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A half-century from Sikandar Raza led Mashonaland Eagles to a 42-run win against Mid West Rhinos in Harare. Eagles made a swift start after they were sent in, with their openers adding 59 before Chamu Chibhabha was dismissed in 6.4 overs. Raza, however, went on to hold one end up, keeling the innings steady by making 62 off 56 balls. He was dismissed only in the 18th over and Eagles ended on 149 for 6. Michael Chinouya and Neville Madziva took two wickets each for Rhinos.Rhinos’ chase never got going as wickets fell in two clumps. They went from 33 for 1 to 65 for 6, and then from 101 for 6 to 103 for 9 at the end of their innings. Peter Moor top scored with 30. Eagles used eight bowlers and Ray Price took 1 for 8 in his four overs.Rain allowed only eight overs in the game between Southern Rocks and Matabeleland Tuskers in Bulawayo. Rocks made 50 for 1 before the match had to be abandoned.

MS Dhoni, who has captained Virender Sehwag in 35 of his 99 Tests, hailed Sehwag’s positive outlook as his biggest asset. A day before Sehwag plays his 100th Test (including one for the ICC World XI), against England at the Wankhede Stadium, Dhoni said it was not easy to do justice to his team-mate’s impact by sitting and talking.”When it comes to Viru, you need a bit more time to understand him,” Dhoni said. “It is not easy to sit here and say a few lines on how effective he is. All those who have shared the dressing room with him realise that his mindset is very different. He is very positive and bats with instinct. It doesn’t matter if the wicket is turning or seaming. He only looks to score runs.”His mindset is so different that it doesn’t really matter whether he is in form or not. He just keeps thinking positive. He has been working a lot on his batting, but his approach remains the same. It is the mindset that really helps you get back into the game.”Dhoni also spoke about the huge move Sehwag made from middle order to the top of the order when there were few vacancies in the middle. “If you see, the crucial decision of his career was when he decided that he will open the innings,” Dhoni said. “It was a big challenge for him and he accepted it. He has the best statistics.”He is someone who is very different for everyone else. He has got a very important role from the start because he’s someone who can play his shots from the very first delivery. He looks to put pressure on the bowler. It certainly becomes a bit difficult for the bowler to get back into the game. Of course, not to forget the experience he has got in all the formats. And, also the fact that he can get a few wickets as well. We haven’t been using him much, though.”

Durability is among the most valued qualities in a fast bowler, and never more than during cricket’s present era of multiple formats and greedy scheduling.So to hear Mitchell Starc described as “robust” by Australia’s pace bowling coach Ali de Winter may be a far more significant moment for the young left-armer’s international future than any of the 14 wickets he has plucked at the Twenty20 Champions League.De Winter has returned to Australia from his stint helping nationally contracted bowlers to prepare as best they can for the looming home Test summer.He has done his best to minimise the effects of the aforementioned schedule, which had the likes of Starc, Ben Hilfenhaus, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood carted across to South Africa for the game’s shortest format only a matter of weeks before they must be ready for the rigours of its longest.Nevertheless, de Winter spoke with great optimism about the bowling stocks now before him, but was particularly glowing about Starc, who following a year of careful management and steady improvement across several tours and continents may be about to blossom into a first-choice member of Australia’s Test match bowling attack.”Mitchell Starc in particular has been outstanding,” de Winter said in Hobart. “He’s played a lot of cricket since the West Indies, he’s been to England and played the A tour, Yorkshire, through the UAE and he’s proved to be pretty robust for us, which is a good sign.”It’s a great problem to have that we’ve got a full bowling list at the moment. The challenge will be for the selectors to come up with the right mix for that first Test in particular. It is something we haven’t experienced for a number of years to have a full list of bowlers.”Starc’s time with Yorkshire during the English summer may be an important factor in the decisions around his readiness to take part in the Tests against South Africa. Hilfenhaus and Cummins are two other pace bowling options who have not bowled a red ball in a first-class match for quite some time. Hilfenhaus last did so in the West Indies in April, while Cummins must cast his mind back to the Johannesburg Test last November for his previous long-form encounter.”I think Hilfy and a lot of others have been a bit short of a run in terms of red ball cricket,” de Winter said. “We recognise that, but we’ve got some measures in place to make sure before that Test match they at least have one Shield game under their belt. The guys who have been here, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle have had an outstanding start to the year, so things are in as good a shape as they can be at this point.”The likely plan for Cummins will be to give him at least two Sheffield Shield matches for New South Wales before serious considering is given to pitching him back into the Test team, a schedule that would have him boarding a plane to Perth for the third Test against South Africa.”We’d certainly like to see him playing Sheffield Shield cricket first and get his workload up,” de Winter said. “Then it becomes a performance issue. Nobody’s a given to be selected in any Test match, but certainly he’s one who we’d like to see fast-tracked into Shield cricket and make sure when his opportunity comes that he’s as ready as he can be, understanding he’s still a teenager with a lot of growing and learning to do.”We’ll certainly manage our bowlers knowing we’ve got a six Test match summer followed by four in India and then of course the Ashes. The next 12-15 months are going to be really important.”So deep are Australia’s pace bowling resources at the outset of the season that a bowler as accomplished as Luke Butterworth is unlikely to be considered. Butterworth’s consistency and craft are well known to de Winter, the former Tasmania bowling coach, leaving him to hope that his former pupil can push for a berth on the Ashes tour in 2013.”He keeps stacking up the numbers doesn’t he, and over a long period of time,” de Winter said. “I think he’s probably someone you could consider in conditions that suit his style of bowling. He’s a proven player of a long period of time and I’m sure he’s on the radar. But it’s a large group of bowlers so there’s going to be a big challenge on.”Based on performance Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Pattinson are the leading candidates to be selected, and that’s just a common sense approach, given how well they did last summer and in the West Indies.”

ScorecardJames Fuller’s career-best County Championship bowling figures and 99 from Ian Cockbain put Gloucestershire in a winning position on the second day at Bristol.Fuller claimed 5 for 29 from 10.4 overs as the visitors were bowled out for exactly 100 – their lowest score of the season – having begun the day on 73 for 7. That gave Gloucestershire a first innings lead of 120 and Cockbain ensured they built on it, striking 15 fours and a six in facing 130 balls. Will Gidman contributed 52 not out and brother Alex 40 as the hosts closed on 286 for 6, 406 in front.After 17 wickets fell on day one, bright sunshine suggested better fortunes for the batsmen, but there was no sign of it during the morning session. Northants were able to add only 27 runs as David Willey fell to Anthony Ireland and Fuller cleaned up the tail by sending back Jack Brooks and Luke Evans to complete his first five-wicket haul in the Championship.When Gloucestershire lost two wickets for as many runs at the start of their second innings a two-day finish looked possible. Ed Cowan contrived to run out partner Benny Howell with a poor call for a single and then fell to a catch at third slip, driving at a wide one from WilleyDan Housego (24) helped Alex Gidman steady the ship with a stand of 64 before also falling to a slip catch off Andrew Hall. At 70 for 4 when Alex Gidman was lbw playing across the line to Evans, Gloucestershire’s lead was only 190.Cockbain and Hamish Marshall then began to take the game away from Northants with a stand of 98, ended on the stroke of tea when Marshall fell to a sharp catch at point by Stephen Peters off Evans for 30.Cockbain has struck a rich vein of form recently with three half-centuries and a hundred in his last seven Championship innings. He looked set for three figures again when losing concentration and falling leg-before to Hall playing down the wrong line. By then Gloucestershire had 246 on the board and led by 366. But it was a crestfallen Cockbain who made his way slowly back to the pavilion, having mastered a pitch few batsmen looked at home on.Will Gidman piled on the agony for Northants with some meaty cover drives as the lead approached 400 on a near cloudless afternoon, reaching his fifty off 94 balls, with six fours to help put Gloucestershire in control.

Usain Bolt has spoken of his desire to play in the Big Bash League this year, and the Melbourne Stars are keeping the door open to potentially sign him. The possibility was first raised in June when Bolt was interviewed on Australian TV by Eddie McGuire, a presenter who is also the Stars president, and the team’s marquee player Shane Warne has also asked Bolt whether he was interested.Fresh from an Olympic campaign in which he won three gold medals, Bolt said at the weekend he was still open to the idea. “He [Shane Warne] contacted me and asked me about if I am serious and if I really want to do it then he can put in a few words that should get it done,” Bolt said on Channel Nine.”So we will see if I get the time off. I will try. Twenty20, I love it. Just the fact that it is so exciting, it’s about going hard the whole time, not just about playing shots. It’s about being aggressive and I like that style of batsman. If I get the chance I will definitely try because I know it’s going to be a lot of fun. I don’t know how good I am. I will probably have to get a lot of practice in.”One of the major issues would be whether Bolt could hold his own as a cricketer. Although he played junior cricket and famously bowled Chris Gayle in a charity match in Jamaica in 2009, facing the likes of Brett Lee and Pat Cummins would be another matter entirely.In 2006-07, the rugby league star Andrew Johns turned out in two Big Bash matches for New South Wales in an effort to boost crowd numbers and attention for the competition, but the move backfired for the Blues. On debut, Johns batted at No.11 and was at the crease when New South Wales needed 13 from the final over to win, but his partner Simon Katich refused to put him on strike and the Blues lost.The stakes have risen considerably since then, with the eight BBL franchises all competing not only for the trophy but also for two spots at the Champions League T20, where the winning team earns $2.5 million in prize money. Cricket Australia is cautious about the idea of Bolt playing in the BBL, declaring that the competition has moved past the “novelty factor” and that he would need to be able to play to the appropriate standard, but the Stars remain keen on the idea.”We’re going to wait until the Olympics is over and re-engage with him and his management company,” Clint Cooper, the Stars CEO told the . “We’ve got a couple of spots left on our list.”

Jacob Oram knows New Zealand have by no means got a hold on Chris Gayle, but he and his team-mates have realised just how much they can control a game once they get him out early. For the first time on their tour, on Wednesday in St Kitts, New Zealand dismissed Gayle before he could run away with the game, and found out they could exert enough pressure on the rest to defend comfortably on a renowned flat track with short boundaries.New Zealand’s 249 was by a distance the lowest total to have been successfully defended at Warner Park. West Indies themselves once failed to defend 248 against Bangladesh here. New Zealand haven’t been shy of throwing in a word about West Indies’ reliance on Gayle without being disrespectful.”We always talked about just exposing the rest of their top order, let alone their middle order, to bring pressure, which they hadn’t been under for four games on the tour,” Oram said. “On top of that we fielded as well as I’ve ever seen. Yes we dropped a couple of catches, but those three run-outs, you’ll go a long way to see better.”Oram knows better than to be over-confident, though. “No way do we feel like we’re on top of Chris Gayle,” he said. “He’s still probably averaging 80 or something like that for the tour so far, so we know he’s going to be a massive thorn in our sides, and we’ve got to work just as hard to dismiss him and then work on the others.”We knew all along that he was going to be the real danger man, and we talked about just trying to get him out. I think yesterday Tim Southee, into the wind, bowled a really good spell.” Southee got Gayle to edge one to slip after the batsman had been leaden-footed against swing bowling from Trent Boult.Oram also accepted that the lack of preparation hurt them, but was quick to dismiss it, lest it be seen as an excuse. “It would have been nice to have an extra 10 days or a week somewhere,” he said, “so that that teething period and that period of finding our feet had actually occurred during a camp and during some warm-up games as opposed to our first hit-out being a Twenty20 international against the West Indies in Miami. However, that wasn’t the case, and that’s not an excuse for playing poorly. We should have been ready.”New Zealand, though, have some better news around the corner on what has been a wretched tour with regards to fitness and injuries. BJ Watling was the latest man to go down, with a quad strain. However, Brendon McCullum has reached St Kitts, and is expected to slot right in as a wicketkeeper and No. 3 batsman, a dual role he performed in the home summer too. That will push Daniel Flynn further down the order. In effect, Watling’s injury might have earned Flynn another go after the specialist batsman has averaged 16.28 in 19 ODIs with a best of 35.Doug Bracewell, who has been sidelined with a slight back strain, has been back to training, and could be available for selection in the coming games. While these are all little signs pointing north for New Zealand, Oram knows the enormity of the task facing them.”We’re well aware that it’s two games left and we’re still 2-1 down,” he said, “so while yesterday was great, we’re trying to not get too far off the ground because if we don’t win the fourth game then the fifth one doesn’t really matter.”

Newly appointed Bangladesh coach Richard Pybus believes that more than the two stints as Pakistan coach, his experience in South Africa will serve him in good stead for his new role. Pybus was in charge of three South African teams, provincial side Border and franchises, the Titans and the Cobras. He won eight trophies with the two franchises and could be regarded as the most successful coach on the country’s domestic scene.”Working in Africa helps you understand a lot of things. You are surrounded by diversity and multiculturalism,” Pybus told ESPNcricinfo from Cape Town, where he was packing his bags for the departure to Dhaka. “Working with the franchises also helps, you learn about what it takes to win and how to build winning teams and winning mindsets. I worked with two franchises with a lot of international players and we did very well. In Pakistan, I gained a lot of cultural understanding because you can make faux pas if you are naïve.”Pybus has not coached an international side since his time with Pakistan in 2003 but was handpicked by the BCB as a replacement for Stuart Law. He is known for his innovative coaching methods, such as teaching players to juggle to improve their peripheral version, and he believes he is ripe to take up the “fantastic challenge” of coaching a national team again.Although the Bangladesh job could be seen as unenviable one, given the country’s status as bottom ranked Test team and lowest ranked-Test team in ODIs, Pybus sees it as an “engaging and unique” task.He said his most pressing job will be combining the need to develop with the ability to win, and that he is prepared to take the time he needs to get that balance right. “Because Bangladesh are a young side, there may be an acceptance that is all about development, and that is not right,” he said. “I will work on a system based on excellence. I want to be playing winning cricket, to create multi-format players, to focus on being competitive enough to be able to win series.”Pybus acknowledged that to create a winning culture, he will have to overcome mental barriers before concentrating on technical aspects of the game. “Bangladesh are only just starting to discover their self-belief, you could see that in the Asia Cup,” he said. “When you start to win games, you build that ability to cross a mental bridge and winning becomes something tangible to you. They have a history of coaches who have helped them build the platform and I will have to continue building on it.”The first thing will be to sort out what incremental steps needs to be taken to ensure there is competition for places and a sense among players that there will be opportunities for them if they consistently perform and put pressure [for places in the national side].”Pybus visited Bangladesh earlier this month to negotiate his contract with the BCB and said he was excited by what he saw. “The facilities are world-class, they have a nice indoor centre but more than any of that, it was the incredible passion and lovely sense of energy about where cricket in the country is going.”He will begin work next week and his first assignment will be an unofficial Twenty20 tri-series in Zimbabwe, which will also feature South Africa. Pybus knows the vast majority of the South African players and said the series will give him a good opportunity to assess the team, “get to know the players and find out what makes them tick.”His family, including two young children, will remain in South Africa for now, but Pybus has not ruled out the possibility of moving them to Bangladesh once he has settled in.

Adam Hollioake, the former England allrounder has said that most of the England cricket kit used by his late brother, Ben, and stolen from his parents’ home in Perth, has now been recovered.”A person has been arrested and a search warrant issued to potentially retrieve remaining kit,” Hollioake suggested on Twitter.The success of the Western Australia police in recovering the stolen kit from a house in Applecross, in Perth’s suburbs, has been hailed as an example of cricket’s virtual community working together on social media for the general good.According to Hollioake, the kit was recovered in several stages. The collection, which includes England shirts, sweaters, bats and helmets, is treasured by the family since his death ten years ago when his sports car spun out of control and hit a wall in south Perth.”Kit turning up by the hour – probably 75% of it back now,” he tweeted. “No doubt in my mind that you guys instigated us getting it back.”On a positive note I know my bro would be happy everyone was talking about him again. He loved the spotlight. He probably arranged the theft himself from heaven.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDwayne Bravo was mobbed by his team-mates after winning the match for Super Kings with a last-ball six•AFP

With Chennai Super Kings needing five runs to win off the final delivery, Rajat Bhatia, who had bowled MS Dhoni and conceded only four from the previous five balls, bowled a full toss. Dwayne Bravo, who had missed a heave off the fifth ball, heaved again, and this time he hit the ball high into the night sky. Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Gautam Gambhir, fielding in the circle, kept his eyes fixed on the ball as it began its descent, and grimaced as he watched it fall agonisingly out of reach of his fielder at long-on, and just over the boundary. The Super Kings were out of the dug out, craning their necks to see where the ball landed, and once they saw it was a match-winning six, there were several streaks of yellow speeding to embrace Bravo. He was standing there with arms aloft, having taken Super Kings to No. 4 with only one league game remaining.Had the match been tied, it would have been less of a surprise, for Super Kings’ chase had followed a pattern eerily similar to Knight Riders’ first innings.In pursuit of 159, Michael Hussey and M Vijay added 97 runs in 10.1 overs before Sunil Narine, who continued to confound batsmen with his variations during his spell of 4-0-14-2, dismissed both of them in the space of three balls. Hussey had demonstrated impeccable timing on a pitch that demanded application, hitting four sixes in a half-century that threatened to make short work of the chase, before he top-edged a sweep. Vijay was bowled trying to cut a straight one.When Knight Riders had been sent in after losing the toss, Gambhir and Brendon McCullum had set off at breakneck speed, adding 99 in 11.2 overs before they were dismissed in the space of five deliveries. Gambhir scored his sixth half-century of the season and took charge of accelerating his team’s innings while McCullum played second fiddle, relatively speaking. They were setting Knight Riders for a formidable total when McCullum was run-out and Gambhir was bowled after the ball came off his inside-edge and pad, gone for 62 off 43 balls.With the Knight Riders openers gone and two new batsmen at the crease, Super Kings began to drag the run-rate back, by striking regularly. The hosts slipped from 99 for 0 to 128 for 5. Jacques Kallis was unlucky to be given caught behind while sweeping, because the ball came off the arm, and Yusuf Pathan hit his customary solitary six before holing out to Bravo on the long-on boundary. Bravo caught Manoj Tiwary there soon after and Knight Riders were eventually kept to 158.Super Kings went down the same path. After the Hussey-Vijay stand, they were slowed down and then lost Suresh Raina to a run out in the 14th over. MS Dhoni played out four consecutive dot balls against L Balaji as the gap between runs required and balls remaining began to grow. Balaji conceded two runs off the 14th over, and Bhatia five in the next. Super Kings now needed 44 off 30 balls.After the 17th over of the first innings, Knight Riders had been 127 for 4. After the 17th over of the chase, Super Kings were 127 for 3. They lost Faf du Plessis to the first ball of the 18th. With 27 needed off the last two overs, Dhoni changed the course of the chase. He nearly beheaded Marchant de Lange, such was the ferocity with which he clubbed the first ball to the straight boundary. The next was a full toss that disappeared through deep midwicket and the third was a towering six over long-on.Super Kings were favourites, needing only nine to get off the final over, but Dhoni was bowled off its second ball, missing Bhatia’s slower ball. Bhatia went on to bowl three more exceptional deliveries, but his last was the full toss that allowed Super Kings to move to No. 4 in the league.

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the Indian domestic Twenty20 tournament, might be insignificant for many in comparison to the star-studded IPL, but Harbhajan Singh has come out in support, calling the former a “very important” event. Harbhajan said the tournament allowed many domestic players to showcase their talent ahead of the IPL. “This is probably important tournament. IPL, everyone knows, is important, too, but this [Mushtaq Ali] is the tournament where you get to see a lot of domestic players,” Harbhajan said after Punjab entered the quarter-finals with an easy win over Assam at Brabourne Stadium.Harbhajan said the event was valuable for domestic youngsters because many could not find a place in the IPL which has only nine teams. “It is a good opportunity for everyone who is playing in this competition to gain their form before the IPL and also for youngsters who are not playing in the IPL to show what they can do in such a competition.” With Narendra Hirwani and Surendra Bhave, two national selectors, observing the tournament, Harbhajan said players could make an impression ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka later this year.Harbhajan cited his own example as he was using the tournament to try and make a comeback to the Indian team. Harbhajan has been out of the national side after he returned home midway from the Test series in England last year with an abdominal muscle injury. He has primarily played in domestic one-day tournaments after a shin injury ruled him out of most of the Ranji Trophy.He has found success as a captain, though. After recovering from the injury picked during the England tour, Harbhajan lead Mumbai Indians to the Champions League Twenty20 title. He then led the India Green team in the Challenger Trophy, top-scoring for his side in the tied final and picking up 3 for 37.His Ranji Trophy season lasted three matches in which he could take only two wickets. He returned to lead Punjab to the semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament where they lost to Bengal. He then captained North Zone, who finished as runners-up to West Zone in the Deodhar Trophy.Harbhajan said that he was positive about returning to the Indian team but wanted to make sure he did not get injured anymore. “I have worked very hard at the NCA. I am fully fit. I have been playing a lot of domestic cricket and that is helping me to build my stamina. I am playing to the best of my ability to get back to the Indian side soon and hope to get them back to the No. 1 status.”