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ScorecardAn unbeaten century from Devon Smith led Windward Islands to a seven-wicket victory over Guyana. Guyana were put in to bat, and after being 18 for 1 came back with a 93-run second-wicket partnership, with opener Trevon Griffith and Leon Johnson scoring fifties. However that was to be the highlight of their innings, as they lost six more wickets for the addition of 87 runs, finishing on 198 for 8.Windwards’ reply started poorly as they lost their first wicket with 11 on the board. Two substantial stands followed though, with the 103-run third-wicket stand between Smith and Keddy Lesporis quashing any chance Guyana had. Smith continued to lead from the front till the end, taking Windwards home in 46.5 overs.
ScorecardTrinidad & Tobago chased down Leeward Islands’ target of 239 to win by three wickets. Leewards were put in to bat, and were under the cosh when they were 58 for 4 after 22.2 overs. Devon Thomas and Jahmar Hamilton scored 81 runs for the fifth wicket to help stabilise the innings. Tonito Willett scored an unbeaten 51 off 38 balls at the end to push Leewards’ score up to 238. Samuel Badree bowled an economical spell of 3 for 23.T&T were able to string some partnerships early on, with Justin Guillen and Kjorn Ottley combining for 77 runs to help keep them on course for their target. Anthony Martin’s 3 for 24 was in vain as Yannick Ottley’s 47 off 60 balls took them to victory in 48.3 overs.
ScorecardRaymon Reifer starred with bat and ball as Combined Campuses and Colleges beat Barbados by 59 runs in Bridgetown. CCC chose to bat first, but were at the mercy of Chris Jordan as he took three wickets up front to have them reeling at 36 for 3. Cousins Floyd and Raymon Reifer combined to put together a 56-run stand for the fourth wicket, before Floyd was dismissed by offspinner Ashley Nurse. No batsman could really capitalise on their starts, as CCC were dismissed for 167 in 49.2 overs. Jordan and Nurse each picked up three wickets in the innings.It was even worse for Barbados – they could not string any partnerships together as they lost wickets regularly. Raymon Reifer was the star of the show as he picked up a career-best 5 for 19, ably supported by Derone Davis’ 3 for 31. Jordan was the only batsman to pass 20 as the team folded, with eight batsman falling in single digits. Barbados were shot out for 94 in the 26th over.

ScorecardSouth Africa squared their Test series against England with a 67-run victory in Paarl on another hard-fought day. The home side’s spinners played a key role on a wearing surface after England had set a platform for at least a draw on 143 for 1.Victory came deep into the final session after the last four wickets fell for 10 runs. Kagiso Rababa, the quick bowler, wrapped up the innings with two wickets.England had started the day on 31 without loss needing another 287 to take the series and made strong early progress as Jonathan Tattersall and Dominic Sibley took their opening stand to 63. After Sibley fell to Vincent Moore another productive stand of 90 followed between Tattersall and Harry Finch (46).However, when Finch fell to the legspinner Diego Rosier, who bowled 25 overs in the day, the innings began to subside as England slipped to 191 for 6 before tea. Ed Barnard and Miles Hammond slowed South Africa’s momentum by adding 49, but when Michael Fasson had Barnard lbw the final collapse decided the match.David Bedingham, whose hundred set up South Africa’s matchwinning lead, was named Man of the Match and Oli Stone, the England captain, took the Man of the Series award for taking 17 wickets at 9.88.Stone’s match figures of 11 for 79 were the best by an England bowler in a Youth Test surpassing the record of 11 for 213 held Richard Pearson, the former Northamptonshire, Surrey and Essex spinner, set against Australia’s Young Cricketers in 1991.

ScorecardHalf-centuries from Mathew Sinclair and Ben Smith gave Central Districts their second win of the HRV Cup, a seven-wicket victory against Auckland, who now have to win both their remaining games and hope other results go their way in order to make the playoff. Central Districts are bottom of the league and have no chance of progress. Auckland, however, are fourth and need to win two games and also hope Northern Districts lose both of their remaining games.Central Districts’ victory was built on a 106-run stand for the third wicket between Sinclair and Smith. Chasing 182, Sinclair made 71 off 52 balls and Smith 59 off 31 deliveries. Sinclair fell with the scores level and Central Districts won with three balls to spare. Smith’s innings was his best of the tournament.Auckland had set a competitive total at Pukekura Park after a wobbly start – they were 59 for 4 in nine overs after winning the toss. Colin de Grandhomme led their fightback, scoring a half-century off 20 balls before he was dismissed for 55 off 24. Craig Cachopa made 49 off 33 deliveries to lead his team to 181. Bevan Small and Andrew Lamb took two wickets each for Central Districts.

Zaka Ashraf, the PCB chairman, has expressed annoyance at the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) decision to put their proposed tour of Pakistan on hold a second time. He reacted aggressively, saying that Pakistan will ‘reconsider’ its bilateral ties with Bangladesh after the BCB, once again, backed down from going ahead with the tour. Pakistan, he said, will not sacrifice their interests for those who do not honour their words.The PCB, Ashraf said, had not forced Bangladesh to tour. “If they don’t want to come its their own decision and we didn’t force them,” Zaka told ESPNcricinfo. Bangladesh, he said, had confirmed the tour to the PCB and the ICC “three times and still they backed off. Now their own reputation is at stake. If they don’t want to respect their bilateral relationship then we will also respond in the same manner.”The most immediate consequences of this breakdown of relations between the two boards over the controversial tour, will be felt at the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) that will begin on January 18. The BPL is clashing with the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s premier first-class event. ESPNcricinfo understands that the PCB is unlikely to release most of their top players – Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sami, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Imran Nazir and Wahab Riaz were all signed up at the league’s 2013 auction – for the BPL.”We will take a principled stance on the BPL,” Ashraf said. “But one thing is sure: our players might not be free as we are making our own arrangements from next year.” He said that PCB-related commitments may occupy most of the players’ time and that “they may not be bothered for other things”.The PCB had begun its preparations for an impending tour after getting a positive response from the BCB. Tenders had gone out, inviting sponsorship bids for a series title sponsor, two co-sponsors and in-stadia advertising rights for two international matches (one ODI and one T20). The PCB has also moved the domestic first-class Quaid-e-Azam matches, scheduled between January 7 and 22 away from the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore to accommodate the proposed matches against Bangladesh.Ashraf said it was “almost confirmed” that Bangladesh would tour Pakistan, but found it “strange” that they had pulled out from their commitment. The PCB’s efforts to revive international cricket in Pakistan, according to Ashraf, was on track: “Soon we will manage to get a better team to tour Pakistan than Bangladesh.”

Sourav Ganguly, the former India captain, has said India should have different captains for Tests and limited-overs matches in order to ease the workload on MS Dhoni, who is leading in all three formats as well as keeping wicket. Following India’s defeat against England at Eden Gardens, the first time they have lost back-to-back matches at home in 12 years, Ganguly said the selectors should follow the example of most countries in order to get the most out of Dhoni.”Every team in the world has gone with split captaincy. I am not saying the selectors should sack Dhoni and say, ‘You’re out’. I have always said there is too much burden on him. I think we are losing MS Dhoni as a player,” Ganguly told , an Indian news channel. “Captaincy and your ability as a player are interlinked, I think Dhoni is a much better one-day captain than he is a Test captain.”His performance in recent Tests has not been up to the mark, but that is because there is too much of a burden on him. I am a firm believer that his job has to be split – he needs a reprieve.”Ganguly said the selectors needed to “sit with Dhoni and ask him what form of cricket would he like to captain. I fear we may lose him as a player if we continue like this. He is a match-winner for India and he has done wonders for the team.”Responding to a statement about the selectors not naming a potential successor to Dhoni, in order to groom him, Ganguly said the captains who were successful for India did not develop through a such a system. “I was not groomed to be captain of India I just became captain, captain is something that comes by itself,” Ganguly said. “It is the same case with Dhoni. When Rahul Dravid decided to give up captaincy, and you know the captaincy was offered to Tendulkar and he refused to do it, the job went to Dhoni. I don’t agree with this thing that you have to groom someone to be captain.”In the ongoing Test series against England, Dhoni has scored only 92 runs in five innings, with a best of 52 in the first innings in Kolkata. England lead the four-Test series 2-1.

Bangladesh’s watchful approach at the start of their chase of 245 gave West Indies the upper hand as the Mirpur Test moved towards a tight finish, according to Darren Sammy. He praised his team’s attitude of not taking Bangladesh lightly, a factor he said had contributed to the 77-run win, especially after West Indies had conceded a 29-run lead in the first innings.”Normally Tamim [Iqbal] goes after the new ball,” Sammy said. “They always start off with a flier. But to see them coming out and leaving balls, I liked it. Had they got off to a flier, we would have had to pull back the game. I think it suited our plans the way they kept being tentative.”I know Bangladesh will take a lot of positives from this game and so will we. It leaves the series wide open with one more Test to go. We have seen that they are not a team we could roll over. We can expect a bigger fight and hopefully we can come out victorious in Khulna.”Bangladesh had scored their highest Test total – 556 – and remained competitive for four days, but blew their chances of victory during the last two sessions. On the second day, West Indies had declared on 527 for 4, and after Bangladesh surpassed that, the visitors came out firing in the second innings.”We were never going to take Bangladesh lightly but had we taken them for granted, the result of the first innings score would have caused panic in the dressing room, which eventually was a happy place after we had won a hard-fought Test match.”To see that we battled throughout the Test match and came out victorious, it would definitely boost the confidence that we had coming from the World Twenty20. It will improve the attitude of the players when we go out and play on the cricket field.”The deteriorating pitch helped West Indies keep the home batsmen quiet. The ball kicked up a few times when it hit the ridges that had developed, and there was spin too. “In the dressing room we talked about taking 10 wickets,” Sammy said. “The pitch we saw from the last session of the fourth day and the first session today, there were something for the spinners and also our guys are much quicker. We saw how Rubel [Hossain] bowled today and yesterday. I backed my bowlers and once we were patient, we know could get wickets.”Sammy was pleased to see the inexperienced players in his side standing up when it mattered, especially the second-innings century by Kieran Powell, who became the first West Indies batsman in 12 years to score hundreds in each innings of a Test. Debutant Veerasammy Permaul took four wickets in the game, while Tino Best picked up his first five-wicket haul with a burst of pace and bounce in the second innings.”The positives of this match are that guys have been scoring runs. Marlon [Samuels] and [Chris] Gayle didn’t score and yet we got 500-plus in the first innings and 240-odd on the fourth day in the second innings,” Sammy said. “The youngsters are really coming through. More players are stepping up and performing on a consistent basis.”

AB de Villiers insisted that bigger challenges lie ahead after South Africa became the first side to be rated No.1 in all three formats of international cricket.South Africa’s 80-run victory in Southampton saw them replace England at the top of the ODI rankings, with England slipping to third place behind India. South Africa were already rated the No.1 Test and T20 side, having usurped England as the top ranked Test team little more than a week ago following the 2-0 series victory sealed at Lord’s.De Villiers, South Africa’s limited-overs captain, said the team were proud of the achievement but suggested that they will be judged by more tangible success. Their main aims, he said, were the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and the 2013 Champions Trophy in England.”The No.1 thing is a bit of a bonus,” de Villiers said. “We’re happy about it, but it’s not a main goal or a main concern at the moment.”I’m obviously very proud of it. It’s a great achievement. Becoming No.1 was probably one of the goals of our Test team, as we have had a very settled team for the last few years. But the ODI and T20 sides contain a lot of new faces and a new captain. There are a lot of things still to achieve. We certainly weren’t working towards getting No.1 in ODIs in this series.”We want to play good ODI cricket, get a settled team and that’s what we’re working towards. It’s not something that is one of our main goals. We’re looking way ahead in the future: we have a World Cup in 2015 and the Champions Trophy in 2013 coming up.”De Villiers also provided a frank assessment of a well under par England’s performance. “I won’t say they’re rattled but they didn’t play their best cricket,” he said. “We expect a much better England side in the next ODI. One thing is for sure: they didn’t play at 100% today.”Key to South Africa’s success was Hashim Amla’s highest ODI score of 150. During the innings, Amla became the fastest man in the history of ODI cricket to reach 3,000 runs and will extend his lead at the top of the ICC ODI batting rankings.”It definitely felt like one of my better ODI innings,” he said. “What makes it special to me is that it was a difficult wicket and we won the game. “It’s a lot more challenging with two new white balls up-front and there was a period in the middle of the innings when the spinners were on, there was some turn and I had to tread carefully and build a partnership. It was definitely one of the innings I’ve most enjoyed.”With the first game of the five-match series, in Cardiff, abandoned due to rain, South Africa are now 1-0 up with three games to play. The next game will take place at The Oval on Friday.

The veteran fast bowler Chris Martin believes discipline will be the key for New Zealand’s attack if they are to turn their tour around with victory in the first Test against West Indies in Antigua. The match starts on Wednesday at the same ground on which New Zealand narrowly escaped with a draw in the warm-up game against the WICB President’s XI over the past week, and the West Indian batsmen clearly outplayed their New Zealand counterparts during that contest.On a pitch that Martin described as “up-and-down”, Narsingh Deonarine was especially impressive with 106 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul bedded down for more than three hours for his 51. Both of those men are part of the West Indies squad for the Test and could prove difficult to pry from the crease if they get settled, and Martin said the key would be to test the patience of the batsmen.”If you make a guy go out of his game-plan by being disciplined and hard-working, I think you’ve got a chance with the variable nature of the pitch,” Martin said. “I think if a guy decides to camp and bat for as long as he can it’s obviously a little bit more difficult for the pace bowlers to remove them. But I think as the game goes on, the variable nature of the pitch is probably going to create a little bit of havoc, so it’s probably a good toss to win.”I think the opportunity here for us on a pitch that’s definitely going to have a result in it is massive. It’s just a matter of us getting our games together and playing as a team and attacking pretty hard on that first day.”Remarkably for a man who is 37 and has been on the international cricket scene for 12 years, this will be Martin’s first full international of any format in the Caribbean. He took 0 for 52 in the warm-up match but the game gave him an opportunity to assess the conditions, and he was confident the ball would swing.”I’ve found it to swing early. It’s rock hard early, and you get whatever variation you need out of the wicket, and then it becomes a little bit of a holding pattern for a while, until you can get the ball reversing,” he said. “I think it softens up relatively quickly and I think the spinners find it a difficult ball if you haven’t used it before to get your hands around because there’s quite a big seam on it.”New Zealand need to find a way to turn their form around not only after the warm-up game but also following a 4-1 loss in the one-day series and a 2-0 defeat in the Twenty20s. Martin said on paper it appeared New Zealand should be able to match West Indies, and the key was to deny them a strong start on the first morning.”I think they’re quite a confident outfit at the moment,” he said. “How we start in that first hour against them is probably going to define the series in a lot of ways. As far as the line-ups go they’re pretty similar and I think if you look at the numbers across the board it’s going to be a very competitive Test series. It’s going to be for us a lot more about our attitude and playing together as a team to combat these guys in their home conditions.”West Indies are searching for their first series win against anyone other than Bangladesh in their past 10 series, and they will fancy their chances after the limited-overs portion of the tour. Chanderpaul, the veteran batsman, said it was important for a developing West Indies side that they earned some results for their encouraging play in recent times.”It’s very important for us,” Chanderpaul said. “We’ve been playing for a while now. We’ve had a couple of wins and it would be really good to go out and win this series. We’ve done well in the one-day series, in the T20 games. We’ve done well in those couple of formats and it would be nice to crown it off in the Test series.”

Patrick Sadler will lead Scotland in the Under-19 World Cup in Australia in August. A fast bowler, Sadler had also lead Scotland in the Under-19 World Cup qualifiers, during the course of which Scotland lost only one game in 14, and finished in top spot in the global category.

Scotland’s squad for the U-19 World Cup

Patrick Sadler (capt), Mathew Cross (vice-capt), Aman Bailwal, Freddie Coleman, Henry Edwards, Nick Farrar, Gavin Main, Tom McBride, Scott McElnea, Ross McLean, Sam Page, Peter Ross, Kyle Smith, Ruaidhri Smith, Andrew Umeed

Top-order batsman Mathew Cross was named vice-captain of the 15-man squad announced by Cricket Scotland. Sadler and Cross have both impressed in the MCC Universities programme so far this season, for Cambridge and Loughborough respectively.Freddie Coleman, a batsman who has played in England’s domestic 40-overs tournament this season for Scotland, has also been included.”We are in an extremely fortunate position with this group, in that we have real strength in depth,” Scotland’s coach, Craig Wright, said. “In particular, some of the younger players have made real progress and forced their way into the squad.”The lads have earned the right to test themselves against the best age-group players in the world, and I believe they have the attributes to give a good account of themselves in the competition.”Scotland will fly to Australia on July 24, and have a week’s preparation in the lead-up to the tournament. Their first World Cup match is against New Zealand on August 12.

ScorecardSimon Kerrigan took three wickets but Lancashire endured another difficult day•PA Photos

Unless the weather takes a drastic turn for the worse, it is impossible to see Lancashire escaping another confidence-sapping defeat after finishing five wickets down and still the small matter of 347 runs shy of even avoiding the follow-on.This was in reply to a Warwickshire total that was more than five sessions in the making, which was significant in itself in that it left Lancashire weary and dispirited and not in the best of shape, in terms of physical and mental readiness, to face a Warwickshire bowling attack with 25 overs in which to bend their backs and put pressure on a batting unit already short of confidence.Glen Chapple, whose absence from the bowling attack clearly eased the way for Warwickshire’s batsmen, spoke boldly of having players at his disposal with the quality to build partnerships. So far, though, apart from the 31 runs Paul Horton and Stephen Moore managed to put on before everything began to unravel, no combination has managed more than 14 and Lancashire are already down to Ashwell Prince and the wicketkeeper, Gareth Cross, with only the wounded Chapple and the explosive Ajmal Shahzad to come before the genuine tailenders, Gary Keedy and Simon Kerrigan.Their dreadful start to the season, therefore, shows little sign of getting better very soon. Warwickshire’s dominance of the opening day simply carried forward into the second. Chapple, who will have a scan on Monday to ascertain whether his side strain is a short-term problem or something more inconvenient, had to leave the first overs, with the ball still fairly new, in the hands of Luke Procter and Shahzad. But the latter, who had bowled well without much luck on Wednesday, did not have the same control this time, giving away too many cheap runs.Keedy and Kerrigan, therefore, were pressed into tandem service inside the first hour and barely rested from then on. Kerrigan’s 49 overs represented the heaviest workload of his career so far. Keedy wound up bowling 50, which he has done before but not as a 37-year-old.By the end they were understandably weary, their sterling efforts at least to restrict Warwickshire’s progress interrupted from time to time by Rikki Clarke letting rip with one of his four sixes. They had found some turn, but not to a degree that troubled anyone much.When the declaration came, perhaps a little later than it might have, Warwickshire’s attack, in form and bolstered by the return of Chris Woakes, scented blood.Woakes had not played since damaging ankle ligaments in March but you would not have known it. Confidence tuned up after hitting half a dozen boundaries in an unbeaten 43, he ran in with purpose and took a wicket with his 10th ball, adding a second in the penultimate over, at which point Lancashire were 54 for 5.Earlier, he had persuaded umpire Michael Gough that he had Karl Brown caught off the glove with a ball that spat off a length, rocking Lancashire on their heels at 32 for 2 after opener Horton had been leg-before to a full length delivery from the left-armer Keith Barker, who was being assessed by one of England’s talent spotters, Geoff Arnold.Then Barker’s new-ball partner, Chris Wright, who had switched ends after giving way to Woakes at the Birmingham End, took two wickets in four balls, beating Moore for pace with one that plucked out his off stump, then having Steven Croft caught behind with another that found some venomous bounce.Clarke, who had an escape on 57 when Kerrigan failed to hang on to a difficult return catch, finished unbeaten on 123, having batted for more than three and a half hours with a level of discipline and self-restraint that reflects a more mature approach to his game.He put on 147 for the sixth wicket with Tim Ambrose, who was within sight of his first century for three years when he chipped to short midwicket for 96. The only other wicket to fall, after half an hour of the opening session, had been that of Darren Maddy, who miscued Keedy to be caught at mid-off.