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Ben Stokes, the Durham allrounder, has been offered encouragement by the England management that he can win a return to international contention after being sent home from the Lions’ winter tour of Australia for disciplinary reasons.In February, Stokes and Kent’s Matt Coles were punished for “contravening their conduct obligations” and dismissed from the touring party, after a second offence that coincided with Andy Flower’s arrival in Australia to check on the Lions. Stoke recently met with Flower, England’s team director, and Ashley Giles, who is in charge of the limited-overs sides, and was told to stay out of trouble and focus on his game.”They told me it’s not a clean slate but a cross has not been put through your name either,” said Stokes, who played five ODIs and two T20 internationals for England in 2011. “Just keep playing your cricket and keep performing, that was the message.”Stokes’ untimely return from Australia attracted unwelcome headlines for the second time in his career – in December 2011 he was arrested for obstructing a policeman in his duty, in what was believed to be a drink-related incident. On this occasion, Flower, Giles and England’s managing director, Hugh Morris, have moved quickly to remind him of his responsibilities.”People have made their minds up as to what happened and you can either believe it or not,” Stokes told the . “I’ve got to learn from it. I’m not putting it behind me, it’s always going to be on my mind, but I now know what Andy Flower, Ashley Giles and Hugh Morris want from the players they want to pick.”It was an eye-opener. It has given me a lesson not just in cricket but in life. You learn by your mistakes, I guess, and if any situation comes along again that resembles those two, I’ll know the right thing to do. We’ve got to remember we are role models for kids and think of the impression we give them as professional sportsmen.”Having long been considered one of England’s most-talented prospects, his international career stalled after elevation to the limited-overs sides as a batsman two summers ago. A finger injury that required three operations was a major setback and then a back problem hampered him in the early part of last season but his bowling has continued to develop, complementing a first-class batting average of 37.13.”You would have to run over it with a truck to damage it now,” he said of his right index finger. “Getting it fixed then was the right thing to do because otherwise I probably wouldn’t be bowling now. When I first started bowling for Durham I was a bit of an ‘I’ll-give-it-a-go’ sort of guy but last year I was given a lot more responsibility, bowling in more high-pressure situations, and that helped my confidence and consistency. I tend to swing it. Mind you, if you can’t swing it up here in Durham, you probably can’t swing it anywhere.”Batting at No. 5 and coming on first-change with the ball for Durham will give Stokes the chance to press his England case in both suits. Performances on the pitch and a more mature attitude off it will also have to go hand in hand.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Adam Gilchrist with the man he believed should have been the Man of the Match: Azhar Mahmood•BCCI

During one of the matches that Adam Gilchrist sat out of, he complained – not without humour – about how the umpiring mistakes had all been targeting his Kings XI Punjab side. He also said that he might have had a whinge, but his side needed to do better despite umpiring mistakes. It seemed Gilchrist would be left saying something similar tonight after Chris Gayle survived an lbw shout when he was 4 off 11, and went onto help Royal Challengers Bangalore score 122 in the last 10 overs.Luck turned on the night, though. Gilchrist was plumb at 18 off 16 when he didn’t pick a Muttiah Muralitharan doosra. A mix of outside edges, inside edges and some vintage Gilchrist shots, helped by Azhar Mahmood’s 61 off 41, stunned Royal Challengers, ending the chase of 175 with 11 balls to spare. Kings XI kept their slim hope alive, and made it difficult for Royal Challengers, who were left fighting Sunrisers Hyderabad for the final playoff place. Sunrisers are level with Royal Challengers, but have a game in hand.Put in, Royal Challengers needed a huge total on a flat pitch and short outfield, especially given their bowling. For a long period of time, it seemed Royal Challengers wouldn’t even get to a fighting total. Kings XI bowled few loose balls in the first half of the innings, and Gayle and Virat Kohli struggled to come to terms with the pace of the pitch.After their misfortune, Kings XI lost their way towards the end. Once Gayle and Kohli began hitting, the Kings XI bowlers were like rabbits caught in headlights and kept bowling length balls, which kept disappearing. Parvinder Awana, the bowler who had been denied the Gayle wicket earlier, came back to rip Gayle’s stump into two in the 19th over. Despite the damage control, Kings XI had been hit hard, and the momentum seemed to have shifted.However, Royal Challengers bowlers once again had no sting. Theirs is a bit like the typical Indian ODI team under MS Dhoni, with which no total seems safe. Gilchrist was scratching around, and struggling to go at a run a ball when Mahmood joined him. Having bowled two good overs at the death, Mahmood came and smacked three consecutive boundaries in the sixth over to inject some life into the chase.Gilchrist kept handing over the strike to Mahmood until it was time for both to go. Then Gilchrist got an outside edge for four. Then a four off the inside half of the bat. The best of Gilchrist came against Muralitharan when he charged at him and drove him back over his head for four. He bettered it by charging at the returning Zaheer Khan and sending him back over the sight screen. It all ended in a blur after that, but his driving and sweeping of Murali for consecutive sixes stood out.Once again Gilchrist called it as he saw it. He pointed out both the lbw mistakes, admitted that he “scratched around like an old chook” in the first half, and that Mahmood deserved the Man-of-the-Match award that he got.

ScorecardThe last rites were quickly administered at but the funeral may last a week or so. The faithful Yorkshire supporters who turn up for matches at Headingley much as Roman Catholics go to church on days of obligation had only a 25-minute service to attend on the fourth morning of this match.Wickets for Chris Jordan and Steve Magoffin sealed Yorkshire’s fate and sent Andrew Gale’s side down to their first four-day defeat in 19 matches, a run which stretches back to 2011. Gary Ballance played with the assured competence which suggests that he should be batting higher than No 6 in the order but apart from that there was little to cheer the Leeds crowd on a sunny April morning.

Sussex provide ray of hope

Sussex might have underlined the gulf between the two divisions of the LV= County Championship, but if Yorkshire look back into Sussex’s recent history they will find reason for solace.
When Sussex won the title in 2007, they started their campaign with two innings defeats in the first three matches and conceded 626 for 3 in the fourth.
Of course, that Sussex side had Mushtaq Ahmed at the height of his powers.

Inevitably the “sack the lot” faction will be in good voice – they normally are on both side of the Pennines – but the challenge for Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie will be isolate the areas which need improvement without engaging in major surgery so early in the season. It is also important to recognise the many excellent qualities possessed by Ed Joyce’s team and this was something which Gillespie was quick to do.”Sussex batted better than us and they bowled better than us and when that happens you tend to go down in games,” he said. “It is very disappointing.”To get bowled out for 96 is unacceptable,” he added, referring to Yorkshire’s supine first-innings display. “We all acknowledge that and we’ve had a couple of really good chats as a team. The batters put their hand up and said it wasn’t good enough. We have to find a way not just to survive but to thrive out there and score runs. We just didn’t execute our shots the way we should have. There’s no excuse really.”Yorkshire now have a Roses friendly – if such a thing exists before tough undertaking away to Durham in their next Division One game, a match where the batsmen are likely to undergo another fierce examination.Gillespie’s frank comments may be well received by Yorkshire supporters who have little patience with cliché-mongers. They will not have wanted their coach to hide behind platitudes in his explanation of why the White Rose failed to perform in their first competitive match of the 2013 season.”It’s far too early to make too many comparisons between Division One and Division Two,” he said. “But we knew from the start of the season that the standard of cricket was gong to be very good and that it was going to challenge us. It challenged us here and we weren’t up to it. We’ve got to find a way to turn that around.”We’re not going to be making wholesale changes, but we will be looking at our batting order and seeing how we can best utilise it. At the moment we’re very comfortable with Gary Ballance batting at six. Andrew Gale has missed out this game and he’s as disappointed as anyone but his form in pre-season has been excellent. He’s hitting the ball very well.””From a bowling point of view we bowled four good balls and then we bowled a bad ball. Not putting a score on the board led to the bowlers searching for wickets and we learned that if we stray away from our game plan a little bit we can get punished.”Gillespie’s comments were backed up by Yorkshire’s No 3 Phil Jaques, whose determined 57 in the second innings was one of the bright spots of an otherwise dismal, technically-deficient performance by Gale’s side”Sussex showed the way to bowl on this wicket and they were relentless in the first innings. They were just at us all the time,” said Jaques. “We were just not good enough plain and simple on the first day. But I think we are good enough to handle the First Division and I don’t think you should read too much into the first game of the season.”We’ve shown that we can play some good cricket in the past and I’m sure we’ve got another 10 or 20% of improvement in us. The more we can get out there and play, the better we’re going to be. We showed that we needed more practice on this sort of wickets. These early-season wicket will be different to any you’re going to play on in the rest of the season.”

ScorecardRob Quiney guided Victoria’s run chase with 76•Getty Images

England Lions continued their difficult start in Australia with a third-straight warm-up defeat as Victoria eased home by eight wickets at the MCG.The Lions never recovered sufficiently from a poor start which left them on 3 for 18 and could only post 173. Scott Boland took 4 for 29 and Fawad Ahmed also impressed with 2 for 21 from nine overs. Victoria cruised to their target with more than 12 overs to spare, Rob Quiney leading the way with 76 to following the hundred he scored in the first of the warm-up matches.After putting the Lions into bat, Victoria’s seamers made early inroads with the first three wickets all falling to catches by the wicketkeeper. A recovery of sorts was started by James Taylor (31), who scored a hundred in the previous match, and Gary Ballance, who finished as top-scorer with 57, but the batsmen rarely dominated.Ahmed removed Taylor and Ben Stokes, the Durham allrounder, was run out to leave the Lions 5 for 95 in the 31st over. Ballance added 46 with Rikki Clarke (32) but when Ballance was lbw to Clive Rose it meant there was no late flourish to the innings. The last four wickets fell for 11 runs in four overs.Victoria made a brisk start to their chase with Quiney and Peter Handscomb adding 83 for the first wicket and another half-century stand followed for the second wicket. The Lions bowlers have failed to impress during the warm-up matches and again did not make much of an impression although Chris Wright and Craig Overton were economical.The Lions now travel to Hobart where the five-match one-day series against Australia A begins on February 16.

Former Australia batsman Darren Lehmann has been appointed the new coach of the IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab. Lehmann has previously coached the now defunct franchise Deccan Chargers, and had played for Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural edition in 2008. He replaces Adam Gilchrist, who was the coach and captain of the Punjab side in the 2012 season.”I’m geared up for the challenges it brings and will always encourage our team to be an entertaining and aggressive brand that people love to watch and associate with,” Lehmann said. “I’m also looking forward to working with Adam Gilchrist again and help all the players grow on and off the field.”Lehmann also coaches Australia’s state side Queensland, and the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League.

ScorecardLahore Ravi got their first win of the season after Adnan Rasool took nine wickets in the match to inflict an innings defeat on Quetta at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. Quetta were 213 for 7 in their first innings when they started the fourth day and needed another 51 to avoid follow-on. But their tail was wiped out for the next 23 runs and they had to bat again.In the second innings, the duo of Rasool and Mohammad Khalil ran through their batting to dismiss them for 106. This win was set up by Lahore Ravi’s batsmen, who scored 414 for 4 in the first innings after being put in to bat. Abid Ali was unbeaten with a double century, his highest first-class score which got them a huge first-innings lead.
ScorecardAbbottabad may not have chased their target of 176 on the last day, but their first-innings lead of 121 runs got them three points out of a drawn match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. After Bahawalpur started the last day on 96 for 3, Abbottabad did well to restrict them to 296, but fell short of time to chase the target. Ahmed Jamal followed his first innings figures of 6 for 80 with 5 for 96 in the second innings.When Bahawalpur were put in to bat on the first day, half-centuries from Moinuddin and Rehan Rafiq took them to a total of 216. Abbottabad, however, were led by captain Yasir Hameed, who scored 103, and ensured they got a first innings lead which leaves them at the fourth place in Group II.
ScorecardLahore Shalimar scored 458 to take three points from a huge first-innings lead against Faisalabad in a drawn match played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Umar Akmal scored a century, supported by half-centuries from Imran Butt and Mohammad Zohaib which helped them take a lead.When Faisalabad were put in to bat, Aizaz Cheema struck five times to keep them to 265 out of which Moazzam Hayat (47) and Mohammad Salman (76*)scored respectable scores. The three points take Shalimar’s total tally to 12, taking them to second position in Group II.
ScorecardA 214-run partnership between Israrullah and Mohammad Rizwan helped Peshawar draw the match with Multan at the Multan Cricket Stadium. After conceding a 146-run first-innings lead, Peshawar batted out the entire last day to secure a draw.Earlier, Peshawar were dismissed for 194 after being asked to bat which put them on the backfoot. This was followed by hundreds from Naved Yasin and Ahsan Nazir which gave Multan a first-innings lead and eventually three points. Peshawar were under pressure when they came out to bat but their top order ensured they were not dismissed again.

Scorecard
As many as eighteen wickets tumbled on the first day at Eden Gardens as Hyderabad came roaring back after a poor batting performance. Ashish Reddy led the way with 5 for 30 as Hyderabad reduced hosts Bengal to 79 for 8, a deficit of 36 at stumps. Bengal, without their injured captain Manoj Tiwary, fell apart from a comfortable 39 for 1. Only opener Arindam Das resisted with an unbeaten 37 while Nos 4 to 9 registered single-digit scores. Reddy was supported by Anwar Ahmed’s 3 for 30. The hosts had earlier justified their decision to field by running through the Hyderabad line-up in 37.1 overs. Quick bowlers Shami Ahmed and Veer Pratap Singh picked up seven wickets between them while only K Sumanth and Syed Quadri managed to get into the twenties.
Scorecard
Ajinkya Rahane’s fall for 24 was the only sore point for Mumbai as they dominated Saurashtra in Rajkot. Aditya Tare and Wasim Jaffer set the tone when they put on 135 upfront after Rohit Sharma won the toss. Jaffer hit 12 boundaries in his breezy 79. Rahane, released from the Test squad to play Ranji Trophy, went caught behind after getting a start but Tare and Rohit took control. Tare faced 262 balls for his unbeaten 122 while Rohit hit three sixes as he motored to his second fifty of the season, to add to a double century and a hundred.
ScorecardDevendra Bundela and Jalaj Saxena led a reasonable batting show from hosts Madhya Pradesh in Gwalior against Punjab. MP lost Naman Ojha cheaply after being asked to bat, but Saxena, who moved up from the lower-middle order to open the innings, ensured the hosts weren’t bogged down. Saxena made a brisk 84 while Bundela carried on the accumulation with an unbeaten 92. There was a stage when Sandeep Sharma, currently the highest-wicket taker of the season, and Baltej Singh had reduced MP to 199 for 5. But Bundela found another partner in Rahul Bakshi, and the pair had put on 82 by the end of the day’s play.
Scorecard
Shivakant Shukla’s century helped Railways recover from 90 for 3 against defending champions Rajasthan in Bhubaneshwar. The opening partnership was worth 55 after Railways chose to bat at their home ground but Aniket Choudhary’s double-strike, including Railways captain Sanjay Bangar for 4, had them in some trouble. Shukla and Parag Madkaikar, though, settled down to revive the innings. The pair put on 146 before Shukla fell to Manjeet Singh towards the close of play. Madkaikar was unbeaten on a patient 70 with Ashish Yadav for company.

On a surface that even New Zealand’s tail made seem friendly, three of Sri Lanka’s big four batsmen could not manage better than single figures, and Kane Williamson said the value of those wickets could not be understated, given the pitch remained good for batting.New Zealand amassed 412 on the P Sara surface, thanks in the main to a 262-run partnership between Ross Taylor and Williamson, which was almost chanceless beyond the first hour of their union. In reply, however, Sri Lanka were reduced to 12 for 3 inside the first six overs of their innings, with their most experienced men in the top order all falling to New Zealand’s opening bowlers.Angelo Mathews then joined Tharanga Paranavitana at the crease and the pair survived the remaining 11.5 overs until stumps, but two boundaries that Mathews ventured in one Tim Southee over suggested the wicket had plenty more runs to give. The New Zealand bowlers also had far less assistance from the conditions than in Galle, achieving only a fraction of the movement they had showed themselves capable of gaining in the first Test.”It’s great to finish the evening the way we did, getting those three wickets,” Williamson said. “I guess that makes our first innings total look a lot better, and there is a lot of pressure going on the Sri Lankan side tomorrow.”But as Mathews showed towards the end when he started playing some shots, it is still a good wicket.”Few would have imagined New Zealand would be in a position to pursue a large first-innings total only a few days ago, after their batsmen had collapsed woefully in their second innings in Galle, recording their lowest total in an already bleak year. Williamson’s doughty 135 and a measured 142 from Taylor were the backbone of New Zealand’s innings and Williamson said time in the nets had been key to their turnaround, in the absence of adequate match practice. The limited-overs leg of the tour was ravaged by rain, and the match schedule did not allow New Zealand time to play a warm-up before the Tests.”It’s been tough not having time in the middle and batting in the one-dayers, the circumstances didn’t allow you to figure out whether you were hitting the ball well or not. I’ve been practising hard this week and it was very nice to put together an innings. I had a lot of time with batting coach, and hit a lot of balls.”Williamson’s century was the third of his Test career and his second in the subcontinent, but he had only passed fifty once since his last hundred, a match saving 102 not out in Wellington. He said encouragement and insight from his more experienced team-mates helped him overcome the dry spell.”I talked to Brendon McCullum and a few of the other batsmen, just to get my head around a few things because I hadn’t scored for a few Tests. They all helped out and the team were supportive. Having not scored in the first Test, it was good to get the word from them on how things played here and take that into this match.”Despite their terrific position, New Zealand must still take 17 more wickets on a surface showing few signs of wear, if they are to score an unexpected triumph. Thilan Samaraweera moved down the order after he received stitches on his hand for split webbing, but he is expected to bat in Sri Lanka’s first innings, and beyond the batsmen, the tail is one of the more capable Sri Lanka have fielded, with last man in Shaminda Eranga having made a first-class ton.”They’ve got some seriously good cricketers, and to bowl them out twice is not going to be an easy feat,” Williamson said. “We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves and we know we have to play good cricket each time we go out there.”

Jonny Bairstow, who will be charged with the unenviable task of replacing Kevin Pietersen in the series-deciding Test against South Africa at Lord’s, is not the sort to buckle under the pressure according to his Yorkshire and England team-mate Tim Bresnan.Memories of an uncertain Test series against West Indies when he was unsettled by short-pitched bowling from Kemar Roach will be quite enough to cope with as he faces Dale Steyn and Co. and to replace Pietersen, whose absence has attracted such attention, will not make his task any easier.Bresnan suggested that all the fuss will wash over him. “I don’t think he’ll care who’s been dropped or who he’s replaced,” he said. “It’s a chance for him to impress everyone, a chance for him to play in a Test match and a chance for him to show exactly what he can do and show how talented he is.”Bairstow had suffered a lean run of form for Yorkshire after he was dropped from England’s Test side, but an assertive hundred against Australia A at Old Trafford will have restored his self-belief.”He is unbelievably talented and I think he can get runs at this level if he gets a start,” Bresnan said. “All he needs to do is feel a bit of confidence out there and he got that last week against Aussie A. He played really well against a really good attack. He took Mitchell Johnson apart. From what I saw on the highlights he played some unbelievable shots and played the short ball well as well.”Bresnan put Bairstow’s problems against West Indies down to uncertainty about whether his normal aggressive style should have been adopted in a Test at Trent Bridge at a time when Roach was producing a hostile spell with the second new ball in testing conditions, albeit that England were 300 for 4 when he came in to bat.”He just looked in two minds about what to do with it,” Bresnan said. “When I’ve seen him play in county cricket he tends to just smash it in the stand. If that’s his way of doing it then that’s what he needs to do at this level as well.”Maybe in his first Test he decided to do something different when he came up against the West Indies which is nothing new there. It’s just a bit of inexperience creeping in because you don’t want to get caught on the hook in your first Test match. But I think if that’s the way he plays it that’s the way he should play it this week.”Bresnan was the latest England player to be asked his view about the Pietersen rumpus and his response had something for everyone: the ECB were within their rights to take a stance against Pietersen, but he would also have no issues with him coming back into the side if the issues were resolved.”I think the ECB and the management have got to take a stance at some point and it doesn’t necessarily matter what’s going on in the calendar. If they feel the stance is now then the stance is now.”Personally I’ve got no problem with Kevin so yeah, if everyone a lot higher up the pecking order than me says it’s deemed okay for him to come back and play that’s fine by me. It’s the same welcome he’ll get as Jonny got when he joined the squad yesterday.”

It was that kind of day for India. The first ball Virat Kohli chased outside off stump, he edged to the wicketkeeper. The first ball Rohit Sharma inside-edged, he played on. Ditto Suresh Raina. Virender Sehwag departed courtesy an outstanding return-catch by Thisara Perera. Before they knew it, India were 41 for 4. Soon, before the floodlights had come on in the Hambantota jungle, India had been bowled out for 138 in 33.3 overs, their fourth-lowest ODI total in the past five years. The three lowest have also come in Sri Lanka.This is more or less the same line-up that had made 330, 289, 304 and 321 in its previous four innings before this series. This was the same ground on which India had made 314 three days ago. Thisara Perera had gone for 70 runs in that game. Today, his figures read 3-3-0-3 at one stage. Had Angelo Mathews not put down MS Dhoni at first slip, they would have read 3-3-0-4. It was that kind of day for India.What a difference playing on an adjacent pitch on the same ground can make, which is what MS Dhoni said was responsible for India’s batsmen doing what they did. “The pitch was next to the wicket we played on last time but it behaved in a completely different way,” Dhoni said. “Initially the wicket was slightly on the slower side. Once Virat [Kohli] got out we lost a couple of more wickets very quickly. Before the batsmen could assess the wicket, we lost two wickets played on. I thought after that it was too much for batsmen like Irfan [Pathan] and Ashwin to come in and take us out of trouble.”Mahela Jayawardene, though, did not think the pitch played as big a role in India’s capitulation. “The wicket I don’t think was that bad,” Jayawardene said. “Probably a touch slower, there were quite a few good balls as well. We bowled in good areas, created pressure, maybe couple of bad shots as well but I will take that any day. The important thing with the Indian batting line-up is picking up wickets and that’s the only way we can control things and that is what we did today.”Dhoni, who was caught behind trying to force a not-so-short and not-so-wide ball off the back foot, did not think the strokes attempted by the India batsmen were reckless; he felt they were just unfortunate to be dismissed in the way they fell. “I don’t think they were shots that were really rash. People were looking for singles. If you see Rohit’s ball [the one off which he was dismissed], the shot was on. But he got an inside edge and it went onto the stumps. It could have been his lucky day if it hadn’t hit the stumps and he was still there to carry on with his innings. It is part and parcel of the game and a big learning curve. Hope the batsmen learn and they assess the wicket very quickly [in the next game].”India have been dismissed for 103 and 88 in Dambulla before and Dhoni was asked whether those conditions were comparable to Hambantota. “I don’t think it was very similar because what usually happens in Dambulla is, if it is a day-night game, the second half becomes very difficult [for the batsmen]. The last time we played there, it [the pitch] was a bit spongy; before that, it usually used to keep a bit low and still [the ball] used to move around a lot.”Over here the wicket was slightly different, it [the ball] was stopping before coming on. I don’t think there was too much swing for the bowlers, though there was a bit of breeze – meaning you can swing it a bit – but nothing unusual. I just thought the pace of the wicket was not really coming onto the bat and that’s the reason why we lost too many wickets initially.”Dhoni said, overall, he was happy with the team’s showing in the two games in Hambantota. “The boys adjusted well to the conditions whether it was the bowling or the batting department. Today the performance wasn’t so good but still, the kind of wind we faced here was the kind that one usually gets to see in Wellington in New Zealand. I think given the amount of time we had, we adjusted pretty well. So I am quite happy, [it was a] decent performance.”Slowly and gradually you will see all the youngsters learning, especially about the importance of the middle overs, because that is where most of the cricket is played – right from the 15th-20th over, onwards till the 40th over.”