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Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the ODI series against England as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.A call will be taken on Steyn’s availability for the T20s at a later stage, with the aim to have him fit for the Australia T20s in March and the World T20 which follows that. Kyle Abbott, who suffered a hamstring niggle in the Centurion Test will also miss the first ODI against England with Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada likely to be rested for some of the matches.”They definitely won’t play all five games,” Russell Domingo, South Africa’s coach, said. “We will look to bring one or two new fast bowlers in.”That means South Africa are likely to add to their one-day squad, which currently only has Chris Morris as back-up to the bowlers. Wayne Parnell, and Hardus Viljoen, who are playing for the A side in a warm-up match against England on Saturday, could come into contention. Vernon Philander, however, will not.Philander tore ankle ligaments in the warm-ups for the second Test against India in Bangalore in November and has missed seven Tests as a result. He was expected to recover by mid-January but is still “two to three weeks away from competitive cricket”, according to Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa’s team manager . Philander is unlikely to make an international appearance this season.Moosajee is more optimistic about Steyn, even though the exact nature of the shoulder injury, which followed a groin strain, has not been discovered. “All initial scans were clear but when symptoms did not improve, we discovered a reaction in the bone itself,” Moosajee said. ‘This is very rare in fast bowlers as it is usually caused by trauma. We are treating it conservatively because he is a fast bowler and we know we have the World T20 coming up.”Steyn is still receiving treatment in a hyperbaric chamber and is being monitored every two weeks. Moosajee is “confident he will make a full recovery” and that in “six, eight or 10 weeks when he is fit, will be bowling as well as he ever has”. He also emphasised that Steyn’s current niggle is “not career-threatening.”

Amidst the euphoric scenes which greeted the Scottish Saltires’ heart-stopping victory over Lancashire at Old Trafford on Monday, it was easy to forget that, once again, as on so many occasions during the last five years, the bowlers had stepped up to the mark, where the batsmen had previously failed. In three Friends Provident Trophy outings this, ahem, spring, the Saltires have managed totals of 73, 169 and 155; one doesn’t exactly have to be Stephen Hawking to deduce that these kind of scores are never going to win you more than perhaps one match in every ten, which begs the question of why there exists such a glaring discrepancy between the practitioners of the two disciplines.The statistics simply serve to reinforce the dearth of truly first-class batsmen in these parts. Fraser Watts has amassed more than 125 appearances for Scotland, and averages less than 23. Gavin Hamilton, an allrounder who no longer bowls, accumulates less than 30 an innings as well. Ditto the rest of the Saltires line-up with not one single person higher than 28 and 29, whilst, in England, only one Scottish player – Durham’s Kyle Coetzer – is currently performing regularly on the 1st XI stage. By contrast, Ireland are exporting an increasingly rich seam of ability to the counties: Eoin Morgan and Ed Joyce are at Middlesex, Niall O’Brien at Northants and Boyd Rankin at Derbyshire, and the Irish boast an exceptional future star in 17-year-old Paul Stirling, who struck a massively assured 70 in the FPT last weekend. There has to be a reason why the Saltires have deep bowling resources, yet struggle to post competitive targets with the bat. What is it?Craig Wright, the former Scotland captain, has no doubt that the pitches in his homeland offer a compelling answer. “It is far easier for us to produce bowlers than batsmen up here, purely due to the conditions which young players grow up experiencing. Indeed, it will always be difficult for us to produce confident, technically assured batsmen when they grow up playing on soft, seaming wickets, on which they cannot trust the bounce of the ball,” said Wright. “In addition, our wickets up here do not bounce, so our batsmen never learn to play off the back foot. Therefore, when our lads have to go and bat against professional bowlers who are operating at 85-90mph, on surfaces which bounce waist high and above, we tend to be found out.”This is why we need to ensure that our youngsters train in facilities which have even bounce, an also that they play enough cricket at a young enough age against good opposition. That’s why we have arranged the tours [to South Africa] and put in place two-day games for the under-17s against English opposition.”On the other hand, it is much easier for us to produce bowlers because the conditions have much less influence on how a bowler goes about his business. Whereas, when one of our batsmen faces a Scottish club bowling attack on a poor wicket, he is virtually playing a different sport from the one facing Andrew Flintoff, James Anderson & co in Manchester.”Wright makes several valid points, but that still doesn’t properly explain how somebody such as Watts can look so stylish for short spells and then depart in anti-climax so frequently. One might also wonder why the Scots should seem to rise to the occasion on their away journeys without being able to replicate the same standards at the Grange.”It’s a mystery,” says Wright. “Conventional wisdom would say we should do better in home conditions where the ball seams around more, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I can’t speak for the other guys, but I’m not sure there is anything in the theory that they are inspired more by the surroundings down south, I don’t buy that. But maybe some of them feel under less pressure than when in front of an expectant home crowd.”Wright and his confreres will strive to maintain the momentum established by the defeat of Lancashire. But until the foundations are laid more adequately by their top order, the majority of supporters will forever be fearful a collapse is just around the corner.

A quirky Cricket Australia regulation has provided a last-minute hitch in negotiations to allow its contract holders to take part in the Indian Premier League. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, has set a Sunday deadline for registration for Thursday’s player auction, but that is in doubt due to a condition that prevents more than two Australians appearing in the same overseas team.Sixteen Australians have expressed interest in joining the Twenty20 competition starting in April, but Cricket Australia wants to wait until after the draft before releasing any of them to satisfy its limit. The move extends the uncertainty over how many of the country’s players will be involved in the IPL.Modi has previously said anyone who didn’t sign by Sunday would have to wait three years for another chance to join, but Cricket Australia believes the BCCI understands its situation. However, the news has not been as well received by some of the eight franchises who are preparing bids to develop their squads.”The long-standing regulation, which was around back when Cricket Australia was the Australian Cricket Board, means we won’t give clearance to more than two players in an overseas domestic team,” Peter Young, Cricket Australia’s general manager of corporate affairs, told Cricinfo. “We don’t want something that could be seen as a de-facto Australian team.”It’s a condition that has been around for years in county cricket and has been well understood. As long as it is understood by everyone it will be fine.”Until now there has not been significant interest in groups of players appearing in countries other than England, and a board meeting would be required to change the regulation. Cricket Australia has no intention of relaxing the rule, which would prevent one of the franchises stacking its team with Australians.The development came as Indian board officials were confident of solving the outstanding issues. Cricket Australia and IPL representatives in India and London have been trying to resolve the contract concerns throughout the week and the main problem centres around protecting its sponsors.Another roadblock to the current players being involved is whether the March tour of Pakistan goes ahead. The country will hold an election on Monday and Young expects some “clarity” on the situation over the next week. The timing of the trip to the West Indies, which starts early in May, also means the squad members will only be able to participate in the first half of the IPL.

ScorecardMolly Strano picked up 5 for 15 to restrict Melbourne Stars Women to 9 for 85•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

This game had been identified as ‘the one’ for the Women’s Big Bash League. It was the tournament’s first fixture at the MCG, its first on Channel Ten’s flagship channel – all on a Saturday afternoon at the end of the holiday season. Central to the fixture’s sporting appeal was the presence of Meg Lanning, captain not only of the Melbourne Stars, but Australia’s national side too, and the world’s best batsman. But she was on the wrong side of the result as Sophie Molineux anchored a low-scoring chase that Melbourne Renegades won quite comfortably.On a number of levels, things didn’t start terribly well. The MCG naively decided a single general admission gate would be adequate, leaving many – perhaps 2000 – punters outside for the start of the match. Only the quickest to their seats would have seen Lanning, who fell caught behind prodding half-forward to Molly Strano’s spin in the second over of the match. She had made just 2, on what was supposed to be her day.By the second ball of Strano’s next over, the Stars had lost three more wickets. Natalie Sciver was bowled off the penultimate ball Shabnim Ismail’s second over. A ball later, Emma Inglis fell in almost identical fashion, castled by a full, straight, skiddy delivery from the diminutive South African – fresh off the plane and playing her first game of the competition. Then came the scalp of Katie Mack – the only Star besides Lanning with more than 100 runs in their eight WBBL matches to date – who was trapped by Strano.In the blink of an eye, the Stars, having chosen to bat, were 4 for 8. The only saving grace was that Mignon du Preez safely defended the hat-trick ball from her compatriot Ismail. It was largely thanks to du Preez that those queuing outside got to see a game at all. \\She nudged and hurdled her way through the middle overs, first in the company of Kelly Applebee, then Kristen Beams. The first boundary only arrived from the innings’ 64th ball, a du Preez edge off Briana Binch, and only two more followed (the innings also contained 63 dots).Having cleaned up the top order, Ismail and Strano returned to lop off the Stars’ tail. Hayley Jensen was caught and bowled by Strano, then Ismail had du Preez caught at mid-on. Strano bowled the last over and got the wicket of Beams, with a tossed up delivery as she was caught well low down at mid-off, and then struck with the wicket of Gemma Triscari, who was trapped plumb in front as Stars managed just 9 for 85 in their 20 overs. Strano was rewarded for her accuracy with remarkable figures of 5 for 12.Defending a paltry total, Lanning’s Stars did just about everything right. Seamers and spinners alike bowled tight, probing lines, the team were energetic and vocal in the field, Lanning set aggressive fields and they fielded like demons, led by their wicketkeeper, Inglis, who claimed two excellent stumpings. Sciver’s second ball was full and wide, and Dane van Niekerk – who had just sliced the parsimonious Triscari over point for four – advanced and was smartly stumped by Inglis.Kris Britt never got going, and when Beams gave one some flight, she was also stumped. 17-year-old Sophie Molineux – opening, having batted No. 11 in her previous WBBL knock – stuck about and looked increasingly fluent, but after 13 overs, the Renegades were still not halfway there, and the Stars, improbably, were on top.Then the pressure began to tell. 11 was taken from Beams’ last over, including a beautiful lofted drive for four from Danielle Wyatt, while Alana King’s following over cost eight, including a pair of missed run-outs. With the running increasingly suicidal, those two run-outs happened in the following overs; Molineux was carelessly caught short as she failed to pick up Wyatt’s tip and run, while Sarah Elliott simply set off when there was never a run on offer.Wyatt’s stay at the crease began eventfully, when she was hit on the back of the helmet by a full-blooded Molineux drive, but she kept her composure to see the Renegades home when requiring a run-a-ball. She hit a stunning cover driven four and was joined by Ismail, who thrashed around briefly before being run-out in the final over. But Wyatt’s push into the off-side off the innings’ penultimate ball, and another, final scampered single saw the Renegades home.

New Zealand’s captain, Daniel Vettori, was predictably despondent as he reflected on his side’s 126-run defeat against England at Wellington, a result that levelled the series and gave England the momentum going into next week’s decider in Napier. The match was played on the liveliest pitch that the teams are likely to encounter on this trip, and Vettori believed that New Zealand’s failure to capitalise on their first-day breakthroughs was the decisive moment of the match.On the first afternoon England’s middle-order, visibly lacking in confidence after their horrific display at Hamilton, had been on the ropes at 136 for 5 after being asked to bat first. But the carefree Tim Ambrose, playing in only his second Test, counterattacked gamely in a superb 149-ball 102. England never looked back after that, and though their catching went awry in the second innings, a brace of five-wicket hauls from James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom cemented their dominance of the game.”Obviously it’s a very disappointed dressing-room,” said Vettori. “If we reflect back on the Test match it was a pretty even one expect for the third session on the first day. We let Tim Ambrose get away through some poor bowling and by feeding his strengths, and if you analyse the rest of it, it was a pretty even contest. But because of that [first day] we left ourselves too much to do on the last day.”It wasn’t immediately apparent just how significant Ambrose’s efforts would be to the end result. Vettori had no qualms about bowling first at the Basin, a pitch that traditionally plays at its best on the second and third days, but admitted that New Zealand soon came to rue their missed opportunity of that first day.”We didn’t reflect on it at the time but as the days went on I suppose we started to realise how important that lost session was for us,” he said. “We knew the wicket was pretty sporty, but for us to have made inroads and for them to post the score they did, we knew we had to bat very well and we didn’t. But it just all comes back to that session. We fed [Ambrose’s] strengths and he capitalised. He played very well too, and probably took the game away from us.”After the total team effort that New Zealand put together at Hamilton, the Wellington Test was something of a reality check for Vettori and his men. Although the selectors made no changes to the batsmen for Napier, definite shortcomings among their top-order were exposed on a pitch that aided England’s younger, faster, seam attack. Their senior seamer, Chris Martin, was also visibly off the pace after his exertions in the first Test, while Kyle Mills finished the match with pain behind his left knee, a development that earned a precautionary call-up for the 19-year-old paceman, Tim Southee.”I thought Jacob [Oram] and Kyle Mills were outstanding in the way they bowled on this wicket,” said Vettori. “Chris may be a bit disappointed but we will give the seamers a bit of a rest before the final Test. They’ve had a huge workload over the last two Tests and hopefully they can get a rest and come into the third Test on a wicket that we know will be extremely flat, and a tough ask for our bowlers.”Even so, the Napier pitch is likely to suit New Zealand’s adhesive style of play. Their success in Hamilton stemmed from the patience they were willing to show on a flat, lifeless deck. England contributed to their downfall by scoring at barely two runs an over, but they received an exclusive diet of wicket-to-wicket deliveries and were offered none of the width that Ambrose in particular was able to exploit in this Test.”The Napier pitch will be very flat, we know what to expect,” said Vettori. “It’ll be a good deck and tough work for the bowlers but it was like that in Hamilton and we expect the same thing from them in Napier. It always does [have more pace than Hamilton] but if you get a couple of days of sun then it will tend to slow down a little bit. It’s generally quite a good cricket wicket, because if you’re prepared to put something in then you’ll get something back.”

That wasn’t quite the case at Wellington, and in the build-up to the Test, Vettori was openly critical of the surface that Brett Sipthorpe, the curator, had prepared for this Test. But he refused to use it as an excuse in the aftermath of defeat. “If you want to be a good side then you have to adapt to all conditions and have to win in all types of conditions,” he said. “You can’t turn up in Sri Lanka and ask for the type of deck you want, so you have to be adaptable.”Vettori added that he doubted whether England would have wanted such a sporting track either, although the way in which their bowlers fared would suggest otherwise. England were devoid of both their most experienced men, Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison, but Anderson thrived in the first innings, Sidebottom starred in the second, and Stuart Broad played a vital enforcing role in both innings, on a pitch far removed from the lifeless horrors of his Colombo debut.”You have to look at the way Anderson bowled,” said Vettori. “For us to be bowled out for 198 in the first innings was purely down to him. He hit the right lengths early on and did a really good job. I suggest Hoggard would have done a similar job but to have fresh legs to do some very good work can only lift a team. New players coming in bring in enthusiasm and it lifts a team.” They were sentiments that suggested that Southee could yet feature in the final match.The spotlight, however, will be on New Zealand’s batsmen when the third Test gets underway. Not only will it be Stephen Fleming’s swansong after a record-breaking 14-year international career, it will also be a chance for Mathew Sinclair and Matthew Bell to repay the selectors’ faith after sketchy starts to the series. Bell received a further boost after the game when he was awarded a Cricket New Zealand contract, but with a series top-score of 29, he’ll need to keep up his interest payments.”The top five didn’t get the runs we required but thought Mathew [Sinclair] batted well in the second innings,” said Vettori. “I enjoyed how positive he was in trying to get on with the job. That was exciting to see. In saying that, you still need to keep getting the runs to keep getting selected. The selectors have to ask some questions but hopefully those guys have a lot more runs in them, and more chances to score those runs.”

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has questioned why the ICC doesn’t pay for the DRS technology in international cricket and believes they should use one provider across all matches to avoid the inconsistencies in decision-making that have been evident in the Ashes series.Both Australia and England have expressed frustration at several decisions across the series involving Real Time Snicko (RTS) with tensions boiling over during the Adelaide Test.England had a review reinstated by match referee Jeff Crowe on the second morning after BBG Sports, the suppliers of Snicko, conceded operator error had led to an incorrect reprieve for Alex Carey during his opening-day century.Related

• 'Snicko needs to be sacked' – Aussies fume in latest controversy

• England have review reinstated after technology failure on Carey appeal

Another incident occurred on day two that led to Starc being overheard on the stump mic saying “Snicko needs to be sacked” .The ECB and CA plan to lobby the ICC to review its protocols and systems as a result of the error with the issue of the host broadcasters having to pay for the technology set to be a key a discussion point. Starc believes the process needs to be centralised.”I’m sure it’s frustrating for everyone, viewers, officials, broadcasters no doubt,” Starc said. “One thing I will say … I’m only going to speak for myself here, the officials use it, right? So why doesn’t the ICC pay for it? And why is it not just one [provider] across the board? Why don’t we use the same technology in all different series that’s going to perhaps create less confusion, less frustration? So that’s where I’ll leave that.”The ICC has two approved “sound-based edge detection technology” suppliers: RTS, which is used in Australia, and UltraEdge, which is used in the rest of the world. Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, said during the third Test that umpires “can’t trust” RTS and suggested that UltraEdge is superior.Australia captain Pat Cummins was diplomatic, but did note RTS seemed to be different to UltraEdge.”The one here seems a little bit different to sometimes what you get overseas,” Cummins said. “There’s always a few murmurs. You’re hoping that it matches up if you’re the bowling team. Sometimes you kind of just making sure that it’s all okay if you’re batting, even though you feel like you haven’t hit it. It sometimes doesn’t feel super consistent, but you just crack on whatever the umpire says.”Although UltraEdge is used in the BBL, there is no provision to change technology providers mid-series, with RTS set to be used for the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, says his team will not sit back on its 1-0 lead and will aim for a 2-0 result when the Test series concludes in Port of Spain from Thursday. “It is important that we go for a win in the second Test,” Jayawardene told . “This is the way we play cricket. We want to win every match in which we play. This is the attitude with which we play whether we are playing at home or away.”Sri Lanka won their first Test in the West Indies with a 121-run success in Guyana and Jayawardene said the desire to succeed had helped his team post overseas triumphs in recent years “This is the attitude that has helped us in the last few years, and this is why we have been winning Test matches away from home, and we will not move away from this attitude,” he said.”We want to get accustomed to the conditions in Trinidad. We’ll make sure we do all the hard work and challenge West Indies, and see if we can win this Test series 2-0.”A victory would make Sri Lanka the first visiting side to complete a cleansweep in the West Indies. Australia came close five years ago when they won the first three Tests, but a record-breaking chase in the final match in Antigua ended their hopes of a whitewash.Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, said his side needed to be optimistic and tougher than in Guyana. “I believe that if we can remain positive and focus, we can win the Test,” Gayle said. “It’s a must-win situation for us to square the series. We’ll try and see what Sri Lanka has to offer a second time around both in the batting and bowling, so it is just for us to return to the drawing board, and come up with a plan, and come prepared to play a tough Test.”Jayawardene said there would be no let-up in intensity from his side. “We are going to pay attention to all areas of our game, and see where we can tighten-up,” he said. “This is how we work. The first Test is finished, and the next venue is totally different, and conditions will be totally different.”The visitors will be boosted by the familiarity of the Queen’s Park Oval, which reminds them of Muttiah Muralitharan’s home ground. “It is definitely Kandy,” Jayawardene said. “We always enjoy playing in Kandy because the bowlers have a little bit of help, but once the batsmen put up the initial hard work it’s going to be a good batting surface.”Sri Lanka are expected to make one change with Prasanna Jayawardene likely to be forced out with a hamstring injury. “He is struggling, he’s probably 80% fit but he’s a wicketkeeper, he needs to do a lot of work in a Test match, so we have to make a decision,” Mahela Jayawardene said.”We’ve got an adequate replacement. Kumar is a wicketkeeper who can do the job for us, so I don’t think we need to take too many risks in that department. We’ve got the extra batsman, Chamara Silva, who has been scoring runs, it’s a bit unfortunate to leave him out of the first Test team. He will get his opportunity to play and I’m sure he is looking forward to that.”

“It’s just for us to go back to the drawing board and come back really prepared, focused and ready to play a tough Test match in Trinidad.”West Indies captain Chris Gayle is looking for a quick regrouping from his team in time for next week’s second and final Digicel Test match against Sri Lanka at the Queen’s Park Oval. On Wednesday, West Indies lost to the Sri Lankans for the first time on home soil, by 121 runs, at the National Stadium in Providence.But Gayle still saw positives in defeat – the bowling and the general contribution of debutant Sulieman Benn, the half centuries by vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, and the second-innings 83 by Dwayne Bravo, who took Gayle’s place at the top of the order.Questioned about that move, Gayle explained how it came about: “While Bravo was bowling, I went up to him and said (jokingly): ‘Bravo, you want to open the batting?’ And he said, ‘Yeah man, that will be better off for me as well.’ So I decided to exchange positions.”It paid off in the end. He got a half-century, I got a half-century. But it’s not something I’m looking at for the next game, for Bravo to open the batting.”Gayle did admit too to his difficulty against Man-of-the-Match left-arm swing bowler Chaminda Vaas. “It’s no secret. Yes, he has got me out the majority of times in Test cricket whenever I play against Sri Lanka. It’s something you have to face and something you have to deal with. I tried something different, tried something new, coming a bit later when the ball is a bit older, and it worked. But I don’t know if I’m going to do it in the next game.”Gayle’s unbeaten 51 yesterday, however, was not enough to save his side. But he is hopeful that it was the start of better for him against Vaas and company.”The stats haven’t been very good against Sri Lanka, so this is a motivation factor for me, to try and move on from strength to strength.”

Lancashire 96 for 4 v Essex
ScorecardNews that Tom Smith’s back operation promised to be a success lifted a grey Manchester day•Getty Images

As the clans gathered at Cardiff and Yorkshire ran through Warwickshire quicker than stomach trouble on a campsite, one did not have to be a cricketing paranoid to think that the main action was taking place many miles away from Emirates Old Trafford this damp Monday.The only optimistic note of the grey afternoon was struck when it was reported that Tom Smith ‘s back operation had been a success. Smith was appointed Lancashire captain in February but has been able to lead his team in just one championship game this season.Yet the 25.4 overs that were possible on the first day of Lancashire’s Division Two match against Essex were important to players in both teams. By common agreement Lancashire produced their worst championship cricket of the season in last week’s grimy draw against Northamptonshire. Glamorgan, third, may trail by 50 points but they have a couple of games in hand and still have to play Lancashire twice. Ashley Giles will be on the lookout for the least speck of complacency among his players.And as Glamorgan fought their own battle against the weather in the urban pastoral of Queen’s Park, Chesterfield, they may have been heartened to hear of Lancashire’s struggle to a very moderate 96 for 4 against Essex on a day when James Porter added Paul Horton and Karl Brown to the 15 opening batsmen he had already sent packing this season.Porter bowls with a commendably high action and he is not scared to pitch the ball up. Those qualities may have led to him being milked for a few boundaries as the openers added 48 in 8.2 overs on the first morning but they also helped him achieve his successes.The first of these came when Horton pushed forward at a ball which moved enough off the seam to catch the outside edge and fly to the safe hands of Jesse Ryder at first slip; the second arrived just two balls later as Porter’s bounce surprised Karl Brown with the resulting nick being safely cupped by second slip Liam Dawson.If that catch helped Dawson feel that he belonged in the first game of his one-month loan from Hampshire, what happened over the next 15 overs may have turned him into an adopted son of Southend. Summoned into the attack by James Foster in the 16th over of Lancashire’s innings, the slow left-armer’s third ball had Alviro Petersen leg before for 14 when he played back to a delivery to which he might have gone forward.Having lunched on a moderate 92 for 3, the home side’s innings trespassed into outright mediocrity when Ashwell Prince tried to pull the first ball of the afternoon session to the boundary but only bottom-edged it onto his stumps. That gave Dawson his second wicket of a day which was soon to be cut short by the weather. A typically pugnacious clout over mid-on by the new batsman, Alex Davies, was the last scoring shot before a shower sent the players back to the pavilion just before two o’clock.