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by 47 runs
ScorecardA resolute century by Arish Alam on a difficult, green pitch in Kanpur, and his partnership with Mohammad Kaif carried Uttar Pradesh comfortably into the lead against Baroda. The Green Park pitch helped the seamers through the day with movement and bounce. Some deliveries kicked, while some stayed low. UP were in trouble after having lost four wickets, including that of their captain Suresh Raina, in the morning session. But Alam and Kaif battled against the conditions and the Baroda attack which had a host of medium-pacers. The duo put on 160 for the fifth wicket before Kaif fell to the second new ball for 83 off 205. Alam reached his hundred in the closing moments before play was halted minutes before stumps due to bad light. Left-armer Gagandeep Singh caused the most damage with three strikes, including one that straightened from round the stumps to bowl Parvinder Singh.
ScorecardDelhi were in trouble in Lahli, Rohtak, after losing six wickets for 165 in pursuit of Haryana’s 307. India Under-19 captain Unmukt Chand was hit on the elbow in the first over by Mohit Sharma and had to retire hurt for a while. He returned to make an unbeaten 76, and will be Delhi’s major hope if they are to get close to Haryana. Harshal Patel and Amit Mishra picked up two wickets each. After Chand took the blow, Mithun Manhas also had to return to the pavilion on 20 with a back spasm. Parvinder Awana had earlier picked up five wickets but not before Haryana’s lower order led by Harshal’s unbeaten 39 had stretched the innings to 307.
ScorecardFifties from the Beheras, Natraj and Niranjan, led Odisha’s strong reply to Maharashtra’s 315 in Sambalpur. Natraj, the captain, set the tone with a breezy 60 off 97 deliveries at the top of the order while Niranjan made a sedate unbeaten 59 from 174. Govind Podder contributed 40 before becoming Shrikant Mundhe’s second victim. Mundhe had made an unbeaten 39 earlier, and along with Akshay Darekar, taken Maharashtra past 300. Basant Mohanty was the most successful Odisha bowler with 3 for 40.
ScorecardS Badrinath missed a double century by eight runs as Tamil Nadu plodded to 443 for 8 against Vidarbha in Nagpur. The visitors added just 208 runs today for the loss of five wickets. Shrikant Wagh claimed 4 for 101 but a partnership of 92 between Badrinath and R Prasanna (33) ensured Tamil Nadu weren’t bothered too much. Badrinath was bowled by Sandeep Singh after having faced 381 balls and hit 21 fours and three sixes. Wagh struck twice after Badrinath had gone but No. 7 V Shankar made an unbeaten 63 to take Tamil Nadu close to 450.

Australia’s wicketkeeper Matthew Wade is acutely aware of his tenuous place at the top of what is by far the national team’s most competitive market. At a time when high quality batsmen and spin bowlers are in short supply and fast bowlers are almost as likely to drop with injury as they are to flourish, Australia has seldom had a more bounteous supply of glovemen.While Phillip Hughes was recalled after his first Sheffield Shield century of the summer, Wade knows that behind him in the queue lurks a small army of stumpers. His predecessor Brad Haddin, keen on one more Ashes tour, is swinging from the hip for New South Wales with a reconfigured batting grip. Tim Paine has battled back manfully from a serious finger fracture and took the Australia A gloves this year. Chris Hartley maintains a never less than fastidious standard behind the stumps for Queensland and has grown his batting notably.And this is all without mentioning the likes of Peter Nevill, Tom Triffitt and Peter Handscomb, all considered worthy of eventual national call-ups. Wade regularly runs his eyes across the competition, the resurgent Haddin in particular, and has resolved to play each match in the manner Ricky Ponting approached the Perth Test – as his last.”Every time you walk out onto the ground for Australia you’ve got to live that moment. Every time could be your last,” Wade said. “So in that regard, I do live the moment I suppose for Australia. I keep an eye on cricket games and, yeah, Hadds is playing really nicely and he was always going to. A world-class player. Anyone who’s played 60 Tests and goes back and plays first-class and domestic cricket is always going to do very well.”There’s so many good keepers in Australia. It’s not just one or two people. In a matter of months there can be keepers come out of the woodwork and play good cricket so if I’m worried too much about them, then my performance out here is going to be affected. It’s just about preparing well and giving myself the best chance.”Wade was unsatisfied with his returns against South Africa, both as a wicketkeeper and a batsman. His best, exemplified by a reflex take to dismiss Robin Peterson off Nathan Lyon and then a rapid 68 in the first innings of the Perth Test, was of a glittering standard. His worst, a missed stumping of Graeme Smith in Adelaide and an agitated slog at Peterson to be dismissed in the second innings at the WACA ground, was not.There is less concern from Wade when another missed chance is mentioned, Faf du Plessis edging Ben Hilfenhaus in and out of his gloves on the tense final day in Adelaide, for it was the result of his decision to move up to the stumps in an effort to interrupt du Plessis’ otherwise serene batting rhythm. If Wade set the trap but could not bring it to completion, he consoles himself with the fact that an opportunity had been created.”It plays on your mind definitely after the game, but I was lucky that we had two days off and were starting another Test match,” Wade said. “Everyone was really supportive. I went up there to make something happen, the game was drifting on a little bit, something did happen and it just didn’t stick that day. Two days later I got a catch off Nathan Lyon and it stuck. That’s unfortunately the game I play, one will stick one day and some will fall out others.”Up to the stumps is where you can really challenge yourself and change a game. You can make or break a game up to the stumps, as simple as that. That when the pressure’s on and I think every keeper likes getting up there and having a real crack, whether it’s a quick or a spinner. It’s going to be interesting, hopefully I get to India and I can keep in similar conditions in the West Indies where it spins a lot more, and challenge myself a little bit more.”Wade’s enthusiasm for the visit to India is a rare sentiment, for the subcontinent provides a more sustained test of a wicketkeeper’s ability than almost anywhere else on the globe. However Wade has reasoned from his West Indies experiences that lower bounce suits his diminutive stature, making him more comfortable against the fizzing, turning ball in Delhi than he is when keeping up to the bouncing variety in Brisbane or Perth.”In the West Indies I enjoyed keeping up to the stumps,” Wade said. “Australia’s a different kettle of fish when you keep up, it’s not as much side spin, it’s more bounce, which is probably the hardest thing for me to keep to because of my height, the bounce in the wickets can get up around my chest so that’s probably harder for me.”In Australia I’ve learned a lot over the past four or five years keeping up to the stumps and I’ve got to continue to improve that. I enjoy keeping up tot he stumps because then you’re in the game, and you’re challenged a lot. In Adelaide I probably didn’t have the greatest game up to the stumps, I kept as well as I did in Perth in Adelaide, I just a missed a couple of chances and it gets highlighted a lot more – as it should – than other things.”Once, those lapses would have been terminal for a Test keeper’s career, but now the requirement to add runs as well as dismissals has had the effect of spreading their responsibilities, and also their chances to justify their place. “It’s definitely an allrounder’s position but it’s probably better for the keepers now to have two positions,” Wade said. “Back in the day if you didn’t keep well enough you got dropped, simple as that. Now you’ve got both aspects, batting and keeping, so it’s probably a good thing for us because we’re expected to make runs and keep also – we’ve got two opportunities to do well in the game.”Given how many are straining to have the job Wade currently enjoys, two chances at success are certainly better than one.

Matthew Wade is confident he can do the No.6 position justice in the Sydney Test after the captain Michael Clarke declared Wade would likely move up in the absence of Shane Watson. Usman Khawaja is on standby for Clarke, who is still carrying a hamstring niggle, but is not expected to replace the injured Watson, with the allrounder Glenn Maxwell more likely to take Watson’s place.Clarke said after the Melbourne Test that if Maxwell played he would most probably bat at No.7, with Wade to shift up to six and Clarke and the retiring Michael Hussey also moving up the list to Nos.4 and 5 respectively. That means extra responsibility for Wade, who has scored a hundred and two half-centuries during his eight-Test career, but he said his experience in the top six for Victoria would hold him in good stead.”I’d be comfortable moving up to No.6 if that’s what the team needed me to do to win a Test match,” Wade said in Sydney on Monday. “I’ve been lucky enough to bat at six for Victoria for a couple of years now. In terms of impact on keeping, it doesn’t make too much of a difference coming one up the order. I’m happy to bat at six if the team needs me, or stay at seven.”Traditionally, No.7 has been the position occupied by Australian wicketkeepers. Even the great Adam Gilchrist only batted at No.6 on 14 occasions in his Test career, while Wade’s predecessor Brad Haddin filled the role seven times. Gilchrist had success in the No.6 spot, scoring 645 Test runs at 49.61 including two centuries, but Haddin managed only 126 runs at an average of 18.But more often than not, Gilchrist had the luxury of coming in with plenty of runs already on the board. Australia’s average four-down total when Gilchrist came to the crease as a Test No.6 was 223; for Haddin, the average was 110. Given the lack of experience in Australia’s batting line-up, Wade shouldn’t be surprised if he walks out with relatively few runs on the board, but he does not believe he will be under any extra pressure.”My personal expectation if I’m at six or seven is to contribute runs to the team,” Wade said. “Personally that doesn’t change for me. Maybe outside expectation is that the No.6 needs to get a little bit more runs, but I’m trying to get runs every time I bat.”I’ll bat exactly the same. If I get the opportunity to bat at six, I’m guessing Pup will talk to me a couple of days out and he’ll just want me to bat the same but in the No.6 position. I wouldn’t be changing my game plan at all.”Wade, 25, has proven himself a consistent scorer at first-class level during a career spanning six seasons. After 92 first-class innings, Wade has scored 3055 runs at 40.19, very similar figures to those of Gilchrist at the same stage of his career. After 92 first-class innings, Gilchrist had made 3080 runs at 41.06, while Haddin had 2971 runs at 35.79.Whether a move up the order could become permanent after Hussey’s retirement remains to be seen, but if Watson chooses to give up bowling such a change would allow Australia to pick an extra bowling allrounder for each Test. Regardless of where he bats, Wade’s role in the coming months is likely to include greater leadership, for the absence of Hussey and Ricky Ponting has left the Australian line-up lacking experience.Over the past year, Wade has become a permanent presence in the Australian line-up in all three formats and only David Warner, who hasn’t missed a match, has represented Australia more times in the past 12 months than Wade, who has played 46 of a possible 49 games. In that time, the only matches he didn’t play were during last summer’s Test series against India, when Haddin remained the first-choice gloveman.Wade’s heavy workload could mean he is asked by the selectors to rest during the upcoming ODIs or Twenty20 internationals against Sri Lanka or West Indies, especially with a big year coming up, including a four-Test tour of India and two Ashes series. Wade said he was not keen to take a break but would do so if the selectors insisted.”I don’t want to stop playing cricket for Australia, not at all,” Wade said. “But I don’t think that will be my decision, that will be a decision that will be made higher up, if I am going to rest any games. I want to play every game that I can for Australia, but I fully understand where the people are coming from above.”Going forward with how much cricket we are playing, the rest of the fast bowlers and if I end up having a rest, it will be beneficial down the track. But at the time, no cricketer wants to rest. I’m not expecting it, but if it comes along I’ve got to be open to that discussion.”

Carl Hooper has denied any interest in coaching Bangladesh. Earlier this week the BCB had spoken of the former West Indies captain as one of the early candidates.”I was asked if I was interested, said I wasn’t and that was the last I heard of it,” Hooper told . “I was hoping Bangladesh would retract what they have apparently said that I was ‘interested in the job’. I have not applied and I am not interested. I am happy at Woodville.”On Monday, BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus had said Hooper was one of those interested in taking up the offer after the board had advertised for the position that had been vacated by Richard Pybus in October last year. ESPNcricinfo understands that Hooper’s agent had contacted the BCB.However, Hooper said he would rather be interested in other options, especially because he would always put his family first in these matters. “I know there are a few things that might come up in South Australia or the Caribbean. My kids are settled here so I want to stay here if I can.”There’s a lot of stuff in the air with SACA [South Australia Cricket Association] and the clubs. I always put my family first. That is why the Bangladesh thing is so far-fetched.”

Shane Bond, the New Zealand bowling coach, said it had yet to be decided which of his bowlers will draw the short straw of needing to bowl into the wind at the Basin Reserve.The into-the-wind role in Wellington can be unlike any other ground in the world, as gales howl up the Cook Strait and right down the Basin. One of the problems for the current New Zealand side, which is set to retain the same balance of attack, is that the three quicks usually have the wind in their favour in domestic cricket.”It’s an interesting one,” Bond said. “All three are strike bowlers in their own right and do a different role for their domestic team, but it’s certainly something you have to consider when you come to Wellington – who will do that role.”All three aren’t used to doing it so hopefully we’ll get days where it isn’t too windy. But it’s something you also have to think about when you go back to domestic cricket; bowl some spells into the wind to prepare yourself for this level.”Although one of the quicks will, obviously, have to bowl into whatever wind there is with the new ball, Bond added that later in the day the job will probably be shared between the full set to ensure no one is overburdened.Bond is confident that the attack can recover from their large workloads in Dunedin. New Zealand’s three quicks – Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner – sent down 114 of the 170 overs in England’s second innings and will be treated carefully over the next two days.”We always knew the guys are fit, and can bowl a lot of volume, we just need to make sure they are fresh and ready to go,” Bond said. “I thought we bowled our best on day five even after a day in the park. I was pleased with that.”However, Matt Prior suggested the situation was to England’s advantage “I’m sure the New Zealand bowlers will be feeling it. Any seamer bowling 40 overs is a mammoth effort. I’d rather have been batting for 170 overs than fielding, let’s put it that way.”The standout performance in Dunedin came from Neil Wagner who bagged seven wickets in his first home Test. He bowled 43 overs in the second innings, including an afternoon spell on the final day of 8-2-20-2 that included the wickets of Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen. Bond, an aggressive fast bowler in his day, was hugely impressed with Wagner’s stamina.”That’s the one thing I’ve really enjoyed about working with Neil, that never-say-die attitude, he will always run in,” he said. “Even at the back end of the fifth day he was still running in hard after 40 overs, so that’s credit to him. When you go in with four bowlers there can certainly be no weak link in the chain in terms of volume.”There are a variety of predictions being made about the pitch for the second Test, ranging from another slow surface that was on show in Dunedin to a surface where the ball will fly through at good pace. What appears to be generally accepted, however, is that the spinners’ role will be very much a holding one.”It was a bowlers’ graveyard in the first game, it certainly wasn’t a 160 wicket,” Bond said. “I’d back our bowlers on wickets that do a bit. In terms of winning Tests that’s our best chance, some assistance to the quick bowlers.”Having briefly looked at the pitch on Tuesday, Prior said “it doesn’t look a slow one” although two days out from a match is really too early to judge a Test surface. Regardless of the pitch, Prior is aware that another poor first innings will not be tolerated despite the confidence boost England receive in saving the opening Test.”You can’t ignore that first innings,” he said. “But then you have to look at the way we kept fighting hard with the ball, and then the way we finished with the bat was sensational. We’re becoming a very hard team to beat, but we want to go that one step further and start winning.”

ScorecardSouth Australia completed a spectacular blow-out in the finishing straight of the domestic limited overs competition, losing by 18 runs against New South Wales at Adelaide Oval to drop out of the tournament after leading its standings with three matches to go.