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Identifying the 50/50 situations capable of turning Test matches, quicker than opposing sides, made Australia an awesome force but Stephen Fleming is undeterred as he takes his New Zealand team across the Tasman at the weekend fully geared to have a crack at the world champions.Fleming, who watched Australia’s Ashes tour while on duty with Middlesex in the English summer, said it was that ability to regularly sum up situations that saw Australia shine brighter than the home side.It is a sign Fleming knows from his own experience when Australia toured here two summers ago and provided the same chances which the New Zealanders were unable to pick up.Recognising those chances, and capitalising on them, will be central to New Zealand’s hopes of making an impression on the great fortress that is Australia’s Test side.With that in mind the non-tour of Pakistan should at least ensure New Zealand goes to Australia with a full-strength team.”I must admit that sending us to Pakistan before Australia to me was a bit like South Africa last year when we suffered so many injuries.”But the guys appear in good shape and I am excited by having them [Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Shayne O’Connor and Daniel Vettori] available.”There is naturally some apprehension they will get through but firstly getting them there is the great thing.”I am also excited by what’s left behind with the stand-by players all being quality players which means there is great competition for places and that is a strength for us,” Fleming told CricInfo today.He wasn’t prepared to say the return of such a core of bowling experience was the icing on the selection cake.”What we’ve got are the ingredients for the icing, we’ll just have to stir the mixture as much as we can to see how it comes out in the baking,” he said.Now New Zealand’s most capped Test captain, Fleming believes Australia is beatable.”But it will take a mammoth effort and it involves us implementing our own plans. The more we are under pressure from them the less chance we have of beating them,” he said.From his own point of view, Fleming, after his Middlesex season, wants to keep the consistency that has developed in his batting and to add the big scores his Test cricket CV needs.”I want to lead from the front,” he said.That requires a change in fortunes for Fleming who in six Tests and 12 innings against Australia has managed only 242 runs at 20.17.The measure of the work he has done in England would be seen in the Test matches.”I achieved many of the things I wanted to, and it is a cast of confirming things in the middle,” he said.Fleming said he regularly works with former Test captain and batsman Martin Crowe on his batting and since returning from England had two sessions to work on batting matters.Improving his record against the Australians is not a need he shares alone. For New Zealand to be competitive, all the batsmen need to up the ante.Fleming acknowledged that the pressure was on the top order to perform against the Australian attack because they were so good at creating pressure after early breakthroughs.The New Zealand team, without Cairns, leaves for Australia on Friday. Cairns will join the team in Queensland on October 20.

ScorecardChris Rushworth took his 80th scalp of the season as wickets tumbled at Chester-le-Street•Getty Images

On a day when 19 wickets fell at a heavily overcast Chester-le-Street, the one which got away proved costly for Durham.Dawid Malan was dropped first ball and went on to reach 56 as Middlesex recovered from 29 for four to close the second day on 118 for 4 in their second innings, leading by 145.As the sun threatened to put in an appearance in the final hour conditions eased and no wickets fell in the last 20 overs as Neil Dexter assisted Malan in the revival.Durham also lacked support for Chris Rushworth, who took three for six in seven overs to equal Ottis Gibson’s Durham record (set in 2007) of 80 first-class wickets in a season, 75 coming in the championship. He returned for three overs at the end without joy as Dexter moved on to 46.Malan was put down at third slip by Gordon Muchall, spoiling a day on which he made his first home half-century in the Championship for four years. He was last out for 64 with Durham’s total on 169.The drop also marred Graham Onions’ day as he had just had Nick Compton lbw to add to his 7 for 68 in dismissing Middlesex for 196 in their first innings.Resuming on 141 for 5, Middlesex lost Dexter to the second ball of the day, completing Onions’ second five-wicket haul of the season. The ball stood up off a good length to take the shoulder of the bat on the way to Ryan Pringle at fourth slip.There were six slip catches in the innings, with Paul Collingwood holding four at first and Muchall taking a sharp one at third to give Onions his revenge after Toby Roland-Jones had taken 15 off his previous over.When Durham batted Roland-Jones struck timber in both his first two overs, Mark Stoneman playing across a full-length ball to lose his leg stump before Graham Clark shouldered arms to one which didn’t have to deviate much to hit off stump.It became 7 for 3 when Collingwood was squared up by a ball from Tim Murtagh which lobbed off a thick edge for Compton to dive to his right at gully to hold an excellent catch.Roland-Jones produced a beauty to have Scott Borthwick caught behind and two wickets in two balls for James Harris had Durham rocking on 51 for 6.Debutant James Weighell began the recovery when he went in to face Harris’s hat-trick ball and scored 19 off his first seven balls.With Muchall briefly joining in the spree 31 came off 15 balls, but only four more were added before Weighell drove at Harris, bowling round the wicket, and lost his off stump for 25.John Hastings helped Muchall add 30 before slicing to deep cover and there was a second wicket for Dexter when Rushworth fell to a sensational one-handed catch by Roland-Jones, diving to his left at mid-off.Onions contributed 13 not out to a last-wicket stand of 39 before Muchall guided Murtagh to James Franklin at slip.When Middlesex went in again Rushworth nipped the second ball back to take out Sam Robson’s leg stump. Paul Stirling flashed wide of off stump and edged behind and Franklin was lbw when half forward.Onions snared Compton, but with Hastings struggling Durham’s lack of back-up allowed Malan and Dexter to ease Middlesex’s jitters.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum will retire from all forms of international cricket at the end of the home series against Australia in February 2016. McCullum, 34, made the announcement in Christchurch a day after his team won the Test series against Sri Lanka 2-0.McCullum will not play the World T20 in March in India, where Kane Williamson will captain the New Zealand team. He will play his 100th Test against Australia in Wellington from February 12 – the first player to play so many consecutive matches from debut – and retire after the second and final Test of that series, in Christchurch from February 20.McCullum said he would have preferred to reveal his retirement after the series against Australia, but the impending announcement of New Zealand’s World T20 squad had forced his hand.”Ideally, I would have preferred to wait until after the Test in Christchurch to make this news public,” he said today. “However, the schedule for naming the ICC World T20 squads means I couldn’t have managed this without causing a lot of confusion and speculation – something I was keen to avoid. I’ve loved my opportunity to play for, and captain the Blackcaps, but all good things have to come to an end, and I’m just grateful for the wonderful experience of playing for my country.”There’s a time and place for reflection and that’s at the end of your career. For now, I’ll be giving all my attention to helping the team focus on what’s coming up over the next few weeks – and making sure we’re in the best possible shape for what’s going to be a very challenging summer.”McCullum had stepped into the New Zealand captaincy amid much controversy over the sacking of previous captain Ross Taylor, and his first Test series as captain, in 2013, was disastrous. That series featured an innings of 45 all out for New Zealand in Cape Town, and brought the team two innings defeats.But New Zealand made significant strides under McCullum in the years since. In particular, he was credited with formulating New Zealand’s highly aggressive brand of cricket, which has brought them much success, especially at home. With the victory against Sri Lanka in Hamilton on Monday, McCullum’s New Zealand equalled the team’s longest undefeated home streak, of 13 Tests. McCullum’s current 11 victories from 29 matches also makes his win percentage the highest of any New Zealand captain, marginally better than that of Geoff Howarth, whose team had 11 wins from 30 games.McCullum’s captaincy also saw the blossoming of several New Zealand players. Trent Boult and Tim Southee have become one of the most feared new-ball pairs in the world during the past three years, while 25-year old batsman Kane Williamson has become the top-ranked Test batsman. New Zealand also played in their first World Cup final in March, under McCullum.As a batsman, McCullum had been a high-impact, aggressive player for much of his career, batting largely in the middle order in Tests, and as an opener in the shorter formats. Recent years have seen improvements in his defensive game. In 2014, he became New Zealand’s first triple-centurion, against India in Wellington. He was also the first New Zealand batsman to breach 1000 runs in a calendar year in 2014, having also hit a double-century against Pakistan, and 195 against Sri Lanka that year. McCullum is currently the joint-record holder for most Test sixes alongside Adam Gilchrist. He had hit his 100th six in the recent Test in Dunedin, and later said: “It’s the only record I care about.”Having been designated wicketkeeper for 52 of his 99 Tests, McCullum also has 194 Test catches and 11 stumpings to his name.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the two Pakistan bowlers who returned positive dope tests last year, have cleared the latest tests held at the fitness and training camp in Karachi earlier this week.”Akhtar and Asif are among 26 players who have cleared these tests for which weasked urgent reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] accredited laboratoryin Malaysia,” Ahsan Malik, the Pakistan board’s director of communications, told .The PCB had ordered dope tests for all camp attendees and had decided to hold back naming the squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship until results were received. Both Shoaib and Asif were the focus of attention as they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone and were handed bans last year which were overturned later.Malik said the PCB had expected all tests to be negative in accordance with its zerotolerance policy on doping. He also said that three players – Younis Khan, Danish Kaneria and Yasir Arafat currently involved in county cricket – were tested in England and the samples were sent to the same WADA-accredited laboratory as the rest of the squad.The third and final fitness and training camp with special emphasis on the forthcoming Twenty20 World Championship concludes on Monday with the squad announcement expected next week as well.

Matthew Elliott, the South Australia batsman, has spoken of his desire to return to Glamorgan as a player, and, in the longer term, to become a member of their coaching staff.Elliott, who has fully recovered from the troublesome knee injury which ruined his county campaign last season, telephoned the Glamorgan chief executive Mike Fatkin earlier this week to discuss the possibility of returning to Sophia Gardens in 2007.”I had a very positive discussion with Mike and it was really good of him to say that Glamorgan would talk to me first before signing any overseas players for next year,” Elliott told the South Wales Evening Post.The 34-year-old Elliott is half way through his coaching qualifications in Australia, and sees coaching as the ideal progression from playing: ”When I am qualified, and after retiring, I would be very interested in joining Glamorgan’s coaching staff as a batting coach”.For the moment though, he is focused on playing, which he hopes will include a spell with Glamorgan next summer: ”I want to keep playing for a few years yet and it would be nice to return to Sophia Gardens and help the development of the clubs younger players”.

After being reappointed Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that there are no fissures in the side, and certainly no personality clash with Rahul Dravid, who had led the side while he served out a four-match suspension. While admitting that the team’s performance had declined over the past season, Ganguly categorically denied that different camps had sprung up within the squad.”I want to make it very clear that there is no rift, no trouble, no problem between us [himself and Dravid],” he said, in an interview with . “Rahul has also made that very clear. We know each other for a long time, we know how things work here. We’ve had a great working relationship, and we hope to continue our partnership.”Ganguly was also loathe to compare Dravid’s style of leadership with his own. “Basically, every captain has his own way,” he said. “We have different styles but any two people will have different styles of leading a team. We may react differently to the same situation. “I’m not going to comment of which style is better because it is a very relative thing.”The debacle in the tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka continued India’s miserable run in one-day internationals since the team led by Ganguly lost the World Cup final to Australia in 2003. Admitting that the slump was a matter of concern, Ganguly said:”Winning is a habit and we’ve got out of that habit. We just need to get a few wins under our belt, and then everything will get back in order.”When we were losing last time in 2002, we got a few wins in the West Indies and that sparked off a great run, starting from England right to the Pakistan series last year. We just need to make something like that happen again.”There were plenty of frayed tempers on show in Sri Lanka, but Ganguly brusquely refuted suggestions that it had become every-man-for-himself. “No, I don’t believe that,” he said, when asked whether it was true that the team had become faction-ridden. “But if anyone does this kind of stuff, they will themselves suffer. The most important thing is to have a winning team.”If you’re part of a side that’s losing, whatever you do, all 16 members of the team will be shaky and unsteady. Scoring big runs or taking lots of wickets doesn’t help anyone’s cause if the team is losing.”Having gone through a wretched run of form at the end of last season, Ganguly accepted that there would be pressure on him the next time he walked to the crease. “I just got into a very bad patch during that [Pakistan] series. I was in bad form, and I’m not trying to make excuses, I didn’t play well. If you don’t play well, you will get under pressure.”However, he pooh-poohed notions that his perceived frailty against the short ball had been his undoing of late. “If I genuinely had a problem against short bowling, I wouldn’t have scored runs in international cricket for the last nine years,” he said. “People would have figured me out long back. You can take a look at the stats, it’s just a monkey that’s riding on my back. Some people keep writing about it, that’s all.”Ganguly, who scored a brilliant century at Brisbane in December 2003 after being greeted with headlines about “chin music” buttressed his argument by pointing out the case of his old adversary. “Steve Waugh always looked uncomfortable against the rising ball, but look at how well he did. It’s not about how you look, it’s about how many runs you score.”

With the Asia Cup only days away, John Wright has fired the first salvo for India, warning opponents that the team has been thorough in its preparation for the upcoming tournament.”We have done various research on the opposition teams,” he said. “Particularly, we concentrated on Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Our computer analyst has been of great help. He is providing us data and information on the opposition bowlers and batsmen, besides [on] our own players.”After the tour of Pakistan, India had a three-month layoff from the game, but a series of camps were held to ensure the players stayed fit and match-ready. Wright addressed the issue about India’s batting line-up.”Various people will have various opinions on an issue, but it eventually boils down to the captain as to who should do what,” Wright said, referring to the players’ publicly aired views about India’s openers. “Both [Aakash Chopra and Yuvraj Singh] are outstanding players, no doubt. But if you ask me, frankly I would say the selectors select the team and the captain desides who should bat where. The selectors, vice-captain and myself, as coach, will give our advice, but it’s the captain who will decide the batting order.”

At the end of last week whilst the Sabres were up in Scotland the rest of the squad and some of the Academy students took part in a `Superstars’ competition back at the County Ground.Assistant coach Mark Garaway told me: "We didn’t have any cricket and as the weather hadn’t been so good we decided to end the week with something that would involve some of the players normal fitness routine activities with one or two extras added for fun."The teams of three undertook a range of different challenges including a gym based triathlon, where one of the team sprinted 500 metres, another cycled 500 metres and the third covered the same distance on one of the rowing machines. Other activities were barrel lifting, tyre rolling, and a final multi activity training session.The winning team had a distinctly west country flavour about it and was led by Devonian Matt Wood and included Cornishman Piran Holloway and Ross Dewar who hails from Dorchester, who were all presented with `Mr Universe’ garden gnomes!Winning captain Matt Wood told me: "It was pretty hard work but great fun and a good way to end the week off for us. Hopefully there will be some cricket for me next week and I can’t wait to get back out in the middle again."Somerset Seconds play a two day friendly in Bristol on Monday and Tuesday next week, and then return to Taunton on Wednesday to play Hampshire in a 3 day Second Eleven championship match.

Shane Warne has tipped Australian team-mate Michael Slater to come back stronger than ever from his Test cricket axing.Warne arrived back in Australia tonight from the Ashes tour after staying an extra week in England to promote his new autobiography.He said Slater, who was dropped from the final Ashes Test because of a combination of poor form and personal problems, would sort things out and return a better player.”I think Slats is obviously going through a bit of a time in his life that he needs to sort out for himself and I’m sure he will,” Warne said.”He’s thinking rationally, he knows what he wants. It’s just a matter for him to sort it out.”It’s nothing to do with anybody else – it’s something personal to do with him. I’m sure he’ll sort it out and his cricket will be fine.”He’ll come back stronger and better for sure.”While Slater’s form went into freefall on the Ashes tour, Warne’s form returned to the orbit where it’s spent most of his cricket career.After a dismal tour of India, Warne took 31 Test scalps in England, passed 400 Test wickets and moved into fifth place on the all-time Test wicket-takers list.And he can now add best-selling author to his list of achievements – Warne’s autobiography is now No 1 on The Sunday Times’ best-sellers list in England.Warne also revealed he was still hoping to be a candidate for the Australian captaincy or vice-captaincy once Steve Waugh retired.He said the Australian Cricket Board had told him the door was not closed, despite being sacked as Australian vice-captain last year over a phone sex scandal involving an English nurse.”It’d be a great opportunity to be one of the candidates down the track, but if my time’s been and it’s up to somebody else, then so be it,” Warne said.”I’d like to think I’d be one of the candidates.”But it might be four or five years down the track and it would be past my time and they’d obviously be looking for somebody else.”Warne said he was looking forward to spending time with his family at home in Melbourne and doing “two weeks of nothing”, before gearing up for Australia’s showdown with South Africa and New Zealand over summer.

Ashton Agar will return to international cricket for the first time since his memorable cameo in the 2013 Ashes series, after being chosen as the lone spin bowler in Australia’s first ODI squad since winning the World Cup final at home in Melbourne in March.Agar has been chosen with an eye towards the future as the selectors continue to deny Nathan Lyon a place in the limited-overs side. Joe Burns and Marcus Stoinis have also been chosen in the limited-overs squad for the first time, the former expected to replace the injured Aaron Finch as David Warner’s opening partner.As expected, Steven Smith will now captain the national side in all formats, the first time this has been the case since Ricky Ponting retired from T20 internationals in September 2009. Michael Clarke then led the T20 side until he also retired from the format in January 2011 in order to concentrate on Test and 50-over matches.

Australia’s ODI squad for England series

Steven Smith (capt), Ashton Agar, George Bailey, Joe Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Shane Watson, David Warner
In: Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Pattinson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade
Out: Michael Clarke, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Brad Haddin, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Johnson

Stoinis’ inclusion comes largely as a result of James Faulkner’s four-match suspension from international duty due to a drink driving offence when playing for Lancashire in England’s domestic NatWest Twenty20 Blast competition. James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile also make international returns, while Matthew Wade will don the ODI gloves vacated by the retired Brad Haddin.”The squad we have selected has a few fresh faces in it as well as some experienced players that will provide us with the right balance,” the selection chairman Rod Marsh said. “Ashton has performed very well with the ball since his return from shoulder surgery including taking five wickets in the recent Australia A game in India. He has played in these conditions over here before and the National Selection Panel believes he has a very bright future.”Joe has impressed us immensely over in India with Australia A. He is a very capable young batsman who has experience opening, and we think he will grab his opportunity with the white ball during this series. Marcus has performed very well in India during the four-day series and we have always liked that option of the extra allrounder in our side, so with James Faulkner’s unavailability, this is a great opportunity for Marcus.”Agar’s inclusion may also be a pointer towards the way the national selectors are thinking in terms of spin-bowling spots for the Test tour of Bangladesh in October. The wrist spinner Fawad Ahmed was taken on the dual West Indies and Ashes tours ahead of Agar but has not performed to the standards the selectors hoped for.Other limited-overs merchants to return to Australian duty will include George Bailey, who gave up his place in the middle order during the World Cup to allow for Clarke’s return from injury and will now reclaim it, while Cameron Boyce will again be granted a chance to bowl in the lone T20 match ahead of next year’s World T20, to be held in India.Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood were not considered for the squad due to their heavy workloads during the Ashes, and Marsh said the selection panel’s preference was for the pair to enjoy full pre-seasons back home rather than lingering in England.”After Test matches both here and in the West Indies,” Marsh said, “we have opted to give both of those fast bowlers the opportunity to have a pre-season build-up in the lead-up to what will be another busy Australian season.”Australia squad: Steven Smith (capt), Ashton Agar, George Bailey, Joe Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Shane Watson, David Warner, Cameron Boyce (T20I only)