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M Vijay is difficult to slot into one genre of batting. He has T20 hundreds, but is one of the best defensive batsmen going around in Test cricket. He strikes at around 46 runs per 100 balls, but is already only one six short of getting into the top 10 six-hitting Test openers. Only one of the 10 ahead of him is a defensive batsman: Navjot Sidhu, who similarly attacked spinners.Just like the cricketer that he is, Vijay is an emotional person, but doesn’t open up with many. Having addressed a press conference after scoring his eighth Test century, one that put India in command in the Mumbai Test, Vijay was walking off when he called out a journalist he knows. He told the journalist to make an announcement on his behalf: that he wants to dedicate this innings to the father of a close friend back home who died on the first day of the Test. That he was sorry he couldn’t be there for his friend, only whose first name he gave: Srinath.This was a century that came after failings both similar and uncharacteristic. Vijay is known for scoring big at the start of a series and then fading away, but these failures were coming against the short ball from somebody who has tackled it with aplomb all over the world. Vijay is, in fact, one of the best – if not the best – leavers of the ball. Vijay acknowledged that failing.”I did think about it [short balls] because I was playing at the balls I should be leaving generally,” Vijay said. “There are lot of other factors to it. I don’t want to reveal them. But yeah, the definite gameplan is to back my core game, believe in it and come back fresh, and to play this Test match the way I wanted to play.”The eight-day break between the third and fourth Tests perhaps turned this into a bit of a start of something new. “The break helped me,” Vijay said. “And it helped everybody, I guess, to go and rethink and come back better.”One of the first successes for Vijay was hitting an overpitched Adil Rashid wrong’un for six, which resulted in Rashid being taken out of the attack at a time when spinners were troubling Vijay. “Actually, my gameplan is to attack the spinners because I don’t want them to settle in one particular area where they find it comfortable,” Vijay said. “I just wanted to use my feet and use the depth of the crease, and play according to my gameplan. It came out pretty well, I guess.”Asked to rate this innings vis-à-vis his others, Vijay said: “It is special because I started off well in this series,” Vijay said. “And then a couple of matches I couldn’t play the way I wanted to play. I was getting out too early. I just came out with a much clearer mindset in this game. And I just wanted to back my instinct and play.”The innings was special not least because it – with the help of a Virat Kohli masterclass – has given India a 51-run lead with three wickets in hand. Considering how much the ball has turned, that is a massive lead.”Definitely [in control of this match],” Vijay said, “because any lead is gold in this wicket. During tea time, we just thought get close to their target, but the way Virat and Jayant Yadav are batting, I think we are in a pretty good position.”

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has called for “good pitches” in the series against England, pitches that won’t turn on the first two days, to allow India to develop into a competitive all-conditions bowling side, especially their spinners. Ganguly, who will be part of ESPNcricinfo Match Day, the analysis show that will be aired on ESPNcricinfo and on the SONY ESPN channel on every match day of the five-Test series, said R Ashwin was a “top-class” bowler and that India were “unbeatable” at home, but also said he would only judge the captain, coach and star bowlers based on the next cycle of overseas performances.”I think the wickets are going to be good,” Ganguly said of the upcoming five-Test series against England. “And India should be playing on good pitches. I firmly believe they will continue to be unbeatable at home. But if you want to be a good bowling unit overseas, where your spinners come into play and win you Test matches, Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja will have to learn bowling on good first-day, second-day pitches, where there is no turn, where you have got to bowl the right line and right length. And on day four, day five, the game will change very quickly in these conditions.”One of the favourite bowlers of Ganguly the captain, Harbhajan Singh, had recently created a stir about the pitches India have been playing on since last season, saying his and Anil Kumble’s record would have been something else if they had played on such pitches. Knowing this criticism had come from an insider, the current captain Virat Kohli, who has been snapping at anybody who as much as utters the word “pitch”, had to bite his tongue. Ganguly asked Harbhajan to move on, but he could also see where Harbhajan was coming from.”He has got to take it easy, I think, Bhajji,” Ganguly said. “He has been a champion for India. He has just got to move ahead. I know some of the pitches are square turners. That’s not Ashwin’s fault, though. He has probably got those pitches to bowl on, and he has bowled on them. I think Harbhajan is a great bowler, a great servant for Indian cricket, and he should enjoy the cricket and leave it at that. I know some of the pitches – against South Africa he would probably have got 40 wickets in that series – but even if he didn’t get those pitches in his career it doesn’t make him a lesser bowler than anybody.”On the whole, Ganguly saw improvement in Ashwin’s last series outside Asia, and expected more of the same. “There was never a doubt about him as a bowler in these conditions,” Ganguly said. “If you look at his record in the first 12-13 Test matches in the subcontinent, he has got 100 wickets. There is always a question mark on how he bowled in England and Australia and South Africa. And there’s definitely an improvement on that. He has definitely got better in those conditions.”He has continued to thrive on these turning pitches. I don’t think it is that difficult bowling on these turning pitches. You see Jadeja, his record home and away is like chalk and cheese. Ashwin will be very, very dangerous in this squad. Jadeja as well. Pitches turning. Fast. Hitting the rough and turning it away. He will be very, very hard to get away. So England will have to bat very well in the first innings. Toss will be crucial. They will be looking to win the toss and bat first. Lots of things will affect how this series goes but Ashwin is going to be a huge threat.”As part of the BCCI’s cricket advisory committee, Ganguly was instrumental in the appointment of Kumble as India coach, and he is a fan of Kohli: “I sit on my sofa and switch on my TV to watch Virat Kohli.” While he is impressed with Kumble and Kohli’s partnership so far, he is not getting carried away yet. “He [Kumble] has been brilliant but he has played a lot of Test matches at home,” Ganguly said. “And he is going to play about nine Test matches at home in the next six months, so I maintain as I maintained with other coaches that India will continue to beat teams in these conditions. But just like everyone, just like I asked of MS Dhoni whether he had the ability to win Test matches overseas, the same question remains for Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble.”Whether they can get together and get India going in overseas conditions. Because that is what is going to happen after these nine Test matches. We are going to go away to England, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. And they will be tested. So for them and for me the real judgement will come once they complete that full circle. At the present moment, I don’t think they have been tested yet.”Ganguly doesn’t expect England to test India too much either, because, according to him, England are a depleted side from the one that beat India in India in 2012-13, and also because India are on a roll and high on confidence while the opposite was true of the side that lost in 2012-13. Ganguly expects India to continue playing just the two spinners, but if left to him he would add Amit Mishra to the successful pairing of Ashwin and Jadeja.”If I go by the New Zealand Test series, I think he [Kumble] is happy with four bowlers,” Ganguly said. “He knows in these conditions the spinners are capable of picking up 20 wickets, when the ball turns square. I just get a feeling that he will go in with four bowlers. And that will be Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. If he goes in with three spinners at some stage – and that will only happen if he is under pressure, if he hasn’t won the first Test in Rajkot, or of the wicket is Vizag is a minefield as we saw in the one-day game [against New Zealand] – maybe then he could come and have a third spinner.”Him going with three spinners [at the outset], I am not too sure. Because he will wait for the ball to reverse. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have been brilliant at that. Ishant Sharma is back, so he will probably get a go ahead of Umesh Yadav. So I see him going with Ishant and Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.”

Kyle Abbott looks set to step into Dale Steyn’s shoes in the second Test in Hobart, ahead of Morne Morkel and new call-up Dwaine Pretorius. With Morkel yet to be declared fully match fit following two months on the sidelines with a back injury and, Pretorius only due to jet in once he receives confirmation of a visa, without saying it in so many words, coach Russell Domingo indicated Abbott could complete the three-man pace pack.”We’ve got two options at the moment. Kyle Abbott and Morne Morkel,” Domingo said. “Morne is coming off a back injury. We’ll assess him two days before the Test and make the call on whether he is 100% fit. Kyle Abbott is a consistent solid performer and has been every time he has come in.”We need to weigh up what type of bowler we want to use under the conditions in Hobart, because I think they are different to what they are here. It’s a fascinating series because all three venues have totally different conditions. I’ve never been to Hobart, I’ve heard its cold and the wickets are a little New Zealand-like, a little slower.”At the WACA pace and bounce provided what Kagiso Rabada called a “bowler’s paradise,” but, as Domingo said, cold, wet weather in Tasmania is unlikely to assist in the preparation of anything similar in the second Test. That may mean the pacemen have to play more defensive roles which could mean bowling longer spells. Morkel was initially left out because of concerns he would not be up for that and even though he is making progress, Abbott is regarded as more of a workhorse.South Africa are unlikely to change from their usual combination of three seamers and a spinner, Keshav Maharaj. After a debut Test in which Maharaj had to do more than he may have bargained for in a three-man attack and did it well, and performed impressively with the bat, Tabraiz Shamsi will wait for his turn.”Keshav Maharaj’s performance has been nothing short of phenomenal considering it was his first Test,” Domingo said. “He allowed seamers to have breaks when they needed to and I see him playing a massive role for this side going forward”Still, without Morkel, South Africa’s attack can be seen to lack a certain superstar status; after all Morkel and Steyn were long regarded as the golden pair. Philander proved he deserves the respect he earned when he first came in, with the way he stepped after up after Steyn went down, and Kagiso Rabada is quickly establishing himself as the leader of the attack, a label he prefers to distance himself from. But names like Abbott, Maharaj and Pretorius mean South Africa’s bench is stacked with so-called unknowns and their ability to step up to the biggest stage is what has pleased Domingo.”We’ve won some games of late without some of the best players in the world. We don’t have AB de Villiers and we’ve put in some wonderful performances. At the end of the day, they are all wonderful players,” Domingo said. “We’ve got some really good young players coming into the system and some really good young players back home. We are trying to focus on the group we have at the moment and trying to get the best out of them at the moment.”Domingo, like du Plessis had done pre-series, played down suggestions that de Villiers would make a surprise return for Adelaide after the captain told a radio station he hoped to fast-track his recovery from elbow surgery. “He has been caddying for a mate at a golf tournament,” Domingo said. “I don’t think he is going to be fit for Adelaide.. I am not a doctor but I can’t see AB being being there.”That means the batting line-up will continue to demand more from Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock, who have made up for inexperience with impressive temperament. De Kock has already been compared with Adam Gilchrist and if Stephen Cook’s misfiring goes on for much longer, he may be moved to the top temporarily.South Africa also have Rilee Rossouw in hand should they want to experiment, and Pretorius’ batting ability to add depth lower-down if they are unsure about the length of the tail. Pretorius has scored four half-centuries in five innings in the domestic first-class competition which put him ahead of candidates like Duanne Olivier, Marchant de Lange and Hardus Viljoen to head Down Under.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Amy Satterthwaite and Suzie Bates put on 174 runs at over six runs per over•Getty Images

New Zealand Women thumped South Africa Women by nine wickets in the third ODI to claim the last two ICC Women’s Championship points of the series and take a 2-1 lead. By winning the 1000th women’s ODI overall, New Zealand now have 20 points in the championship table, joint with second-placed West Indies, and one ahead of England’s 19 points.New Zealand cruised past their target of 189 in 33.1 overs with unbeaten fifties from captain Suzie Bates and No. 3 Amy Satterthwaite as they put on 174 runs for the second wicket. Once Rachel Priest was bowled for 10 in the fifth over, Bates, 88 off 82, and Satterthwaite, 89 of 97, scored briskly to not allow the hosts any more success. Bates struck five fours and two sixes in her 18th ODI fifty, while Satterthwaite’s 12th fifty included 12 fours.South Africa had chosen to bat earlier but things didn’t go as per plans as left-arm spinner Morna Nielsen followed her five-for in the second ODI with two early wickets. The hosts were soon 55 for 4, including opener Lizelle Lee’s 36, before being revived by Marizanne Kapp and Dane van Niekerk. They took the score past 100 before Kapp was dismissed for 32 by medium-pacer Holly Huddleston who also ran through the middle and lower order, even though van Niekerk stayed unbeaten to score 78.Huddleston took four of the last six wickets to finish with 5 for 25 from 10 overs, her second five-for in only nine ODIs. Nielsen finished with 2 for 36 as South Africa were bowled out in 50 overs.

ScorecardDan Lawrence made 88 but Essex were still short of the follow-on target at the close•PA Photos

Essex will require three runs with only one wicket in hand to avoid the follow on after reaching stumps on day three in Canterbury on 289 for 9. Responding to Kent’s 441 all out, Essex lost wickets at regular intervals in this Specsavers Championship top-of-the-table clash, but a last-wicket stand worth 22 between David Masters and Matt Dixon has at least given the visitors a chance to avoid batting again on the final day of the campaign.Batting for the first time by 11.35am on day three, Essex lost two wickets in the short 15-over spell through to lunch as Kent maintained their grip on events despite a plucky knock from No. 4 Dan Lawrence, who rode his luck to score 88 having edged through the cordon when on 5 only to see Will Gidman down a chance at third slip on the same score.The visitors and second division champions elect, lost Varun Chopra, lbw for 25 to Kent’s man-of-the-moment, Darren Stevens, then Tom Westley, caught at square leg by Sean Dickson off the bowling of Mitch Claydon in the over before the interval.Kent maintained a check on the run rate in the afternoon session and also collected a further three wickets in the process as Nick Browne, Ravi Bopara and Adam Wheater all trooped back to the pavilion. Browne edged the 12th ball after the resumption to Sam Billings off Claydon then Bopara, digging down late on a full ball from Hardus Viljoen, also nicked through to the Kent keeper. Just before tea Wheater’s miscued pull against Matt Coles flew to deep square leg where Dickson took a comfortable catch.Viljoen continued to shine after tea by having Kishen Velani and Will Rhodes both caught at second slip by James Tredwell off successive overs.With 27 needed to avoid the follow-on and just 12 short of his fourth Championship hundred of the summer, Lawrence inexplicably holed out to long-on against the offspin of Tredwell. Masters, in his farewell appearance for Essex, was given a guard of honour by the Kent side as he walked to the middle, but Tredwell soon struck again by ripping an arm ball though Paul Walter’s defensive gate to peg back the left-hander’s off stump to leave Essex nine down.At the start of the day Kent had secured the second division runners-up spot upon reaching 400. Resuming on their overnight score of 387 for 7, the hosts motored past 400 with a fearsome back-foot cut by Coles that registered a fifth batting bonus point to clinch the ECB’s prize money cheque of almost £57,000 for finishing second behind Essex.In trying to repeat the stroke in the next over Coles nicked to Wheater to depart for 32 and give Masters, the former Kent seamer, his first wicket in the match. Masters struck again with a lifter that Viljoen could only glove to third slip then Stevens, on 136 and just four short of equalling his season’s best, clipped to deep backward square to give Dixon figures of 5 for 124.

WV Raman, the former India batsman and coach of India Green, has said playing with the pink ball will test the adaptability of players as they enter a relatively less-trodden territory. In what will be a maiden first-class match in India with a pink ball, India Green will take on India Red in the Duleep Trophy opener, beginning on Tuesday in Greater Noida.

‘Better off with pink ball trial in T20s’ – Harbhajan

Harbhajan Singh, who opted out of the Duleep Trophy to spend time with his recently-born daughter, was concerned with how the spinners would come to grips with the Kookaburra ball. He pointed out that the experiment to use the red Kookaburra in the Duleep Trophy in 2006-07 had proved to be unsuccessful.
“It is going to be a nightmare for the spinners,” Harbhajan told ESPNcricinfo. “The seam is not that great on the Kookaburra ball, and only people who have played with it for a long period of time will be able to adjust. When I was new, I felt this was quite hard to grip because it slips from your hands. It was only after a few years that I got used to it and started bowling well with the Kookaburra ball. A pink Duke ball would be much better or pink SG ball has a lot more to offer for the bowlers. I hope this experiment will be a good one.”
Harbhajan also felt the pink ball would be put to better use in the shorter formats, especially Twenty20 cricket. “Pink ball in Twenty20 will add some more excitement: it’s a different format, a fast game with a lot of colour,” he said. “If you can trial pink ball in Twenty20 cricket as well, nothing like it; we might end up playing IPL with pink ball. The only problem would be coloured jerseys.”

Raman felt it was difficult to form an opinion of the ball after just one practice session, but said players would be a “lot wiser” after the first game. “One thing is the visibility of the ball is going to be good. So I don’t think that is going to be a problem,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “But, in the match, there is a possibility that the breeze can be on and off which means the ball sometimes can swing, sometimes not swing. Even while fielding the ball might swirl a bit [for] the tall catches, sometimes it may not swirl. You never know.”While the pink ball has piqued the curiosity of players and fans, the BCCI’s ambition of staging a day-night Test with a pink ball during a long home season hinges heavily upon the successful trial of the ball during the tournament. Raman said the durability of the pink Kookaburra ball in Indian conditions would be a big factor in determining its success.”The one big challenge is to see how long the ball lasts in our conditions,” he said. “We have not seen a lot of wear and tear if there is a whole lot of dew and moisture in a day-night four or five-day game. That means the wear and tear that you expect on the last and penultimate days of a five-day game may not be there.”There are a lot of unknowns. One thing for sure – the adaptability of the players will be tested. It will be interesting to see the unknowns unfold, based on which players will have to adapt. That will make it quite exciting to watch.”Raman also felt the pitch itself might not be a huge contributor to the wear and tear of the ball. “It is more of the outfield being good enough to preserve the colour and the hardness of the ball,” Raman pointed out. “I think, according to the manufacturers, that is what they are looking at – [if] the venues and the outfields are conducive to the ball retaining its colour, hardness and shape. We have to wait and see.”Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka batsman who has played with the pink Duke’s ball in the Karnataka Premier League, said fast bowlers and batsmen would be faced with equal challenges. “Back then it swung a lot, there was a lot of extra bounce,” he said recently. “It will be a very good challenge for the fast bowlers and top-order batsmen. We will have to wait and see how we shine the ball; how we can maintain that kind of ball. A lot of these finer details you will only really understand once you have really played with it for a certain while.”From a top order batsman’s perspective I am just trying to understand how much the ball is going to swing. It will be interesting to see how different is it, how long is this going to swing – is this going to swing like the SG ball where it doesn’t swing the first few overs and then swings for the next 35-40 overs, or will it be that Kookaburra ball where it swings the first 20 overs and after that it doesn’t do much. The more we practice with the ball the more understanding we have.”

ScorecardSteve O’Keefe followed his five-for with a measured half-century•AFP

Australia were given a long-but-light workout against spin on the second day, as all their batsmen hit at least 25, though only Steven Smith and Steve O’Keefe passed fifty. The second-day pitch at the P Sara Oval had begun to take some turn, but Australia can expect significantly drier conditions and substantially higher-quality slow bowling in the Tests. Nevertheless, a team total of 431 for 9 represented a strong outing for the visitors. The Sri Lanka selectors, watching on, would know the Australians have emerged from their first spin trial of the tour in ominous form.The Sri Lankan XI attack, which did not feature the island’s top spin prospects to begin with, operated under a kind of self-prohibition. Perhaps out of a strategic decision not to accustom the Australian batsmen to left-arm spin, captain Milinda Siriwardana did not bowl himself at all in the day. The other left-arm spinner, Chaturanga de Silva, was given only short spells at the top order; only when the tail-enders arrived at the crease was he more liberally used.Sri Lanka will hope this tactic sees Rangana Herath’s threat maximised when the Tests begin on July 26 in Pallekele. Siriwardana may also fairly expect to be named in the Sri Lanka squad, and if the selectors are of a similar view, Siriwardana will have kept his own powder dry.The day’s foremost workhorse was Shehan Jayasuriya, whose offspin may be classified his secondary skill. He delivered 29 overs, took five for 109, and sparked several close shouts while the seamers were rotated at the other end. Vimukthi Perera was the most impressive of the quick men, bringing a ball in to Joe Burns to bowl him for 72 in the morning, but Nisala Tharaka was also sharp in patches.O’Keefe’s unbeaten 62 may be the most consequential of the day’s performances for the Australians, as it raised his chances of entering the Test XI. Having taken a five-wicket haul on day one, O’Keefe was a measured foil to Mitchell Starc’s adventure, as the pair put on 59 runs from 13 overs late in the day. O’Keefe was largely content to nurdle the singles, often using his feet to spin. Starc, meanwhile, deployed a devastating slog sweep several times in his 48-ball 45. The pair did benefit from unimpressive ground fielding, however.Earlier in the day, Adam Voges and Smith had made 88 in each other’s company, largely finding runs on the leg side, as Voges in particular shelved the more aggressive shots. The pair’s frill-free accumulation took the Australians past the Sri Lankan XI’s 229, and formed the foundation of their team’s advance on day two. Smith came down the track to hit the offspin of Jayasuriya over the infield on occasion, but largely reserved his more expansive strokes for the seamers.It was spin that brought both batsmen’s stay to a close. Smith was trapped in front by de Silva, before Jayasuriya turned one in from the developing rough to beat Voges’ sweep shot and rattle his off stump. Mitchell Marsh struck a quick 25 thereafter, but was also out to Jayasuriya – caught behind down the leg side, though he did jokingly ask for a review of the umpire’s decision to suggest he did not hit the ball. Jayasuriya caught a high top-edge off Starc’s bat, and sent one through Lyon’s defences to complete his five-wicket haul.

Mushtaq Ahmed, Pakistan’s bowling coach, believes that Yasir Shah struggled with the expectation of backing up his matchwinning display at Lord’s on the opening day of the second Test.Yasir’s ten-wicket match haul was key to Pakistan securing their 75-run victory in the opening Test and propelled him to No. 1 in the world, but he finished the first day at Old Trafford with 0 for 111 from 31 overs as centuries from Alastair Cook and Joe Root led England to a commanding 314 for 4.Although he made a couple of deliveries grip on the Old Trafford surface – two, in particular, spun and bounced appreciably at Root and Cook – England were able to milk him far more comfortably than they had done last week.With only four frontline bowlers, Misbah-ul-Haq did not have many places to turn to for the lengthy spells required to allow him to rotate his three quicks. Yasir bowled 18 overs unchanged – split by the lunch interval – and by the time he was given a break, England had taken him for 69 runs and gone some way towards ensuring no immediate hangover from their poor display against at Lord’s.”Sometimes the expectation does put you under pressure and you are trying to deliver the same performance,” Mushtaq said. “You start losing your basics, discipline and what he did in the last Test match. He got 10 wickets last time and maybe that momentum carried on and he forgot the basics.””I think the ball wasn’t coming nicely from his hand,” he added. “We did discuss it, but during a game it’s very hard for a coach to tell a player what to do. But we have good communication so I sent a couple of messages because the ball was coming out flatter with less spin. On a first-day pitch, the margin of error for a legspinner against good players like Root and Cook is very small.”Root and Cook both used the word ‘tempo’ when pinpointing a key difference to their approach than at Lord’s, finding the right balance between not allowing Yasir to settle but avoiding anything as reckless as Root’s top-edged slog-sweep or Moeen Ali’s wild second-innings hack.”It was just nice to see an improvement on the way we played him in the first game,” Root said. “Playing him with a straight bat, not going across the ball as much, on a day-one wicket it definitely made it a lot easier for us to take the risk out of it but still rotate the strike and score at a decent rate. We batted at a far better tempo than at Lord’s.”Root, though, did admit a degree of nervousness when he brought out a strong slog-sweep against Yasir in the 51st over, with the captain at the other end, but this time it skimmed to the boundary rather than into the hands of a catcher. Such are the fine margins for batsmen.However, Mushtaq backed Yasir to respond positively from his tough day and play a role on a surface that Cook expects to break up later on. A worthy example to draw on, although not an occasion anyone associated with England cares to remember, is the Adelaide Test in 2006-07. Over the first two days of that match, England racked up 551 for 6 and Shane Warne took 1 for 167 before producing of his greatest displays on the final day to conjure a famous victory.”I always believe as a good bowler you have to bowl good overs against good players to get them out. He didn’t do that today but he will come out tomorrow, he’s a strong guy, he wasn’t hiding and that’s a positive thing,” Mushtaq said.

ScorecardChris Dent’s hundred was not enough to spare holders Gloucestershire•Getty Images

Jamie Overton and Tim Groenewald produced an unbroken last-wicket stand of 65 as Somerset pulled off a nerve-tingling one-wicket Royal London Cup win over arch-rivals Gloucestershire at Taunton.Chris Dent hit exactly 100 in holders Gloucestershire’s total of 260 all out. Jack Taylor made 43 and Benny Howell 35, while Roelof van der Merwe was involved in seven of the dismissals, three with his left-arm spin, three catches and a run-out.Somerset looked to be cruising at 166 for 3 in reply, Johann Myburgh leading the way with 81. But his dismissal brought a dramatic collapse to 198 for 9, with only James Hildreth of the other batsmen making an impression.It looked all over, but Overton (40 not out) and Groenewald (34 not out) had other ideas. The pair shared 6 fours and 3 sixes, surviving just one major run-out scare when wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick failed to gather a throw, before clinching victory with three balls to spare. A crowd of 4,600 enjoyed every moment.Groenewald said: “I think sharing a match-winning last-wicket stand against Surrey in our last Championship game gave me confidence that we could get the required runs. Jamie Overton played so well that it seemed easier than in the Surrey match.”Both innings gave me an equal buzz. When you think we also won a T20 game batting second on Friday, I can’t think of a better week in my career.”I just set out to bat properly and concentrate on each ball. The crowd were brilliant and we could really feel them behind us for every ball.”After Somerset had chosen to field, Craig Overton struck a major early blow with an outswinger that clipped the top of Michael Klinger’s off stump in the sixth over.It was 51 for 2 when Roderick cut Lewis Gregory and was caught by van der Merwe, two-handed diving to his left at cover. After ten overs Gloucestershire had progressed to 54 for two.Dent reached his half-century off 55 balls, with nine sweetly struck boundaries. Hamish Marshall helped take the total to 94 before he was bowled by Peter Trego’s second delivery of the game.The next ball saw Ian Cockbain play into the covers where van der Merwe dived and initially fumbled, but then recovered to effect a brilliant run-out, hitting the stumps at the bowlers’ end with a throw while still on the ground.Howell hit the first six of the game over long-on off van der Merwe before Dent reached a chanceless hundred off 107 balls, having extended his boundary count to 16.Without adding, the left-hander tried to drive Groenewald and only succeeded in giving another catch to van der Merwe. Howell and Jack Taylor batted sensibly to bring to take the score to 207 with ten overs left. But Howell then advanced to van der Merwe and feathered a catch to wicketkeeper Alex Barrow.Smith departed to a slog-sweep off van der Merwe and Gloucestershire’s last hope of reaching 300 disappeared when Taylor drove a wide ball from Jamie Overton to cover where van der Merwe took his best catch, low to his left.The hosts’ reply started badly as Adam Hose nicked a high catch to Klinger at slip off Matt Taylor and Peter Trego fell to a brilliant one-handed catch by Howell at short cover off Payne.Jim Allenby and Myburgh took the score to 79 before Allenby, on 29, launched an irresponsible swing at Howell and was bowled. Myburgh reached his half-century off 63 balls, with 7 fours, and had progressed to 81 when losing concentration and lofting Dent’s left-arm spin straight to Howell at long-off with 95 still needed.Lewis Gregory ran himself out attempting a suicidal single to short cover and when Hildreth got a leading edge to be caught and bowled by Smith, having looked untroubled, Somerset were in a hole at 181 for 6.Another wild swing by van der Merwe saw him bowled by Smith and five wickets had fallen for just 21 runs when Craig Overton was bowled by Howell.Payne produced a good one to bowl Alex Barrow and it seemed Gloucestershire could celebrate. But Jamie Overton and Groenewald showed great shot selection to reduce the deficit before Overton drove Miles for the winning boundary in the final over of a riveting match.

Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez has been ruled out of the skills camp beginning on May 28 at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, but doctors will continue to monitor his recovery from a knee injury on a weekly basis ahead of Pakistan’s tour of England which starts June 18.A fresh MRI scan on Hafeez revealed an improvement in his knee, first injured in March, but stress has been diagnosed and he may be rested for some time as a part of his continuing rehabilitation regimen. He had already missed the ongoing fitness training camp at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.Hafeez last played for Pakistan at the World T20 in March where he sustained the knee injury after a bone contusion in his femur. He has been resting since then and undergoing extensive treatment as a part of his rehabilitation. According to the latest report, doctors advised Hafeez against any net sessions. ESPNcricinfo understands Hafeez is desperate to restart his cricket but doctors are cautious about his injury which they fear could be aggravated if he tries to push for an early return.A final call on his participation in the England Test series is expected to be taken in the next three to four days. Pakistan’s 22 probables will be cut down to a final 16-man squad at the conclusion of the skills camp. The squad will leave for England to undergo a conditioning camp in Hampshire ahead of two practice matches in Somerset and Sussex before the first Test starts July 14 at Lord’s. The selectors had named four options among the probables for the opening slots, with the inclusion of Hafeez cited as subject to fitness.