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Outstanding performances from Chris Rushworth and Graham Clark booked Durham’s place in the Royal London Cup semi-finals after the hosts crushed Hampshire by nine wickets at Emirates Riverside.Rushworth was on point with the ball to claim 4 for 37, at one time reducing the visitors to 65 for 6 before a recovery led by Felix Organ, who mustered a career-best 79, guided Hampshire to 225 for 9 from their 50 overs.Their total appeared below-par, and Clark ensured that Durham cantered towards the last four by scoring his third century of the season. The opener notched 141 and shared an unbeaten partnership of 211 – a Durham List A record for the second wicket – with Scott Borthwick to send their team into the knockout stage with momentum.Hampshire were inserted by the home side, and they made a measured start reaching 19 before Tom Prest played on to his own stumps, handing Rushworth his 750th Durham wicket across all formats.Nick Gubbins found the boundary three times to find his touch, guiding the visitors past the 50-run mark. However, the hosts roared into action led by Rushworth. The veteran seamer found the outside of edge of Tom Alsop and Borthwick claimed a brilliant reaction catch at second slip. Three balls later Joe Weatherley was bowled by Rushworth, exposing the Hampshire middle order.Durham capitalised taking three wickets in three balls. Rushworth removed Ian Holland to notch his fourth scalp of the innings before Paul van Meekeren bowled Nick Gubbins for 23 and had James Fuller caught at point. Organ survived the hat-trick ball and stemmed the tide with a partnership of 35 with Fletcha Middleton.Borthwick prised out Middleton lbw, reducing Hampshire to 100 for 7. Organ brought the visitors back into the contest with his maiden List A fifty from 87 deliveries, battling back against the hosts. He shared a stand worth 97 with Tom Scriven, who notched a career-best 42, which drove Hampshire to a total of 225 for 9 from their allocated overs.Fuller produced a gem of a delivery to remove the dangerous Alex Lees for only four. However, Clark and Borthwick calmed proceedings without the experienced left-hander. The former surpassed Lees at the top of the Royal London Cup run chart smashing a huge six over the leg-side to pass fifty.The century stand between Clark and Borthwick was reached in 115 deliveries before the Durham skipper notched his ninth List A fifty, displaying patience and guile at the crease. Clark upped the ante as he approached his hundred, and he reached the milestone with his 14th four from 108 balls, passing three figures for the third time in the tournament.The duo broke the highest stand for the second wicket for Durham in List A cricket and then raced past their 200-run partnership courtesy of further Clark boundaries before easing past their victory target with 9.2 overs to spare.

ScorecardJoe Leach was on a hat-trick early in Glamorgan’s innings•Getty Images

Worcestershire made it two wins in a row in the Specsavers County Championship and ended Northamptonshire’s 100% start to the season with a victory in two days in a tense, low-scoring contest at New Road.After bowling out the home side for 153 in their second innings, Northants were dismissed for 164 and went down by 20 runs after being hi-jacked late in the day by Joe Leach and Josh Tongue.Having survived a tricky start at 45 for 3, the visitors seemed to be inching towards a third consecutive victory when Adam Rossington and Max Holden played responsibly in a stand of 40.But the game tilted back towards Worcestershire with two wickets in 13 balls for Leach. The newly-appointed captain had Rossington caught at cover for 22 and then bowled on-loan Middlesex left hander Holden for 37.Worse followed for Northants when Tongue picked up two in four balls. Richard Levi was lbw for 22, playing back to the 19-year-old paceman, who followed that by yorking Steven Crook.The two seamers chipped out two more wickets but Mohammad Azharullah kept up the fight with an unbeaten 17 until the result was settled at 7.20pm when Andy Carter was lbw for 8, giving Leach match figures of 10 for 122.After 16 wickets had crashed under heavy cloud cover on the first day, it was tempting to assume that batting would become easier in bright sunshine, but it proved to be just as difficult to put partnerships together.In all, 24 fell on a protracted second day.A grassy pitch, probably typical of early season with its seam movement, was a factor which became critical when coupled with a number of rash shots. Patience was not the name of the game.The first job of the day was to deal with Northamptonshire’s last four wickets and they were duly swept aside in under an hour, although they would have been reasonably happy with the 55 runs added.Nathan Buck’s unbeaten 24 included a pick-up for six off Leach and Crook gave John Hastings the first success in his spell of 3 for 27.With Worcestershire holding a lead of 31, their marginal advantage was quickly diluted with the scoreboard showing 3 for 3 after four overs from Buck and Azharullah.Daryl Mitchell nicked Buck’s third delivery behind the wicket, Moeen Ali scythed a catch to Ben Duckett in the slips and Brett D’Oliviera was given out lbw for a second wicket for Azharullah.Worcestershire came up with an innovative response by sending in Hastings and Leach in a fourth-wicket partnership after batting at Nos 9 and 10 in the first innings.The move worked to the extent of 22 for Hastings and 16 for Leach, but half the side went for 56 before regular middle-order batsmen were together at the crease.Joe Clarke did not last long before edging Buck for another slip catch by Duckett, but hopes were raised by Tom Fell (23) and Tom Kohler-Cadmore (22).Again, however, it was not as substantial as they would have wanted. Fell was bowled by Buck and Kohler-Cadmore sliced to gully in a short spell by Crook.Carter, having come out of retirement to sign for injury-hit Northants, took his fifth wicket of the match when Ben Cox was caught behind but the last pair put together the biggest stand of 45 until Tongue was bowled by Buck. Ed Barnard was left unbeaten with top score of 26.

India and Bangladesh will play in a ‘Nidahas Trophy’ triangular series in Sri Lanka in March next year but, as per Sri Lanka Cricket, it is not yet clear if the matches will be T20Is or ODIs.”The [SLC] technical committee and cricket committee is looking into it, but at the moment we would like it to be a T20 triangular – that’s what the agreement is,” SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala said.Also unclear is how many of the limited-overs matches in Sri Lanka’s scheduled tour to India will be cancelled to allow the Nidahas Trophy to take place. According to the Future Tours Programme, Sri Lanka are set to play five ODIs, and a T20I in India in March next year, which will follow three Tests. Sumathipala said that at least some of those matches would effectively be transmuted into Nidahas Trophy games, while BCCI CEO Rahul Johri said the boards were still “working on” the exact schedule.Nevertheless, the dates for the Nidahas Trophy – which celebrates Sri Lanka’s 70th anniversary of independence from the British – have been set down, Sumathipala said. The tournament will consist of seven matches in all – each team playing the others twice, before two progress to the final – and will take place between March 15 and March 30, 2018.”We look forward to playing the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka next year, as it not only coincides with the 70th year of the independence of our nation, but the 70th anniversary of Sri Lanka Cricket,” Sumathipala said. “As our nations gained independence within a short span of each other in our contemporary history, this will no doubt be a significant moment of similar sentimental value for us to mark with pomp and pageantry as it rightfully warrants.”Sumathipala denied, however, that India agreed to participate in the Nidahas Trophy only in return for SLC’s support in their opposition to the ICC resolution that aims to roll back the Big Three policies instituted in 2014.”We made this appeal to India in about June or May last year,” he said. “India were here during the Asian Cricket Council opening ceremony, so we discussed this – it’s been going on for seven to eight months. So this has nothing to do with the ICC board meeting that happened in February. Our stand has been very clear.”

ScorecardFile photo – Dilruwan Perera scored 37 and then claimed two top-order wickets•AFP

Sri Lanka A fought back on the second day of their match with the England Lions in Pallekele, initially through a bright half-century from Sandun Weerakkody and then with the ball as spinners Dilruwan Perera and Malinda Pushpakumara shared five wickets between them.Despite the Lions securing a 149-run first-innings lead, they were in some difficulty second time around after being reduced to 85 for 6, before an unbroken partnership between brothers Sam and Tom Curran lifted them to a lead of 261 with four wickets standing.Keaton Jennings, the Lions captain, was the only member of the top six to pass 16, as Dilruwan and Pushpakumara wheeled their way through 31 of the 40 overs possible before bad light brought an early close.Toby Roland-Jones, who had struck 82 and taken two wickets in his first over on the first day, earlier claimed 4 for 51 as Sri Lanka A were dismissed for 167, although that score represented something of a recovery from their overnight position of 29 for 4.Weerakkody began by taking the attack to the Lions, scoring the majority of the 29 added in 4.5 overs with his captain, Dhananjaya de Silva, before Tom Curran effected the run-out of the latter with a throw from mid-off. Weerakkody fell just before lunch, lbw to Ollie Rayner for 68 out of 109, but Dilruwan and Pushpakumara then added 45 for the seventh wicket to add further respectability to the score, before Roland-Jones and Rayner shared the last four.Sitting on a comfortable lead, the Lions lost Haseeb Hameed for a duck – to go with his first-innings 4 – after he left a straight delivery from Lahiru Gamage. Dilruwan then had Nick Gubbins and Tom Westley lbw, before Pushpakumara claimed three in five overs as the tourists wobbled from 71 for 3 to 85 for 6 under gloomy skies.

ScorecardEd Cowan faced 386 deliveries for his 212•Getty Images

Ed Cowan converted his 23rd first-class century into a double to sustain New South Wales’ domination on day three of their Sheffield Shield fixture against Victoria at the MCG. Cowan was involved in a 202-run stand for the fifth wicket with wicketkeeper Peter Nevill, who made 118. New South Wales, resuming on 4 for 300, finished with 523 to open up a 265-run lead.Jon Holland, the left-arm spinner who broke the massive partnership by dismissing Cowan for 212, took three more wickets to finish with 4 for 155 off 41.1 overs. Nevill, who watched the lower order fall around him, was the last wicket to fall, after a 184-ball innings in which he hit 12 fours and a six. On the second day, Kurtis Patterson and Moises Henriques had also made half-centuries to build the lead.In reply, Victoria’s top order faltered for the second time in the match, slumping to 4 for 78 at stumps, still trailing by 187. Travis Dean, the opener, was unbeaten on 35 and had Sam Harper for company. Sean Abbott impressed in a short burst towards end of play, dismissing Cameron White, the Victoria captain, and Dan Christian. His figures read: 6-2-8-2. The new ball pair of Trent Copeland and Doug Bollinger picked up one wicket each.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAustralia’s captain Steven Smith beat encroaching bad weather by a matter of minutes to post his 17th Test hundred before a monsoonal downpour all but ensured a drawn Boxing Day Test at the MCG.Moments after Smith reached his 100, the umpires suspended play, a decision followed soon after by a deluge that was more tropical Brisbane than Melbourne’s more typical southerly climate. It would take a pair of highly imaginative declarations from here to manufacture a result, with the hosts likely to be happy to sit on their 1-0 series lead.Smith’s ease at the crease contrasted with two more low scores for Nic Maddinson and Matthew Wade, neither of whom can be sure of their places in the XI, and made life difficult for the visitors who were also inconvenienced when Azhar Ali was helped from the field after suffering a stunning blow to the helmet when fielding at short leg.Usman Khawaja fell three runs short of a century for the second time this summer but the emerging No. 5 Peter Handscomb also made a useful contribution in Smith’s company before the monsoonal rain arrived. Whether either side is inclined to creativity to set-up a final-day run chase from here is a matter for conjecture.As he had done in the Perth Test against South Africa, Khawaja made it to 97 before being dismissed, this time trying to cover drive Wahab Riaz and edging through to Sarfraz Ahmed. He had shelved the stroke when making an excellent century against South Africa under lights in Adelaide.That wicket brought the Victorian Handscomb to the crease on his home ground, and he showed plenty of attacking intent to outpace Smith and close the gap with the visitors’ total. On a pitch offering precious little to the bowlers, Pakistan reverted largely to a short-pitched angle of attack with a leg-side field.Neither Handscomb nor Smith had too many awkward moments before the second new ball was taken, the former passing 50 for the third time in as many Tests. However in Mohammad Amir’s first over with the fresh projectile, Handscomb was beaten by one delivery then, next ball, pushed a difficult return catch back to the bowler, who dropped it.While Amir continued to bowl well, it was Sohail Khan who claimed the wicket, when Handscomb sliced an attempted drive to backward point. Maddinson accompanied Smith to lunch and made it as far as 22 after it, before yorking himself when dancing down the wicket to Yasir Shah to be bowled.Wade connected with several meaty blows, one of which felled the double-centurion Azhar at bad pad, before he edged Sohail Khan to depart for another underwhelming score. It was around this time that the weather began to close in on the ground, and the umpires conferred over the matter of bad light before Smith forced one through an off-side gap for three runs to go to his second century in as many Tests.That, then, was more or less that. A further 42 scheduled overs were lost from the match, meaning a more optimistic weather forecast for day five is most probably a moot point.

“My best.” That’s where Faf du Plessis rated this century – his second at Adelaide and sixth overall. It came after a week of intense scrutiny over du Plessis’ methods of shining the ball, a week in which he was found guilty by the ICC and fined, a week in which he made headlines for all the wrong reasons. His team-mates stood steadfastly behind him and he saw this innings as his chance to stand steadfastly ahead of them.

SA learn to think pink

South Africa’s first day-night Test experience was “super strange” in the words of captain Faf du Plessis, who admitted it would take some time to get used to the timings of this type of game.
“It’s super strange,” du Plessis said. “When we walked off after the first session and it felt like a normal tea and almost like on session left in the day but there’s two sessions left. Then the last one, you have a massive dinner and think it’s time to go back to the hotel and there’s one session left. We will get used to it.”
Even though “everything is weird about it”, du Plessis was optimistic about the future of the pink ball.
“We’re going to get back [to the hotel] at 11pm. Your brain will be spinning for another two hours. That’s normal when you finish a game. So you go to bed at 2am and wake up at 8am and you’ve got to go again. Everything is weird for us at the moment.
“But it’s fascinating. It’s changing Test cricket. There was a massive crowd in today, so they obviously love it. The cricketers also enjoy it because it’s a different challenge.”

“I’m just pretty proud of today. It was a big day for me to stand up as a captain and make sure I lead from the front,” he said. “To get through all of that and this week in the manner that I did today makes me really proud.”Du Plessis expected some heat when he made his first public appearance – he had addressed the media the day before – but he was surprised that, after he stood alone to take South Africa’s total over 250, he was not wholeheartedly forgiven.”I was expecting a little bit of hostility but not to that extent,” he said. “When I came out, I was obviously quite aware of it [the booing]. As the innings went on, it disappeared a bit. To be really honest, when I got to 100 I wasn’t expecting to still get booed so that was disappointing.”It also added a little to du Plessis’ already immense desire to do his talking with the bat. “I was really motivated before today. I felt it was a character test and the only way I could do it is by scoring runs but it did help a little bit. Maybe 5%.”What helped more was that du Plessis was more focused than he has been ever before. The pink ball seamed and then swung, it also turned; the Australia attack searched and, in the case of most of his team-mates, found; but du Plessis had promised himself he would not give it away easily. “I have never been that switched on. Every ball I said to myself, ‘that is not enough. I want to get a big one here.’ I was just more motivated than I have ever been,” he said. “Surprisingly, technically I was the best I have been this series as well. I felt really good.”Before this innings, du Plessis’ contribution was a top score of 37 and he did not seem to have the same control he has displayed in the past. Today, his defences could not be breached but he also looked to score. He was not the same batsman who stonewalls for fun, he was someone who had purpose and, if he had more partners, he would have carried on. “I could have gone for another day. I really wanted to bat. The way I felt mentally I could have gone for a week,” du Plessis said.But with the chance to put Australia in under lights and make some early inroads, du Plessis decided not to search for an extra 20 or 30 runs and take advantage of a situation in which Australia were forced to seek an emergency opener. Du Plessis knew David Warner had spent time off the field and could not bat, he wanted to see if his bowlers could make the ball talk at night and, with the knowledge that 224 was the top score in last year’s day-night Test in Adelaide, he felt a total over 250 was good enough.”The position of the game was that it was time for us to declare. We were trying to get some wickets,” he said. “I don’t think we would have declared if we were seven down in the last hour of the night. We would have tried to get to 300. We got 250 but it feels like we got more. It isn’t a massive score but the statistics of the pink ball says it may not generally be a five-day game. It speeds up a little because there is a lot more action on the ball – 250 is perhaps 350 with the red ball.”