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They had a night’s sleep, but Pakistan and New Zealand might well have just carried on unbroken by stumps last night, so similar was the tempo today.Haris Sohail and Babar Azam’s 70-over behemoth of a partnership sought to grind New Zealand into the dirt, amassing 186 runs. Both reached Test hundreds, Babar belatedly his maiden one in the format, before a surprise declaration with the score at 418 – the lowest ever for a first innings declaration in the UAE – saw New Zealand have to keep their wits about them. That they did successfully enough, going in at stumps without having lost a wicket but still trailing by almost 400 runs.Curiously, Pakistan didn’t quite pick up the pace even as the pressure lifted. Heaps of credit must go to New Zealand’s bowlers for that, whose large-hearted efforts ensured they were never – not once in 167 overs – simply going through the motions awaiting a declaration. The lines were kept tight, the plans were still being hatched, and attempts to take wickets never wavered even as it seemed the toil of a treacherously unhelpful wicket would finally take its toll.That Pakistan only managed 418 might prove crucial over the next three days; only once before has a team declared at a score under 500 in this country. That was Sri Lanka in 2014, and they ended up losing with mere overs to spare.Pakistan, however, went back to what served them best during the halcyon days of Misbah-ul-Haq. They won the toss, and they set about batting for two days, shutting everything and everyone else out. It was the sort of steel that had been absent from their soft capitulation in Abu Dhabi, and they were eager to wipe it clean from everyone’s memories. Because of that, day two was almost a cut and paste of day one, Babar replacing Azhar Ali in a monstrously energy-sapping partnership with the indefatigable Sohail.Only 67 runs had come off a morning session where Kane Williamson called upon all of his five bowlers – as well as himself – at various times in an attempt to break through with no success. Perhaps surprisingly, Ajaz Patel bowled the first over instead of Trent Boult, but once he was taken out of the attack, he wouldn’t return all session. Boult wasn’t exactly subdued, but never quite possessed the penetrative threat he had carried this time around yesterday. Sodhi continues to struggle with the considerable challenge of bowling a consistent line in Test cricket, and found himself punished whenever he wavered, particularly by Babar in an over that went for 12, accounting for almost a fifth of all the runs this morning.Despite some eyebrows raised at the particularly snail-paced nature of the scoring yesterday, Haris and Babar made it clear they would not be changing their ways. Beginning today at 207, Pakistan were still not out of the woods, and a batting collapse would have seen all the grind of yesterday count for nothing.Haris looked slightly jittery when one run from completing a deserved hundred, charging down the wicket to Sodhi to several balls without ever getting to the pitch. It was only a rushed single that got him there before he was able to revert to type, and once more looking like the player who had bet his life upon his wicket.It wasn’t that Babar went unnoticed, but so effortless was the manner of his first Test century, you forgot this was a player who barely averaged 30 in this format. Batting for the first time since being agonisingly dismissed for 99 against Australia last month, he was determined to set the record straight against their trans-Tasman neighbours. And while Sohail toiled, Babar was, relative to the pace of the game, free-flowing. He, too, stuttered upon reaching his 90s and spent the entirety of the tea break stranded on 99, but there was never any question he would be denied once again. Where much was expected of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq in the most Misbah era, Pakistan will be heartened to see a younger duo stepping up.Sohail’s vigil did end in a lively hour after tea when he was three runs short of 150, Boult finally claiming a wicket he was due about five sessions ago. Babar and Sarfraz Ahmed picked up the pace somewhat, but never to the extent that suggested a declaration tonight was imminent. The pair added 62 runs in 18 overs, and when Babar lofted a long hop from a wicketless Sodhi for six, it looked as if a Pakistan charge was on the cards. They turned out to be the last runs Pakistan would score, however, with the Pakistan captain pulling the plug after 167 to give his bowlers a crack at a tiring New Zealand.Tests like these in this part of the world have a reputation of bursting into life over the latter half. That bodes well for any viewers who sat through the first two days; they might feel they’ve earned a bit of excitement. The challenge for New Zealand will be to gear themselves up mentally to produce the sort of patience and determination Pakistan showed after toiling in the field for nearly two days.Pakistan, meanwhile, have consciously, forcefully and successfully dredged up the formula that Misbah imparted upon them, and as things stand right now, all the equations seem to match.

Sydney Sixers launched their BBL campaign with a 17-run victory over Perth Scorchers in front of their home crowd at the SCG. Steve O’Keefe’s three-wicket burst in his first two overs gave them the ideal start to their defence of 165, which had been built on a record fourth-wicket stand of 124 between Jordan Silk and Daniel Hughes.Both sides struggled in their Powerplay: the Sixers were 3 for 39 after six overs and the Scorchers 3 for 30 after the top had been knocked over by O’Keefe. In the final outcome, it was the stand between Silk and Hughes which came out on the winning side despite the efforts of Ashton Turner and Hilton Cartwright, who added 99 in 12 overs.For the Scorchers, it means their campaign has started with two defeats in three days, following their loss to Melbourne Renegades. It is a long tournament, so it is certainly not panic stations, but they will be twitchy and keen to get a win on the board on Boxing Day against the defending champions Adelaide Strikers.Getty Images

Record recoveryThe Sixers would have been in deep trouble on 4 for 57 in the ninth over if Silk had been removed on 17, as he should have been when Ashton Agar spilled a simple return catch. From there, Silk and Hughes continued to consolidate the innings, aware that they could not throw the bat, given the early damage in the Powerplay.They managed the innings to the effect of 98 runs in the final 10 overs and 56 off the final five without there ever being a full onslaught. Silk’s fifty came off 39 balls and Hughes’ off 37. The Sixers did not manage a six until the 18th over, but then Hughes twice deposited Andrew Tye over midwicket. Silk then closed out the innings by taking Tye for his third six of the innings.The eventual stand of 124 was a BBL record for the Sixers, beating the 115 put on between Moises Henriques and Hughes against Sydney Thunder in 2016.SOK-ing it to themThe Sixers couldn’t have wished for a better start with the ball. With his first delivery, O’Keefe had Sam Whiteman stumped as the left-hander was drawn down the pitch. Then, in his second over, he had David Willey caught at long-on, and three balls later, Michael Klinger was lbw. At that stage, O’Keefe had the figures of 3 for 4 and he would finish with his best BBL figures.In the eighth over of the innings, it was then time for Lloyd Pope’s first bowl in the BBL. He has been signed with some fanfare following his eye-catching performances at U-19 and first-class level early in his career. His first two overs went for a respectable 17, before he was brought back for a third that cost 15 to give the Scorchers some momentum.Worries for ScorchersAs Turner and Cartwright forged their stand of 99, the Scorchers chase was taking a similar shape to the Sixers’ innings. The partnership had got the requirement down to 64 off 36 balls, and when Turner took Sean Abbott over the leg side at the start of the 15th over, it felt like the force was with the Scorchers. Then, Turner carved to point and there was too much left to do despite Cartwright’s 53 off 39 balls.The closing stages of the match included a stunning, juggled catch at midwicket by Hughes to remove Will Bosisto, as he parried the ball up one-handed before holding on, and Cartwright being run out off a no-ball, beaten by Josh Philippe’s pinpoint throw from deep cover, after Tom Curran had overstepped.For a team with such an illustrious T20 history, it has been a poor start from Perth Scorchers. Against Melbourne Renegades, their batting flopped for 103, and it was the quick loss of their top three here that hurt them. They are without the Marsh brothers due to international duty, and the top order feels a batsman light despite the all-round skills of the likes of David Willey and Agar. It seems increasingly likely that Cameron Bancroft will return as soon as available on December 30.

Sydney Thunder’s Callum Ferguson is hopeful his side gets full points out of the no-result in Brisbane on Thursday. The game was called off with Brisbane Heat in trouble at 2 for 10 in three overs, chasing 187, after two of the Gabba’s floodlights failed due to a power outage.Points were split, one apiece, between the sides, meaning the Thunder were denied what seemed like a prime opportunity to go second on the points table. Ferguson told Fox Sports after that game that he hoped the team would be awarded two points in hindsight, given their dominant position in the game.”It’s enormously disappointing, we’ve felt like we’ve dominated the fixture for 23 overs and then the lights go out,” Ferguson said. “It’s a pretty frustrating situation, we’re hopeful that at the end of it all we’ll hopefully get the full points out of the game, but it’s hard to know at this stage.”Obviously they’ll be a lot of water to go under the bridge in the next few days.”Both Ferguson and the Thunder’s coach Shane Bond said they felt the light available to them from the light towers which were still working was enough to keep playing in – bowling only spin – but the umpires disagreed. As per the laws, if the Thunder bowled two more overs, getting to the five-over mark, it would have constituted a completed game. Then, the result would have been determined via the Duckworth-Lewis method, making the Thunder favourites after the Heat’s poor start.”We felt like the light was good enough for us as fielders to be able to keep playing,” Ferguson said. “Obviously it’s a bit darker than normal so we did suggest we could just bowl spin, we were happy to concede that.”I’m not sure with what happened from the discussions there, I wasn’t involved in them but from our side of the fence we were keen to get something happening.”While waiting to see if the lights came back on, Bond had reportedly said similar things: “We think it’s safe enough to play. We said we’d bowl our spinners because we want a game of cricket – obviously we’re in a stronger position. The umpires have said… we think it’s unsafe.”The Cricket Australia website quoted a CA spokesperson on the incident, saying: “This is being looked into as a priority. Further updates will be provided in due course.”The power outage was not confined to only the Gabba, but affected a significant part of Brisbane.

Sidra Ameen’s half-century and three-fors from Diana Baig and Nashra Sandhu led Pakistan to a four-wicket win against West Indies in the third ODI, giving the home team a historic 2-1 series victory – their first against West Indies.The win gave Pakistan two points, lifting them above West Indies to fourth place in the ICC Women’s Championship table. Pakistan now have 12 points, the same as India, but with a much inferior net run rate. West Indies remain on 11 points.The Pakistan bowlers continued their fine show from the second ODI, in which they had bowled out West Indies for 206. This time, the visitors managed only 159. Captain Stafanie Taylor opted to bat, scored 52, and even took 2 for 17, but her all-round show wasn’t enough to take West Indies through.Taylor had to walk out in the first over, Kycia Knight having been bowled by Baig off the third ball of the innings, and she stayed till the 37th over as wickets fell around her. West Indies were in a good position early on till Taylor and Deandra Dottin were batting together but Dottin’s aggressive 28 off 20 came to an end when she was run-out by Nida Dar in the eighth over.Shemaine Campbelle then joined Taylor for a 52-run stand as West Indies consolidated, but once Campbelle was caught behind off Sandhu, the innings stuttered. They slipped from 87 for 2 in the 20th over to 159 all out, losing their last eight wickets for only 72 runs. Only one other batsman – Afy Fletcher – reached double figures after that and she remained unbeaten on 21. The 21-year-old Sandhu built a stranglehold in the middle overs, taking 3 for 21 in ten overs. Baig returned to end Taylor’s 95-ball stay with a return catch, before adding one more wicket to end with 3 for 42 in eight overs.The trio of Sana Mir, Dar, and Kainat Imtiaz were also parsimonious, conceding at less than three runs per over each.Pakistan’s reply was steady, with opener Ameen’s second straight half-century guiding the chase early on. She shared useful stands with fellow opener Nahida Khan, Javeria Khan, and Dar, before falling for 52 off 107 in the 39th over. Ameen’s wicket induced a mini-wobble, as Pakistan went from 128 for 3 to 139 for 6 in the space of 22 balls, but the experienced Mir came in at No. 8 and guided the team home, hitting a boundary with the scores level to seal victory in 47.2 overs.Shakera Selman took 2 for 24 in ten overs while Taylor had a fruitful seven-over stint too. But the other bowlers couldn’t sustain the pressure as much to defend the sub-par total.

Cameron Bancroft has immersed himself in yoga to detach himself from the pressures of a professional cricketer since he was one of the Australian players nabbed for ball tampering.On his Championship debut for Durham, Bancroft barely got out of the meditation stage. Many times, Cameron, we can become so stressful that we forget moving our body is even an option. Such as making 33 from 159 balls on a testing Chester-le-Street pitch in April. A responsible innings with an undercurrent of guilt.The responsibility of captaincy might allow him to flourish; it might load anxiety upon him. The decision has not been universally welcomed in these parts, although in Durham’s defence there were no other irresistible candidates.What is certain is he will learn a lot about himself, just as he did when, at such a young age, he became a figure of national opprobrium. He has talked of being in “a grieving phase”. He has had counselling. He has sought self-improvement.It was sandpaper rubbed on a ball, it was underhand, it deserved some form of punishment, but hell, people have shoved worse things down their trousers.Finding fault in others has become our favourite blood sport.As Bancroft begins the next phase of career rehabilitation in England, and – one hopes – learns not to be so judgmental on himself, he might have yearned to hit the mat for an emergency yoga session, but instead underneath his feet was the most challenging county surface in the country, one where in the past three seasons the average first-innings score has been a touch under 200.Paul Collingwood, his predecessor as captain, a man ingrained in north-eastern life, became so used to the opposition exercising their right to bowl first here that he didn’t bother to take a coin into the middle. When Dawid Malan, Middlesex’s captain, requested a toss in his last Championship match, Collingwood emptied out his pockets and offered to play Rock, Paper, Scissors instead.Reach out and fling your arms to the sky, you wanted Bancroft’s yoga teacher to shout as he watched every ball suspiciously. But unless yoga teachers have started wearing overcoats and woolly hats, there was not a yoga teacher around to help him, not even one long retired.If a yoga teacher did exist, she existed as a small, positive voice in Bancroft’s mind. Cast aside the guilt and allow positive emotions to flood over you. . Imagine how wonderful it must be to free your body from its robot precision. . Experience how freeing it would feel to trust your body’s movements completely, knowing it has a perfect strength and rhythm of its own. .Australian Cricketer Cameron Bancroft strikes a yoga pose•Getty Images

For long periods, as Sussex’s attack probed away, there was not as much as a Downward Dog in sight; a Warrior 2 was but a distant dream.Movement, Sinnerman, is the embodiment of life. Trust your body’s instincts completely. That little drive through extra cover against David Wiese an hour or so ago soothed your soul. The world must sometimes feel like it’s closing in, but don’t worry, that’s just mid-on and mid-off moving closer. Breath in and stretch to the right. Breath out and stretch to the left. Now fling your arms again through extra cover. That’s right, another boundary.Now your body is warming up, let’s extend that stretch. Movement can proclaim your own existence and help you relish the feeling of being alive. Live your life intensely, physically, spiritually. Respond naturally to the ball as Wiese’s outswinger curves towards you. Block out the sensation of the ball deflecting to first slip, of Chris Jordan wrapping his hands around the ball by his bootlaces.Don’t worry if you don’t execute it perfectly, improvement will come.For a batsman with eight Tests behind him, and ambitions to play in the Ashes, Bancroft did not entirely come to terms with English pitches in a spell at Gloucestershire. He has spent time saying he is a better person now, as he feels he must, but it is time to put all that behind him and concentrate on becoming a better cricketer.There was one entertaining innings played at Emirates Riverside on the first day: a maiden Championship 50 in only his third first-class game for Liam Trevaskis, who likes a square drive and whose path was eased by Bancroft’s wearing down of Sussex’s attack. Trevaskis is 19, from over the Pennines in Cumbria, and as far as we know has never sandpapered a cricket ball. Life is a lot easier that way.

A second incident in the first week of the IPL involving a bowler running out a batsman before delivering the ball was averted.Mumbai Indians’ Krunal Pandya decided not to break the stumps with Kings XI Punjab’s Mayank Agarwal, the non-striker, out of the crease before the ball was released.The incident took place in the tenth over of the Kings XI innings. Agarwal was on 19 at the point and would go on to make an explosive 43 off 21 balls to inject momentum into Kings XI’s eventually successful chase. Kings XI were 80 for 1 at that point, and by the time Agarwal departed, the target had come down to 60 runs from 39 balls.ALSO READ: The spirit of cricket is not a substitute for the lawsKrunal Pandya sends Chris Gayle off•BCCI

As per the IPL playing conditions as well as Law 41.16, Krunal had the right to run Agarwal out. Although there is no rule to warn the batsman, it’s regarded as a convention, Krunal opted to just let Agarwal hop back into the crease.Moments later the broadcasters zoomed the camera towards Kings XI captain R Ashwin. On Monday, playing in Jaipur against Rajasthan Royals, Ashwin had run Jos Buttler out backing up at the non-striker’s end. His action had generated a massive debate on social media and elsewhere, with several players, past and present, criticising Ashwin for forgetting about the Spirit of Cricket. The MCC, the custodians of the Laws of the game, initially cleared Ashwin of any wrongdoing, but a day later reviewed that call, saying the offspinner had “paused” too long before releasing the ball, something not “within” the spirit of cricket.When Mumbai bowling coach Shane Bond was asked by commentator Brendon McCullum on air if Krunal’s action was “gamesmanship”, the former said, “Just a subtle dig, mate, at the mankad.”

Schoolkids! Hordes of them! Packing out the Harleyford Road side of the ground and creating a racket far removed from your average Tuesday morning in April. They were long gone, of course, by the time Hampshire had torpedoed Surrey’s last remaining hopes in this year’s Royal London Cup – 50-over cricket drags on far too long for the youth of today, especially on a school day …But at least the kids were treated, at the peak of their excitement and interest, to 19 balls of poetry from the World Cup-bound James Vince. For just over a quarter of an hour, Alex Hales’ nominal replacement scorched his drives with the alacrity of the Chosen One, before losing his off stump to a pearler from Stuart Meaker and departing for 28 to sighs of a less contented variety.Oh yeah, and the kids were also treated to a Man-of-the-Match display of understated game-seizing from the non-World Cup-bound Liam Dawson – the understudy that no-one seems likely to call upon this summer despite this latest demonstration of his inestimable allround prowess.Hampshire had been a ropey 124 for 4 after 22 overs when Dawson strolled out to join the steadfast Aiden Markram, whose 88 from 90 balls had withstood a fast and furious new-ball burst from Meaker, a man fresh from a second XI hat-trick earlier this week, and who had opened his day’s work by finding Tom Alsop’s outside edge for a duck.Meaker’s day’s work, in fact, epitomised Surrey’s error-strewn campaign to date – he finished with three wickets for 58 in 8.5 overs, and also rattled Dawson on the grille with a savage bouncer early in his innings. But in his penultimate over, Meaker lost his range entirely, and was hoicked from the attack after two wides and two beamers, the first of which was dangerously fast and straight at Dawson’s forehead.Undeterred, Dawson planted his front foot to swing through the line as Conor McKerr was dragged into action to complete a ten-ball over, and dumped him unceremoniously into the Pavilion for six. McKerr did recover his poise to remove James Fuller and Kyle Abbott with consecutive balls, but Dawson slapped a cut through point to bring up his third List A hundred from 90 balls, and lift his side to a daunting total of 307.”At the start of the year [England selection] wasn’t something I was thinking about,” said Dawson afterwards. “If selected, brilliant, if not, I just want to perform for Hampshire. I like to think my one-day record is pretty good, but it’s not something I worry about anymore. I’m 29 now, so I just want to enjoy my cricket. If I play brilliant, if not I’ll keep doing well for Hampshire.”Surrey never entirely convinced in their efforts to pull together the chase, even while Mark Stoneman and Will Jacks were adding 66 for the first wicket in the first 13 overs. With Jason Roy still hors de combat after his back spasm a week ago, Stoneman led the reply with 70 from 68 balls, but not for the first time this season, their set batsmen were all too quick to flounder when a bit of pressure was applied.That said, Surrey’s first wicket was a superb piece of bowling from that man Dawson, who lured Jacks out of his crease with flight and guile, before getting one to grip and explode past the edge for Tom Alsop to complete a simple stumping.Dawson’s first three-over spell yielded just ten runs, as he burgled his way through the middle overs with scarcely a shot in anger, and after adding Rory Burns to a mildly desperate slog to long-off for 38 in the 35th over, he finished with 2 for 39 in ten, precisely the sort of professional performance that earned him his England call-up in Sri Lanka before Christmas, until a side strain opened the door for Joe Denly’s run to the World Cup 15.Burns’ departure – at 175 for 5 – was the final straw, both for his side’s hopes and for the final stragglers of the youth brigade, one of whom yelped a plaintive “Good luck Surrey!” as he was hauled off to the tube by a teacher deep into overtime.Ben Foakes, so often Surrey’s batsman of last resort this season, had already fallen to a checked drive off Gareth Berg, and the remainder of the middle order departed to a rash of airy slogs. Jamie Smith gave Vince catching practice at mid-off, before Kyle Abbott scalped two in two, including a brilliant effort from Aiden Markram, diving forward at backward-square to intercept a Ryan Patel pull.With five wins out of six, Hampshire’s defence of their title has begun with poise and intent – barring an extraordinary collapse in resolve (and Vince’s absence will not help in that regard), they are coasting through to the quarter-finals in a fortnight’s time.The same, however, cannot be said of their hosts, who have been derailed by injury and absence – even a squad with Surrey’s depth struggles to account for 12 missing squad players. They’ve made a habit in recent times of needing favours to qualify from the Royal London group stages, but this time there will be no salvation.

Billy Stanlake, the towering Australia fast bowler, will replace compatriot Kane Richardson as one of Derbyshire’s overseas signings for this season’s Vitality Blast.Richardson was recently called into Australia’s World Cup squad, leading to him pulling out of his planned Derbyshire stint in order to manage his workload. The club have instead recruited Stanlake – who last year pulled out of a T20 deal with Yorkshire on Cricket Australia’s advice – for their Blast campaign alongside New Zealand allrounder Logan van Beek.”Billy is an excellent white-ball bowler and with his height and pace, he has the qualities to trouble batsmen in this format,” Derbyshire’s head of cricket, Dave Houghton, said.”He’s someone we’ve kept an eye on and we’ve been impressed by what we’ve seen. We were disappointed to lose Kane, but I believe we have found a replacement who will not only complement our side, but bring in new skills to keep taking us forward.”We’ve seen improvements already this summer and we want to continue that momentum into the Vitality Blast and reward our supporters with good performances.”Standing at over 2m tall and capable of bowling above 90mph, Stanlake has been capped in both white-ball formats for Australia, taking 25 wickets in 17 T20 internationals. He helped Adelaide Strikers win the Big Bash League in 2017-18 and has also featured at the IPL.His arrival will strengthen the hand of Derbyshire’s new T20 coach, Dominic Cork, who has taken over from John Wright looking to replicate their run to the knockout stages in 2017.”The T20 will come around fast now and I’m looking forward to getting going,” Stanlake said. “It’ll be my first experience of the tournament, and having spoken to the guys I know how important the competition is.”It’s a good side and a quick, bouncy track at Derby, so I hope to use my skills and contribute to performances out in the middle for Derbyshire.”

Liam Plunkett has taken to Twitter to clarify his comments about free-to-air access to the World Cup, after appearing to call for the final to be shown on terrestrial television if England make it through next week’s semi-final in Edgbaston.Plunkett’s recall for the past two matches against India and New Zealand helped England to overcome a wobble in the group stages, and seal their progression to the last four of the World Cup for the first time since 1992. They will face either India or Australia in the second semi-final on July 11, with the final at Lord’s following three days later on July 14.Speaking in the wake of England’s 119-run win over New Zealand at Chester-le-Street, Plunkett was asked by the BBC’s 5 Live Breakfast Show whether he would support calls for the final to be made available on free-to-air, given that the World Cup has been overshadowed in terms of viewing figures by the women’s football World Cup – England’s semi-final against the USA on Tuesday drew 11.7 million viewers, making it the BBC’s biggest television audience of the year. England’s World Cup cricket fixtures, by contrast, have drawn an average of 450,000.”I’m not sure they’re going to do it, but it would great for everybody to be able to watch that,” Plunkett said. “Playing for England, you’re the pride of the country and you want people to be able to access that and watch that. I’m not sure it’s going to happen but for the guys, you want as many people to watch it as possible.”Although the ECB is understood to have held talks with Sky about the status of the World Cup final, it is now unlikely that the match will be made available beyond Sky’s own subscribers. There is a possibility that it will be shown on Sky One, which is estimated to reach half of the households in Britain, and one-off subscriptions may be also made available through Sky’s Now TV platform.”It’s always nice to be on a bigger platform,” Plunkett added. “Hopefully people tune in to watch that game. It would obviously be great to have as many people watching as possible, we feel like we’ve built something special here as a team. It would be nice to go all the way and to have big numbers watching that final if we get through and win, that would be huge.”A proportion of free-to-air cricket access is set to be reinstated from next year onwards, with the advent of the ECB’s new 100-ball competition, after Sky agreed to cede some of its exclusivity to the BBC as part of a new £1.1billion rights deal from 2020-2024.Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive who brokered the deal, recently described Sky as “cricket’s best friend” – the broadcaster has been involved in cricket since 1990 and has been the exclusive partner for home internationals since 2006 – and Plunkett later tweeted to clarify his remarks.”Sky Cricket are an incredible partner for the game and have been for the past 20+ years,” he wrote. “I was asked a question & I never said that it should be on FTA. My words have been twisted & the headline is misleading. The whole country is behind us. Keep believing.”

Marcus Trescothick is set to join the England coaching team for the first two Tests of the Ashes series.Trescothick, the former England opening batsman, has recently announced his decision to retire as a player at the end of this season and is currently struggling to break into the Somerset side. He will spend the training days ahead of the Edgbaston and Lord’s Tests with the England squad at both training sessions and at the team hotel.Jonathan Trott has fulfilled a similar role with England ahead of the Test against Ireland.The appointment does not necessarily suggest that Trescothick – or Trott – is about to be appointed as the England team’s batting coach. The ECB have yet to identify a successor to Mark Ramprakash, who left his role a couple of months ago, but are using the likes of Trott and Trescothick to help ease the burden on Graham Thorpe – the ECB’s lead batting coach – on training days where coaches are expected to provide throw-downs for several hours at a time.Thorpe is currently suffering from a sore shoulder and missed England training on Tuesday due to illness.As a vastly experienced and successful player – the 2005 Ashes series was among his 76 Tests – Trescothick has the respect of all current players and understands the demands, both emotionally and technically, of playing at international level.He will be on hand both in training sessions and at the team hotel, to support players as required. And, aged 43, the sessions may also help him to decide if he wants to pursue a career in coaching.