The 83-year old has said he will step down in June due to ‘health and personal reasons’

Umar Farooq31-Mar-2017Shaharyar Khan has tendered his resignation from the post of PCB chairman and is expected to step down after the ICC’s annual conference in June. Speaking to reporters in Lahore, soon after a meeting with his board members, the 83-year old Shaharyar said his decision was influenced by “personal and health reasons”.Shaharyar was unanimously elected to lead the PCB by the board of governors in August 2014. He had intended to resign with immediate effect – his tenure ends only in August 2017 – but with the ICC in the middle of restructuring its constitution and Shaharyar’s support being vital to the cause, he has decided to continue at the helm of the PCB until the ICC annual conference in June.”I have taken the board in confidence and conveyed my decision that I will not continue after our mandate is ending on August 18,” Shaharyar told reporters after chairing a board meeting in Lahore. “I will not continue after it as chairman or as in any other capacity and it’s my decision on the basis of personal and health reasons. I have also written to the Patron of PCB who is Prime Minister that I am ready to resign and whenever he deems reasonable he can accept it. And thereafter whatever the legal process constituted, allow it to exercised to bring in my successor.”Sources in the Prime Minister’s office in Islamabad confirmed on Thursday that they have yet to receive Shaharyar’s resignation and had only learnt of his decision through the media. According to the PCB constitution, it is the Patron who makes the first move to pick the new chairman. His request to the election commissioner to hold fresh elections prompts a meeting of the board of governors, who would then select a candidate from among themselves through a majority vote. All of this must be done within four weeks of the chairman’s office becoming vacant.ESPNcricinfo understands that Shaharyar has felt under pressure to make way for Najam Sethi, the current head of PCB executive committee and PSL chairman.Sethi has been chairman of the board, several times in an interim capacity between 2013 and 2014. That was during a period of administrative turmoil at the very top of the board when Sethi and Zaka Ashraf alternated as board heads, later resolved by a Supreme Court intervention that led, eventually to the election of Shaharyar.Sethi was appointed head of a newly-created Executive Committee, and though its power was limited only to making recommendations, Sethi has come to exert considerable influence within the board. His position as chairman of the Pakistan Super League has also helped extend his reach into various departments of the PCB including media, social media, marketing and commercial interests.All this led to the potential for friction at the top of the PCB, something former coach Waqar Younis had alluded to after the World T20 in 2016 when he blasted the lack of administrative direction in Pakistan cricket, asserting that “two heads” were pulling the game in “two different directions”.

Mason Crane, the 20-year-old legspinner, broke into the New South Wales team earlier this year but has missed out in Hampshire’s opening three Championship matches

George Dobell25-Apr-2017James Whitaker, the England national selector, has expressed his disappointment after Mason Crane was left out of Hampshire’s side for the first three County Championship matches of the season.Crane, the 20-year-old legspinner, came into the English domestic season having become the first overseas player to break into the New South Wales team in more than 30 years (Imran Khan was the most recent) and having helped bowl The South to a 3-0 win over The North during the one-day series in the UAE. A spell of 4 for 1 in the final encounter turned the match in The South’s favour.But any hope that Crane could build on his progress in the opening weeks of the season – and any hope that he might provide an early answer to England’s spin-bowling issues – have been dashed as Hampshire have left him out of their Championship team. Reasoning that, on early season surfaces, they only require one spinner, they have preferred the all-round skills of Liam Dawson.”It would have been good to see him play some cricket this year already,” Whitaker admitted. “But we have no control over the selection of the Hampshire team.”It is disappointing. Mason Crane is clearly a very exciting young cricketer. He had a very exciting winter with some opportunities.”While Whitaker’s comments might be interpreted as a thinly-veiled swipe at Hampshire’s selection policy – the club have utilised three Kolpak players so far this season and also left out talented young batsmen Tom Alsop at times – to some extent Hampshire cannot be blamed.With the season scheduled to allow a block for T20 cricket, the Championship programme has been pushed ever more into the margins – Hampshire will have played six of their Championship matches by the end of the first week of June – meaning that surfaces might be expected to provide more assistance for seamers and negate the need for spinners.In a highly competitive top division, Hampshire are understandably picking the side they think gives them the best chance of winning games. In that light, the Crane issue might be seen as a microcosm of the dilemma facing spinners trying to learn their game within the English system more than any fault of Hampshire.Whatever the causes, it does little for the development of Crane. And, with the number of Championship games cut from 16 to 14 this year and Crane expected to win selection in the Lions teams, it remains to be seen how often he will turn out for Hampshire in first-class cricket this season.The Lions programme of games starts in the first week of June – they play three one-day games against South Africa A – before a four-day match against the same opposition (June 21-24) and then a three-day match against the senior South Africa touring side (June 29-July 1).If, as expected, Crane is included in those squads, he will be unavailable for Hampshire’s home Championship game against Warwickshire, their away Championship match against Lancashire and their home Championship game against Somerset.

Daryl Mitchell’s 161 on the second day at Wantage Road put Worcestershire on course for a fourth consecutive victory in the Specsavers County Championship.

ECB Reporters Network27-May-2017
ScorecardDaryl Mitchell led Worcestershire’s reply with a century•Getty Images

Daryl Mitchell’s 161 on the second day at Wantage Road put Worcestershire on course for a fourth consecutive victory in the Specsavers County Championship. He helped his side take a first-innings lead of 196 and Northamptonshire were 53 for 2 by the close of day two, trailing by 143.Mitchell’s 243-ball stay in a minute shy of six hours was his best score for two seasons, his 26th first-class century and first at Northampton. It was a typically dogged effort with 19 boundaries, few memorable strokes but a classic example of concentration and determination.It set the game up perfectly for Worcestershire, who were eventually bowled out for 434, and when Joe Leach knocked out Max Holden’s off stump five overs into the Northants second innings and Alex Wakely criminally hooked Josh Tongue to long leg three overs from the close, it was an ideal day for the visitors.Mitchell’s tight technique and cool temperament was tailor-made for a day where Northants hoped to get back in the game and bowled far better than the first evening. But after striking in the seventh over of the day, the hosts were ground down, chiefly by Mitchell, who prodded, poked, pushed and pulled them out of the game.He made only two Championship centuries last season but has taken only four games to match the mark this year, here following up his 120 at Derby last week. Resuming on 52, he steered Worcestershire through an important morning session with the ball moving around under a good layer of cloud.Ben Sanderson beat the bat several times and created a half chance against Mitchell who edged towards second slip on 61, Alex Wakely couldn’t get down to his right to take the catch. But apart from one airy drive edged past slip, Mitchell had the measure of the attack and went through to a century in 164 balls with 11 boundaries. He eventually fell to the ninth over of the second new ball, lbw to a very full delivery from Nathan Buck.He shared 169 for the fourth wicket with Tom Kohler-Cadmore – a partnership that took 45.4 overs and did not have a modest Wantage Road crowd hurrying out of the bars. What it did do is snuff out Northants vision of a recovery.It took until the 4th over of the second new ball for Northants to make the breakthrough – Sanderson sliding a ball into Kohler-Cadmore’s middle stump after he had gone past fifty for the second time this season in the County Championship in 101 balls with seven fours, his best stroke a perfectly timed pull off Sanderson.Just when it looked as if Northants had restored some pride with Buck completing a second five-for of the season, pegging Worcestershire back from 299 for 3 to 365 for 8, Leach and Jack Shantry added a fifty partnership in just 37 balls to raise maximum batting points – the pick of the strokes, Leach’s lofted extra-cover drive for six en route to fifty in only 34 balls. Shantry’s reverse-sweeps in his unbeaten 30 were also a sign that is was very much Worcestershire’s day.

The BCCI and PCB will meet in Dubai on May 29 to discuss the MoU to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023

Sidharth Monga25-May-2017The BCCI and PCB will meet in Dubai on May 29 to discuss the MoU to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. Because of the strained relations between the two countries, the BCCI has not had the federal government’s clearance to honour the MoU, which was signed in 2014. India didn’t play the proposed series in 2015, and look set to give it a miss in 2017 too.Earlier this month, the PCB had sent a notice of dispute to the BCCI, claiming losses for the BCCI’s refusal to tour in 2015. Although the BCCI indicated this MoU was “just a letter” and not a formal “contract”, it wrote to the government of India again about two weeks ago. Amitabh Choudhary, the acting BCCI secretary, said he communicated the same to PCB’s chairman Shaharyar Khan. Choudhary said the PCB’s response invoked a provision in the MoU for dialogue should a series not go ahead. Choudhary will represent the BCCI in the meeting with Shaharyar and/or PCB’s legal representatives.”We still remain committed to playing,” Choudhary said, “but the position doesn’t change: the series cannot go ahead without the permission of the government of India. After PCB wrote to us, we have written to the government of India again, and are awaiting the response. I believe the dialogue should go on, which is why we are meeting.”However, India continue to play Pakistan in multi-team events, as they did in Kolkata in the World T20 last year, and will do again in Birmingham during the Champions Trophy, six days after this meeting between the two boards.India were supposed to play away against Pakistan in 2015, and are scheduled to host them in 2017. In 2015, the BCCI had offered PCB a series at home, which the PCB declined. India in turn refused to play Pakistan’s home series at a neutral venue without specifying any reasons. “We are not asking any permission from the government,” the then BCCI president Shashank Manohar had told ESPNcricinfo. “We are not playing in UAE. That is certain. There are reasons. But I don’t want another debate on that. So I will not tell you the reasons.”

Sean Dickson plundered 318, Kent’s highest individual score on home soil, and put on 382 with Joe Denly in the biggest partnership in the county’s history as a host of records tumbled at Beckenham

ECB Reporters Network04-Jul-2017
ScorecardSean Dickson made the highest score by a Kent batsman since 1934•Getty Images

Sean Dickson plundered 318, Kent’s highest individual score on home soil, and put on 382 with Joe Denly in the biggest partnership in the county’s history as a host of records tumbled at Beckenham.Kent’s 701 for 7 declared was also their highest first-class total in Kent, leaving Northants with an uphill battle to secure a draw in a Specsavers County Championship clash between the third and fourth-placed sides in Division Two.At stumps on day two, though, Northants had fought hard to reach 180 for 1 in reply with Ben Duckett completing a superb 101 not out in the penultimate over following an opening stand of 113 with Rob Newton, who made 57 before lifting a drive at Pakistan legspinner Yasir Shah to short extra cover.Dickson, a 25-year-old South African UK passport holder whose mother, Pat, hails from Beckenham, fell just 14 runs short of Bill Ashdown’s Kent individual record of 332, made against Essex at Brentwood in 1934. But he at least passed Ashdown’s 305 not out, against Derbyshire at Dover in 1935 and Kent’s previous highest in a match at home, while Kent’s total was their second highest in first-class cricket behind the 803 for 4 declared made in that same Brentwood game 83 years ago.Dickson faced 408 balls, across almost eight-and-a-half hours at the crease, and hit three sixes and 31 fours. Denly scored 182, from 226 balls and with five sixes and 15 fours, and it was his cracking hook for four, off Nathan Buck, which took the partnership with Dickson to 369 and – in one stroke – past two previous Kent record stands.They were the 366 that Simon Hinks and Neil Taylor added for the second wicket against Middlesex at Canterbury in 1990, and the 368 that was the previous highest partnership for any Kent wicket, by Aravinda de Silva and Graham Cowdrey for the fourth wicket against Derbyshire at Maidstone in 1995.Denly holed out in the deep off Rob Keogh’s offspin after adding 39 in 55 minutes to his overnight 143, but Dickson kept going as the Northants bowlers struggled to hold back the tide of runs on a featherbed pitch.Dickson, who resumed on 210 in Kent’s overnight 434 for 1, accumulated remorselessly and soon went past the previous highest score made by a Kent batsman against Northants – Frank Woolley’s 217 at Northampton in 1926.Next on Dickson’s hit list was Kent’s post-War highest individual score of 275, made by present county head coach Matt Walker against Somerset at Canterbury in 1996, and when he reached 300 he became just the second Kent batsman – after Bromley-born Ashdown – to score a first-class triple-hundred.Denly had set the tone for another run-filled day at Kent’s northern headquarters by pulling Ben Sanderson for four in the day’s first over and he then drove Graeme White’s left-arm spin for six. Kent scored 169 in 33 overs in the morning session, and another 98 in 14 overs after lunch before finally calling a halt to the carnage.Sam Northeast contributed 38 to a third wicket stand of 68 in 15 overs with Dickson, who eventually skied Max Holden’s occasional offbreaks to long-on. Sam Billings helped himself to a quickfire 42 in the push towards the declaration as he, Matt Coles and James Tredwell, who pulled Holden for six to bring up Kent’s 700, enjoyed themselves in the afternoon sunshine.Duckett, however, who made 208 in this fixture – and on this ground – last season, led the Northants reply with a well-judged mixture of watchfulness and aggression, and the closest he came to losing his wicket came when he snicked Mitch Claydon wide of third slip on 11 and, later, edged Matt Hunn just short of second slip.Newton also had a few early scares against Claydon, who bowled a testing new ball spell, and on 20 was beaten by a ball from Shah that turned sharply. Shah later switched ends to find some purchase out of the bowlers’ footmarks, but Duckett emerged intact from an uncomfortable spell against him in the closing overs and lofted Denly’s leg spin over mid off for his 16th four to reach a 153-ball hundred.Alex Wakely, the Northants captain, also battled hard to get through to stumps unbeaten on 14, but a long two days still lie ahead for Northants.

The end to Australian cricket’s pay war hinges on Cricket Australia’s board of independent directors who must approve the new compromise deal being drafted

Daniel Brettig31-Jul-2017An end to Australian cricket’s pay war hinges on the same place it started – Cricket Australia’s board of independent directors.It was the change of the CA board from 14 state-appointed delegates to nine independently-appointed directors in October 2012 that provided a major catalyst for the governing body’s attempt to break up the fixed revenue percentage models at the heart of all collective bargaining agreements between the board and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) over the past 20 years.Now, the compromise deal being thrashed out and drafted, in talks between the CA chief executive James Sutherland and his ACA counterpart Alistair Nicholson, must be approved by the same directors – chairman David Peever, Mark Taylor, Bob Every, Jacquie Hey, Earl Eddings, Tony Harrison, Michael Kasprowicz, Michelle Tredenick and John Harnden – who pushed for change in the first place.The hand of Peever and his directors has been evident throughout the process, which began formally with a meeting between the CA chairman and the ACA president Greg Dyer last November. Directors have, in the words of Taylor, been updated via teleconferences “every three days, sometimes a bit more often if need be”.Most recently, private talks between Sutherland and Nicholson were dramatically reset when, following a board phone hook-up on Wednesday, the CA chief executive went public with the governing body’s desire to get a deal done by early this week or to take “residual matters” to private arbitration before a retired judge. Talks between the parties are going on late into Monday night, but directors are said to be confident of CA’s ability to win the argument against revenue-sharing in that kind of forum.They have been closely linked to Kevin Roberts, CA’s lead negotiator, until Sutherland entered the fray in the final days before the previous MoU expired on July 1. Roberts had joined the CA board as one of its first independent directors five years ago, a matter of months after the most recent revenue sharing agreement was finalised, before moving to the executive management team in late 2015.David Peever had defended CA’s proposal, calling their offer a generous one in a column in earlier this month•IDI/Getty Images

At the time, Roberts was seen as a possible successor to Sutherland, due to his strong corporate background, and also because the move of a CA board director into management was virtually without precedent in the organisation’s history. Roberts’ role in leading negotiations for CA mirrored Sutherland’s own role as lieutenant to his predecessor Malcolm Speed before taking the top job in 2001.Public pronouncements by board directors have been few and far between during the dispute, limited to television appearances by Taylor, who in May spoke stridently of the impasse and expressed his frustration at the lack of meaningful negotiation.A little less than two months later, Taylor offered a more conciliatory tone at Ashes launch on July 11, which followed the MoU expiry that left more than 230 players out of contract, and called for an MoU compromise.Yet, the more hawkish views evident on the board were underlined just two days later, when Peever penned an indignant column in newspaper that was then posted on the board’s website. In it, he attacked the ACA and the media for peddling “myths” about his industrial relations history with the mining firm Rio Tinto, where he served as managing director in Australia until 2012. He also pitched for CA’s hardline position in very similar ways to Sutherland during his multiple public appearances over the same period.With days remaining before determinations must be made on issues like the looming Test tour of Bangladesh, and a raft of commercial agreements with broadcasters and sponsors around the home Ashes summer, the biggest question is whether the CA board will show a level of flexibility more in line with the words of the former captain Taylor than those of the current chairman Peever.

South African Hardus Viljoen returned the best figures by a Derbyshire bowler for two years to put his side in a good position against Sussex at Hove

ECB Reporters Network13-Sep-2017South African Hardus Viljoen returned the best figures by a Derbyshire bowler for two years to put his side in a good position against Sussex at Hove.Viljoen took 7 for 80 with four of his victims clean bowled as Sussex, who need to win to maintain their promotion challenge in the Specsavers County Championship, were bowled out for 271 and conceded a first-innings deficit of 67.In a final session truncated by heavy showers, Derbyshire extended their lead to 98 although they did lose Luis Reece, well caught at second slip by Chris Nash off Jofra Archer, before they closed on 31 for 1.Viljoen is in his first season with Derbyshire after signing as a Kolpak but his summer has been hampered by knee and groin injuries. However, the 28-year-old, who removed England’s Alastair Cook with his first ball in his only Test appearance in 2016, looked the part here, bowling with pace and aggression with four of his wickets coming during a 12-over spell either side of lunch.Luke Wright, Sussex’s former captain, said: “As a team we’ve had two bad days if we’re being honest. But you get more chances in the second division and we’ll be looking to knock them over tomorrow and then chase a target on the last day on a pitch which is pretty good.”Viljoen is a big strapping lad and bowls fast. He seems to get in and out of rhythm but when he gets it right he can get it through. But we should have seen off his threat better.”Sussex would have been in worse trouble had Wright, who finished unbeaten on 70, and David Wiese not put on 80 for the eighth wicket after they had slumped from 62 for 1 to 149 for 7 and looked in danger of being asked to follow on.Angus Robson fell to Harry Podmore in the Middlesex loanee’s first over but Luke Wells (46) and Stiaan van Zyl (17) looked reasonably comfortable in adding 61 for the second wicket before Viljoen returned to the attack. Van Zyl and Chris Nash (20) both played on and Wells (46) was beaten by one which seamed late at pace in the final over before lunch.Ben Brown (23) was surprised by extra bounce and Viljoen had his second five-wicket haul of the season when Archer spliced an attempted pull to mid-on.But when Viljoen had a breather, Wright and Wiese took advantage with a sensible partnership which was ended by 16-year-old off-spinner Hamidullah Qadri, who had Wiese well taken by keeper Harvey Hosein as he pushed forward for 47.Wright went past 50 for only the fourth time this season and hit eight fours, but he was left high and dry at the other end when Viljoen returned after tea to end the innings with successive balls as George Garton was caught behind and Derby-born Stuart Whittingham lost his off stump.It was the first time a Derbyshire bowler had taken seven wickets at Hove since Geoff Miller in 1977 and they were the best figures by a non-English bowler for the county since Ian Bishop took 7 for 34 against Hampshire at Portsmouth in 1992.Earlier, Derbyshire’s first innings had ended when Archer bowled Hosein for 38 with the first ball of the day.

Nazmul Hossain Shanto is one of the six cricketers in the squad with international experience, with the others being Nurul Hasan, Sunzamul Islam, Abu Hider, Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Jubair Hossain

Mohammad Isam04-Oct-2017Nazmul Hossain Shanto will lead Bangladesh A in their only four-day match against Ireland A, which starts from October 11 in Sylhet. This is the side’s first assignment in two years, having last played in South Africa and Zimbabwe in September and October 2015.Shanto is one of the six cricketers in the squad with international experience, with the others being Nurul Hasan, Sunzamul Islam, Abu Hider, Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Jubair Hossain. Shanto has been impressive at every level in the last 12 months, having performed consistently with the bat for the BCB’s high-performance side in Australia and England.Nurul, meanwhile, is seen as Mushfiqur Rahim’s understudy in the senior side while Sunzamul was in Bangladesh’s Champions Trophy squad. Seamer Rabbi has played five Tests for Bangladesh while legspinner Jubair last played international cricket in 2015.

Bangladesh A squad

Nazmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Saif Hassan, Shadman Islam, Al-Amin, Zakir Hasan, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Nurul Hasan, Sunzamul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Ebadot Hossain, Abu Hider, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Jubair Hossain

Batsman Saif Hassan and offspinning allrounder Nayeem Hasan, who are part of Bangladesh’s Under-19 teams, also found places in the 13-member squad.The selectors also included Shadman Islam, Al-Amin, Zakir Hasan and Ebadot Hossain but there was no place for consistent domestic performers like Shahriar Nafees, Anamul Haque, Tushar Imran, Junaid Siddique, Abdur Razzak, Abu Jayed or Monir Hossain Khan.Ireland A will arrive on October 7 and after the four-day match ends in Sylhet on October 14, they will play five one-dayers in Cox’s Bazar from October 17 to 26.Simon Helmot, the high-performance team’s head coach, has now been appointed head coach of the A team. Champaka Ramanayake – who had joined BCB earlier this year as a bowling coach – will be Helmot’s assistant during this series.

Chhattisgarh recover despite Umesh Yadav’s three for, Nikhil Gangta and Ankush Bains rescue Himachal

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2017Centuries from Amandeep Khare and Ashutosh Singh helped Chhattisgarh recover from Umesh Yadav’s twin-strikes upfront to end the day at a comfortable 246 for 3 against Vidarbha in Nagpur. The pair added 227 for the third wicket before Umesh dismissed Ashutosh for 113 in the day’s final over. Karn Sharma, the legspinner, who impressed for India A and has 31 wickets in four first-class games so far this season, finished with none for 65 off 24 overs in his first game for Vidarbha.Punjab, searching for points after conceding a lead and losing outright in their first two games, racked up 396 for 3 against Goa in Poorvorim. Jiwanjot Singh, the opener, struck 215 of those and was still going strong when stumps were drawn.Jiwanjot struck an unbroken 236-run fourth-wicket stand with Anmolpreet Singh, 103 not out, when play ended. Anmolpreet, promoted No. 4 in the absence of Yuvraj Singh, struck 11 fours and two sixes. Uday Kaul missed out converting a start into three figures, falling for 66, while Manan Vohra was out for a three-ball duck in the first over.Half-centuries from Nikhil Gangta (89*) and Ankush Bains (68) spared Himachal the blushes against Services in New Delhi. They recovered from a precarious 92 for 4 to finish on 273 for 5 at stumps. Prashant Chopra, the opener who struck a triple century in the tournament opener, failed to convert, falling for 55. Bains and Gangta, chasing his second century of the season, batted for a better part of the day to add 159 and help the side stage a remarkable recovery.

And while admitting that the SL batsmen let themselves down, Nic Pothas defended the shot selections that dismissed both Dinesh Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Nagpur24-Nov-2017India are playing a Test series at the moment, but they have admitted, in almost as many words, that they are using it as a warm-up exercise for their upcoming tour of South Africa. They have rested players keeping that tour in mind, and have tried to simulate South African conditions instead of giving themselves the home advantage.Their opponents, Sri Lanka, have reason to feel miffed at this, but Nic Pothas, their interim coach, has maintained that he sees nothing wrong with what India are doing. He reiterated this on Friday after his side were bowled out for 205 in Nagpur.”Not at all,” Pothas said, when asked if he felt India were undermining Sri Lanka. “That’s a professional environment. They are planning. They are looking forward to another series that is coming up. They have every right in their country to prepare the wickets they want. That’s what every side does.”From our point of view, we are only concentrating on ourselves and playing our best cricket. The Indian team is doing exactly that, preparing for a series. That’s their prerogative and that’s their right. I have no problem with that.”The pitch in Nagpur had an even covering of grass, but it did not offer the fast bowlers anywhere near as much assistance as the one prepared in Kolkata for the first Test. Seven of Sri Lanka’s wickets, instead, fell to the spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Pothas said the pitch hadn’t helped the spinners to any great extent, and lamented that a number of his batsmen had fallen to the ball that didn’t turn.”The wicket has got no demons,” he said. “It hasn’t spun, it hasn’t seamed. There were six straight-ball dismissals. International level, no surprise. Ashwin and Jadeja got wickets bowling stump-to-stump. At this level, you can’t be missing straight balls.”Ashwin and Jadeja took 30 wickets between them on India’s tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year. Pothas said the pitches there had given them a lot more help than the one in Nagpur did.”In the last series, the wickets spun,” he said. “You are talking of the two top spinners of the world. It was a different kettle of fish. Here the wicket has not done anything. All that it has done is to skid on a bit. The first day of a Test match, what you have done on a wicket that has not done much is losing seven wickets to spin. It is a disappointed changing room and the guys have set themselves high standards. They are going to be disappointed. In any process you are going to have those disappointments.”Dinesh Chandimal made a dogged fifty•BCCI

A couple of the dismissals were to aggressive shots. Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka’s captain, was out reverse-sweeping a ball that pitched within the stumps.”The captain made a decision at that time, we empower the batsmen to make decisions in the middle,” Pothas said. “He obviously felt that that was the way to score runs at that point – didn’t come off. I probably say that maybe the timing of that shot was, perhaps, not his best. He is playing well and he is confident and we back our batsmen to be positive. You can’t be there forever and block it.”Niroshan Dickwella charged Jadeja and fell while hitting over the top despite not reaching the pitch of the ball. That wicket began a Sri Lankan slide from 160 for 4 to 205 all out. Pothas refused to blame Dickwella for the collapse.”In hindsight, that’s what the numbers tell you,” he said. “We let ourselves down from that point onwards. You can’t say that Niroshan Dickwella gets out and the rest can get out. Dick is a positive batter and that’s a shot he plays well. I don’t want to stop him being himself.”I want people to bat the way they bat and he is kind of player who transfers pressure back onto the bowlers. Certainly not going to say that because Dick got out, others got out.”