. Led by Anamul’s century, Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka in the first group match but lost comprehensively to South Africa. They then swept past Namibia to book their tickets out of Brisbane and relegated Sri Lanka to the Plate Championship.They’ve got to Townsville by overcoming ongoing challenges both on and off the field. It hasn’t been uncommon to see players carrying bags of groceries to their rooms during this tournament and that’s largely due to the difficulty they’ve had in eating the unfamiliar breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. For all but one – Noor Hossain – of the Bangladesh players, this is their first trip to Australia and they took a while to adjust to the cold weather in Brisbane, the food, having to cook meals and do their own laundry. These may sound like menial concerns but every bit of discomfort is accentuated when you’re in the environment of a global tournament for the first time. Some of them still haven’t adjusted entirely, said the coach Imran, but they’re getting there.The higher hurdle has been the cricket and to their credit the Bangladesh players haven’t let their off-field issues affect their performances too much. They knew the conditions in Brisbane, a world away from those in Mirpur, Chittagong and Fatullah, would demand that they adapt techniques and approaches.”I’m happy we’ve reached the quarterfinal. The wickets we’ve played on, it hasn’t suited us,” Imran said. “The bounce is more in Brisbane; we don’t have the kind of pace bowlers [to exploit it]. We aren’t as good as the others as a pace bowling team. Some of the pitches had no turn, it was easy to go on the back foot even to good length balls [against spinners]. Here [Townsville] it is hot, and that might help us.”The Bangladesh batsmen were instructed too, to temper the approach they use at home. “On a subcontinent wicket, we go for power play in the first 15 overs, but in this tournament I said you play 50 overs,” Imran said. “We told them to leave the ball early, when it is swinging. You keep wickets in hand as much as possible and go for it in the last ten overs. They did that against Sri Lanka.”Apart from the game against South Africa, a couple of top-order batsmen have performed. Anamul made a hundred against Sri Lanka, while Asif Ahmed scored a half-century, and the opener Liton Das made 70 against Namibia. Imran said Anamul, Das and Soumya Sarkar, who made a double-century against Qatar in the Asia Cup, could play the short ball well. But Sarkar, in his opinion, has a penchant for playing one shot too many, and hasn’t performed in the group stages.Anamul holds his team to high standards. According to him, Bangladesh were better than they had been. “Not too happy with batting, two or three batsman are scoring, but not everyone,” he said. “I’m not fully happy with spinners, they try hard but are not yet up to the mark. Everyone can improve.”Against Australia, however, the responsibility of steering Bangladesh to a competitive total, or controlling a chase, will rest largely on Anamul. He is their most experienced batsman, having been part of the senior team during the Asia Cup and the tour of Zimbabwe, although he did not play. He’s also had the experience of playing international bowlers in the Bangladesh Premier League, where he plays for Dhaka Gladiators.”I am very positive, I go for big runs, I like to play long innings,” Anamul says when asked how he approaches his innings. “I’m very confident and have a strong mind.”Stuart Law, who coached Bangladesh before taking up his present role with Australia’s Under-19 side, knows Anamul and said he’d been one of his favourite players. “He’s wonderfully talented, he made a big impression during the Bangladesh Premier League last year,” Law said. “He’s one to watch. He got a hundred in the first game against Sri Lanka, so he’s definitely a player of class.”That compliment, however, will mean Australia’s bowlers – and there are four fast ones – will go hard at Anamul, looking to strike the body blow early in the contest. Bangladesh have had one day to come to terms with Townsville, while Australia played all their group matches here, as well as a quadrangular series in April. If Bangladesh should get past Australia, it will most certainly be an upset.

ScorecardLancashire stormed to the top of Group A in the Clydesdale Bank 40 with a very comfortable nine-wicket victory over Holland at Old Trafford. In a match reduced to 27 overs by early rain, Glen Chapple’s side dismissed the visitors for 68 in 20.5 overs and knocked off the runs in only 16.3 overs.Opener Stephen Moore continued his good form in one-day cricket this season by making 50 not out off 54 balls and Steven Croft was 14 not out when the winning single was taken.Although Holland were much weakened by injury and unavailability – two players were unable to get visas – the Dutch side’s batting was still deeply disappointing given their impressive early-season form in this competition.Spinners Gary Keedy and Stephen Parry did most of the damage, Keedy taking 3 for 15 and Parry 3 for 13 while seamer Ajmal Shazad finished with 2 for 7 from four overs.Ex-Western Australia batsman Michael Swart was the first batsman to be dismissed when he edged Shahzad to Paul Horton at slip in the sixth over of the innings. That began a disastrous passage of play for Holland, who lost all their wickets for 46 runs in 15.3 overs.Eric Szwarczynski also fell to Shazad when he was athletically caught in the gully by Croft for two and the loss of two early wickets in conventional fashion seemed to cause panic in the other Dutch batsmen.Peter Borren clipped Oliver Newby hard and straight to Ashwell Prince at midwicket without scoring and opener Wesley Barresi skied a slog off Keedy to mid-off where Croft took his second catch of the innings. Barresi top-scored with 20 and was one of only two Dutch batsmen to reach double figures.The farcical nature of the innings continued when Daan van Bunge came down the wicket to Keedy but could only deflect the ball on to his stumps and Werner Coetsee was run out for one attempting a second to Horton at deep midwicketThat left the visitors on 50 for 6 and the Holland tail end batsmen all found the accuracy and turn of spinners Keedy and Parry too testing a proposition on a slow Old Trafford wicket. Tom de Grooth and Peter Seelar were both bowled by Parry attempting attacking shots at a time when it might have been useful to bat out the overs.The dangerous Mudassar Bukhari was superbly caught by Prince at slip off Keedy and the veteran slow left-armer claimed the last wicket when Tim Gruijters was stumped by Cross.The win at Old Trafford means that Lancashire need only to beat Gloucestershire at Bristol next Sunday to book a place in the semi-finals of the CB40 and keep alive their hopes of winning a trophy this season

Jonny Bairstow has credited his experience playing with England Lions as one of the contributory factors in his impressive innings of 95 in the Lord’s Test against South Africa.Bairstow was dropped from the England Test side after the series against West Indies when Kemar Roach, in particular, appeared to highlight some deficiencies against the short ball. Recalled for this Test, due to the unavailability of Ravi Bopara and the dropping of Kevin Pietersen, Bairstow responded with an innings of courage and skill that rescued England from a precarious 54 for 4 and revived their hopes of securing the victory that would see them retain the No. 1 Test ranking.Bairstow scored 139 for England Lions against Australia A last week, dealing confidently with an impressive pace attack that included Mitchell Johnson. As a result, Bairstow came into the Test believing he had the technique and temperament to deal with the barrage of short balls that he knew would come his way.Lions games are not universally popular in English cricket, due to the scheduling of some games towards the end of the domestic season, causing counties that may be striving for promotion or to avoid relegation to be weakened. But Bairstow’s words support the England team management’s insistence that such matches play an important role in the development of international players.”I was confident in the way I was playing coming off the back of the Lions game,” Bairstow said. “Mitchell Johnson and Jackson Bird are world-class bowlers. It was really good to go out and test yourself against bowlers like that, and the two spinners as well were obviously a test on a turning Old Trafford pitch.”I did perhaps go through a bit of a dry spell after the series against West Indies. When you get exploited in some sort of way, you go away and look at things. You can’t just change via the click of a finger. It goes through practice, through stages. You’re going to fail sometimes.”But at the same time, there were no drastic changes that I made. You work on your strengths, and look at little things you can improve on. I went away and worked with Martyn Moxon and Graham Thorpe over the last couple of weeks and made some little improvements.”Jonny Bairstow fell five runs short of his maiden Test hundred•PA Photos

Bairstow admitted his runs in this Test had been the hardest he had ever scored and praised Ian Bell’s calming influence in a fifth-wicket partnership of 124 that stabilised the England innings after a poor start.”They’re a world class attack,” he said. “Playing out there in a Test against the No. 3 side in the world is never going to be easy. The likes of Steyn, Morkel, Philander, Kallis and Tahir are formidable bowlers. There isn’t a single bowler in that attack that isn’t world-class.”Obviously it was a tough period when I came in, so I was happy to ride that. Ian Bell played fantastically well as well during that period and that partnership. When you walk to the crease and you’re under the pump a little bit, it’s something I quite enjoy. But Belly’s experience and expertise was a very calming influence.”Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, was even moved to praise Bairstow’s innings as “the best 95″ he had seen and, despite falling just short of a maiden Test century, Bairstow insisted that the pleasure at his important contribution far outweighed the regret at narrowly missing out on the personal landmark.”I was pleased with the way that I played,” Bairstow said. “I was delighted to get 95. But yes, I am a little bit disappointed not to get to the 100. It’s only five runs, but it would have been nice.”