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USA will tour Canada for three 50-over matches next month for the 2017 Auty Cup, the culmination of Cricket Canada’s Summer Cricket Festival. It is the second year in a row that the series will be contested through limited-overs fixtures, having scrapped the traditional multi-day contest that dates back to the first meeting between the two sides in 1844, making it the oldest rivalry in international cricket.The matches will be played on September 12, 13 and 14 at the Iceland complex in the west Toronto suburb of Mississauga. Officials initially pursued holding the games on Labor Day holiday weekend, September 1-4, due to the convenience of USA’s amateur players not requiring time off work. However, the majority of national level players on both sides have made a habit of freelancing in lucrative private T20 cash tournaments scattered around the country over the holiday weekend and would have been reluctant to forego a key earning opportunity in the mostly amateur North American structure.The September 1-4 dates also conflicted with the ongoing Caribbean Premier League, with five USA and two Canada players currently tied up with various franchises. The CPL playoffs end on September 10, and holding the first match two days later gives both teams an opportunity to field their full-strength squads.Canada’s preparation for the Auty Cup includes three matches between the Canada High Performance squad and Bermuda on September 5, 7 and 8 at Maple Leaf Cricket Club in King City. USA recently played a pair of exhibition T20s against St Kitts & Nevis Patriots and Jamaica Tallawahs in Florida, and the unavailability of nearly half their first-choice players in part due to their CPL commitments resulted in a pair of underwhelming batting performances.The most recent encounter between USA and Canada took place in Uganda at WCL Division Three in May. Canada won the match by 96 runs behind half-centuries from teenage opener Bhavindu Adhihetty and Dhanuka Pathirana. USA eventually finished in fourth place to stay in Division Three while Canada gained promotion along with Oman into Division Two.The Auty Cup has gone through a series of fits and starts over the years. After being played three years in a row from 2011-13 – under a format of a two-day match, a 50-over match and two T20s – with Canada winning on all three occasions; no Auty Cup was held in 2014 or 2015. The series resumed last October in Los Angeles as Canada retained the trophy after defeating USA 2-1 in a series of three one-dayers.

Jamie Overton should still be able to play “a significant part” in Somerset’s season, despite being diagnosed with a ‘hot-spot’ in his lower back.Overton, the 23-year-old fast bowler, missed the second half of the 2016 season after sustaining a stress fracture in the lower back. So when he felt pain in the same area after bowling for England Lions against South Africa A, there was some concern he may have suffered a recurrence. But while a scan has shown some inflammation, the problem has been caught early enough to ensure he should not require a lengthy spell on the sidelines.”We remain hopeful Jamie will play a significant part in our season,” Somerset’s director of cricket, Matt Maynard, told ESPNcricinfo. “He won’t play against Yorkshire next week and he might be rested for two or three weeks, but we hope he’ll be fine by the time we play Surrey in early August.”This is not a recurrence of the stress fracture he had last year. But the scans did show a slight edema or hot-spot so we will have to manage him carefully over the next few weeks. He is not feeling any pain and I’m expecting him to play a part in our T20 campaign.”The news will come as a relief to the England team management, too. Overton has bowled impressively this season, combining his natural pace with much improved control. He was especially impressive in the Lions victory over South Africa A, claiming five top-order wickets in the match. He remains an outside bet to win a place on the Ashes tour.”He has really progressed,” Maynard agreed. “But he’s a young man and his bones probably aren’t fully matured. There is a lot of energy put through his body in bowling the ball at the pace he does and we will need to look after him. I’d expect him to have a graded return to cricket in a couple of weeks.”

Several IPL stakeholders – players, coaches, franchise owners and administrators – have expressed reservations on various aspects of the rain-affected eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders in Bengaluru on Wednesday, which finished at 1.27 am the following day.While Stephen Fleming, coach of finalists Rising Pune Supergiant, has spoken strongly of the need to revamp the method of revising targets in T20 cricket, members of the Knight Riders management, including captain Gautam Gambhir and coach Jacques Kallis, have voiced concerns about the late finish. IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, meanwhile, said the governing council will be looking into the the possibility of reserve days in future.After restricting Sunrisers to 128, Knight Riders had to wait over three hours while the rain poured down before they were set a revised target of 48 to chase in six overs via the Duckworth-Lewis method. They eventually got there comfortably, despite being reduced to 12 for 3 seven balls into the chase.Fleming said that while the D/L method was efficient in the 50-over format, it was heavily biased towards the chasing team in a T20 game. In a column in the , Fleming suggested “wicket pressure” – that is, reducing the wickets in hand along with the overs in shortened T20 – was the best way to even out the contest.”The D/L method is satisfactory for 100 overs, but in a 40-over game, it simply favours the team batting second too much,” Fleming said. “With low-scoring games on difficult pitches, whenever the overs are reduced, the team batting second will always have an edge because they stand a far lower chance of being bowled out, so they can stay a lot more relaxed.”In a situation like Wednesday night, even though there has been a small increase in runs required and there’s pressure on the team batting second owing to a reduction in the number of overs, they still have all wickets in hand which means they can play without risk. Even losing three wickets in approximately one over doesn’t really hamper them; they know they can just keep going because they have plenty of batting resources to fall back on.””The whole scenario just isn’t ideal and definitely needs a bit of tweaking. One of the ideas floating around is to introduce ‘wicket pressure’, so if you have a small chase, then you also have fewer wickets to play with. In effect, that means you only have five wickets, for example, for a six-over chase.”The IPL 2017 regulations state that if a knockout game is washed out, the team that finished higher in the league stage will be declared the winner. They also allow for a later cut-off time for play to begin in the playoffs than in the league games. On Wednesday, the six-over chase began just after 12.50 am. The regulations allow for a five-over innings to begin as late as 12.58 am, and a Super Over decider to begin at 1.20 am. But there is no reserve day, except for the final.Stephen Fleming: ‘The D/L method is satisfactory for 100 overs, but in a 40-over game, it simply favours the team batting second too much’•Getty Images

This is different from the rules in 2014, which had a provision for a reserve day for all playoff matches. The first qualifier between Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab went into the reserve day that season.Speaking of the possibility of a reserve day next season, Rajiv Shukla said, according to the : “The late-night finishes are a concern. Shah Rukh [Khan, the Knight Riders franchise co-owner] has tweeted about the option of a reserve day. We will weigh all options and the IPL governing council will look into it.”Gambhir, in his column in the , said: “I felt sorry for Sunrisers. I hope someone takes note of rain-affected matches and comes up with a plan B.” Kallis in his column in the said, “It was truly crazy to see the winning runs hit at 1.30 in the morning.” After the game on Wednesday, Knight Riders pace bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile had said, “You can’t be playing cricket at 2 am.”However, Gambhir also applauded the new drainage facilities at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium which allowed play to begin after all that rain. “Any other venue in India, with that amount of rain, it would have been game, set and match Sunrisers,” he said.This drainage and the logic of the cut-off times and rain rule might be put to the test once again on Friday night, when the IPL’s second qualifier – between Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians – will be played at the same venue, which has been hit by significant amounts of rainfall over the 48 hours leading up to the game.

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.

It is dangerous to judge a Test pitch two days before the match starts, but the Dunedin surface had certainly caught the attention of the South Africans on Monday. The pitch looked “juicy” in the words of Dean Elgar, so much so that the self-confessed pie-chucker joked it “looks like I might have to bowl off a long run-up as well”, and the sky was heavy with moisture.But the visitors will be wary of allowing those visual cues to have too much of an influence on their selection because, as hometown man Neil Wagner warned, looks are deceiving in Dunedin.”It’s one of those wickets where it doesn’t always assist the fast bowlers. You’ve just got to show a bit of patience and sort of know the area to bowl,” he said. “When you put it there consistently for long periods of time, sometimes it’s just longer than other grounds, there’s always a bit of reward for you.”The ideal length is fuller than Wagner and most of the South Africa attack’s default of short, but it is the length that comes most naturally to Vernon Philander which is why he will lead the bowling effort. “I’m glad he’s on my side and I don’t have to face him with the new ball. That’s a blessing. He’s going to be a massive asset,” Elgar said. “His length will suit New Zealand conditions especially with the overhead and a bit of rain around.”The forecast for the first three days of the Test is fine, but with rain moving in over the weekend. Again, Wagner had some advice, this time about being about over-reliant on movement. “Sometimes it looks like it should swing – if it’s cold it doesn’t – and other times when you think it wouldn’t swing it does swing. That’s the beauty of this ground.”So South Africa will also want something else from their bowlers, something different, maybe some extra effort to generate some bounce and in that department two candidates stand out: Morne Morkel and Duanne Olivier. They are both tall, aggressive and capable of finding reverse swing which could confine Chris Morris and Wayne Parnell to the bench for now. There is probably a temptation to play both Morkel and Olivier but with South Africa unlikely to go into the game without their sole specialist spinner Keshav Maharaj, it is more likely the pair are competing for one spot.Duanne Olivier may move down the pecking order with Morne Morkel fit again•Gallo Images

Olivier comfortably topped the first-class wicket charts this season and made an impressive debut against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers. That should give him a good chance of retaining his place, especially as Morkel has not played a Test in more than a year and has only played two List A games back in South Africa after recovering from his back injury, but the early indications are that Morkel’s experience will win out over Olivier’s potential.”I think Morne’s very hungry. The last five months he’s had a lot of time to think about his game and do a lot of rehab and try and get his injury correct. He’s raring to go and he wants to play for South Africa again,” Elgar said. “He’s another bowler I don’t have to face too much. I just have to face him in the nets. It’s only seven minutes of your day, luckily.”Elgar also does not look forward to fronting up to Morkel for another reason as well, which has nothing to do with the 70 Test caps Morkel has over Olivier. “He has that knack against left-handers with his skill,” Elgar said.The three batsmen Morkel has dismissed most in Test cricket – Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Michael Hussey – are all left-handed. New Zealand have six left-handers in their squad, including their two openers, Tom Latham and Jeet Raval, and their No.5 Henry Nicholls. If South Africa are searching for a psychological advantage that could be it and Olivier may have to wait his turn, although South Africa are not revealing their hand just yet.Olivier, not Morkel, was tasked with media duties on Monday, which is usually the domain of those in the starting XI, but he seemed to accept that he knows he is in a queue. “If I play it will be a great opportunity. If I don’t of course I understand,” he said.But he also gave the selectors one more hint that he should be their preferred choice at a venue that demands discipline from bowlers, similar to that of the Bloemfontein pitch where Olivier has spent most of his career. “Back home there are certain grounds where you need to bowl fuller as well and I’m confident doing that,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Marchant de Lange at my franchise, who has also been here on a tour and he told me to try and bowl a fuller length because if you don’t is sits up and it’s easy to score.”

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.”