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Ben Stokes’ phenomenal century for Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL will have spin-off benefits for England’s Champions Trophy campaign, says Eoin Morgan, the one-day captain, who feels the ECB’s belated change of attitude towards overseas leagues has finally been vindicated.Stokes, who became the most expensive overseas signing in IPL history when RPS picked him up for £1.7million at the IPL auction in February, went a long way towards justifying that price tag with a blistering innings of 103 not out from 63 balls against Gujarat Lions at Pune, a performance that rescued his side from 10 for 3 and delivered a five-wicket win with one ball to spare.As a measure of Stokes’ dominance, the next highest score in RPS’s innings of 167 for 5 was 26 from 33 balls from MS Dhoni, with whom Stokes added 76 for the fifth wicket. After the match, RPS’s captain, Steven Smith, hailed Stokes as a “a perfect fit for our team”.Morgan, who has been a long-standing advocate of greater English involvement at the IPL, believes that Stokes will head into the Champions Trophy next month with his confidence sky-high, thanks to the quality of his performance, as well as the calibre of the players with whom he has been mixing for the past four weeks.”It was absolutely incredible,” Morgan said. “You look at why guys go and play in tournaments like this, and it is so that they can produce performances like Ben’s, and sit in the same team as the Australian captain and an Indian legend, and out-perform them.”It builds a huge amount of confidence and it’s a huge stepping block for us as England cricketers because the huge challenge as a professional cricketer is to get to where you aspire to be, and gain the confidence through that to do it again and again. It is a game that’s played in the mind.”Although the Champions Trophy will be played over 50 overs, not 20, Morgan has no doubt about Stokes’ ability to transfer his form to a longer format.”It just proves he can compete with the best,” Morgan said. “Fifty-over cricket has come a long way. The similarities with T20 aren’t that far away, and rubbing shoulders with the best names in the world, outperforming them and growing in confidence playing with them, are two things he’ll have in abundance when he comes back. It makes us grow as a group knowing that we have a player who is potentially the best in the world.”Ben Stokes’ century lit up the IPL•BCCI

Morgan himself has had a less auspicious campaign in this year’s IPL. He flew back from India on Monday to prepare for this week’s ODI series against Ireland, having played just three matches in four weeks for Kings XI Punjab, with a top score of 26.However, unlike Surrey’s Jason Roy, who has opted to cut short his stint with Gujarat Lions and gain 50-over match practice in the Royal London Cup, Morgan plans to return to India next week. His hopes of selection in the coming weeks will be improved by the impending recall of the squad’s contingent of South African players ahead of the Champions Trophy, among them the hard-hitting David Miller.”We’ve a lot of overseas players at the moment so competition for places is tough, but the dynamic will change. I think Jason is a bit further away from playing at the moment, but it’s a decision that we’ve made, and he’s comfortable with what he needs and how he’ll get it.”But now that he is back in the country, and with the first of two ODIs against Ireland taking place in Bristol on Friday, Morgan is impatient to get England’s international summer underway.”It’s very exciting, and it’s something we’ve been looking forward to for quite a while now. I wish it would hurry up and come round, but once we start playing these games it’ll fly round.”I think we are definitely in with a shout [for the Champions Trophy],” he added. “We have all the attributes to go and win the tournament but it’s a ruthless competition, you need to win pretty much every game from group stage and straight through.”It’s come at an important time for us. And it’ll be a good gauge of where we are at as a side. We’ve done a lot of great stuff up until now, but we still have a long way to go before [the] 2019 [World Cup].”

Australia’s vice-captain David Warner has stuck firm to his assertion that the players are prepared to be absent from this summer’s Ashes if the current pay dispute drags into the six months beyond the June 30 expiry of the MOU between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association.”I stick firm behind it,” Warner said in London. “If we are unemployed we have no contracts, we can’t play. So, from my point of view and speaking to the guys, we would love to see something happen between now and July 1 and I am sure that it is in the capable hands of the ACA to get to the table with CA and come to some form of an agreement.”Warner was subjected to plenty of criticism in the wake of his earlier comments about the possibility that CA “might not have a team for the Ashes” if they continued to take a hardline stance on their efforts to break-up the fixed revenue percentage pay model that has existed for the past two decades.Subsequent reports focused on Warner’s handsome pay packet and its attendant extravagances of property and cars. He noted that a prickly past had prepared him for being able to brush those barbs aside while pushing to ensure that domestic and international players are not divided into separate camps as per CA’s current pay offer.”It comes with my background and my history with that kind of stuff. So you know, it is water off a duck’s back,” Warner said. “I have a verbal stance, to stick up for all our players, and we are always talking about a fair share and equality. And that’s what we are sticking to.”People have their own opinions and they can have those opinions, and for me, what has been written about me in the past or what gets written now, I don’t take any notice of that. My full support is with all the guys, and we’re all together.”We’ve always said from day one that all the support is behind the ACA 100%. They are doing a great job for us. Obviously, from a players’ point of view, we are pretty vocal and upbeat about it. We are pretty sure that they will come to an agreement. But as you know, we are going to be unemployed come July 1. So we have to wait and see and play it out from there.”In refusing to back down from his words about the Ashes, Warner said that the players were committed to letting the ACA act as their collective bargaining agent and were not entertaining the thought of any direct negotiations with CA. Instead, he said, members of the Champions Trophy squad were hearing of CA’s tactics via media reports.”Not really. It is only what we hear in the media and that’s how CA have been driving it the whole way,” Warner said. “They have been using the media as a voice and we get that message from there. As you said, we get a couple of emails.”A rusty display in the rain-curtailed opening match against New Zealand suggested Australia’s players may struggle to keep their minds focused in the midst of the dispute over their futures. However, Warner was adamant that events between the two negotiating teams over the next four weeks would not divert from efforts to win in England.”For us, we galvanise all the time – it doesn’t matter what is going on outside of the game,” he said. “It is a big thing that we could be unemployed but from us, our job is to play cricket and focus on winning the tournament and not letting our country down in that respect. So as I said, our full mental frame is toward the tournament.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA maiden ODI century from Niall O’Brien was not enough for Ireland to claim another Full Member scalp as a weakened New Zealand opened their tri-series with a 51-run victory. O’Brien, playing his 85th match, brought up his century with a six but left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner collected a maiden five-wicket haul as the lower order collapsed.New Zealand were propelled to 289 for 7 by Neil Broom’s 63-ball 79 which built on half-centuries from George Worker and Ross Taylor who added 84 for the third wicket. Ireland kept control for the middle 30 overs of the innings with the late acceleration coming in a stand of 79 in 9.1 overs between Broom and James Neesham.Scott Kuggeleijn, one of two debutants for New Zealand, who were missing up to eight players from their Champions Trophy squad, set back Ireland’s chase with two early wickets and then spin made inroads after O’Brien and Andy Balbirnie had added 86 for the third wicket.Kuggeleijn’s promising first outing continued when he struck first ball back to remove Gary Wilson, ending a stand of 75 in 11 overs which was setting Ireland up, and from there it was down to O’Brien. His fifth six – New Zealand only struck one in their entire innings – took him to three figures off 124 balls but when he became Santner’s fourth wicket the game was up. The last five wickets fell for 26 runs.New Zealand raced out of the blocks having been put into bat. Luke Ronchi, returning to the opening position – where he averaged a little over eight before this match – in the absence of Martin Guptill, dominated the early scoring. He was on 25 off 18 balls before Tom Latham, the stand-in captain, opened his account, but was cut off on 37 when he gave a catch to cover point off Barry McCarthy.McCarthy struck again in his next over when Latham edged behind to leave New Zealand 55 for 2. Worker and Taylor did not try anything extravagant during their partnership; Taylor’s half-century came from 56 deliveries but Worker’s maiden ODI fifty was a much more sluggish affair, taking 88 balls to arrive. Neither, however, converted their starts into something more substantial. Taylor popped a catch to point and Worker, after hinting at finding some fluency with consecutive boundaries to reach his fifty, picked out deep square leg.George Dockrell and Kevin O’Brien had been especially effective in slowing the scoring. Dockrell sent down a nine-over spell for 33 – he had bowled his first over inside the opening Powerplay, conceding two boundaries, but his remaining overs did not include another.However, a return to extra pace increased the tempo as Broom started to find his range. He took 19 off the 44th over from Peter Chase – which was interrupted by a shower – including the only six of the innings to bring up his half-century and was also dropped the next ball after play resumed. He was making a late dip for three figures when he was run-out by Paul Stirling.Broom lost his place in New Zealand’s one-day side during the series against South Africa after three single-figure scores. He may struggle for a starting position at the Champions Trophy, but this was a timely innings to lift his confidence.New Zealand opened the bowling with two debutants for just the second time in ODIs other than their first ever match in the format. Kuggeleijn struck with the last ball of his second over when he had William Porterfield taken at second slip, then burst one through Paul Stirling who had just deposited fellow new-boy Seth Rance over square leg for a huge six.The recovery was going nicely between O’Brien and Balbirnie when rain intervened, but on resumption O’Brien continued his aggression with a six off Santner over long-on. It was spin, though, which broke through when Balbirnie got a top edge into his helmet that looped back to Santner and Ish Sodhi trapped Kevin O’Brien for 1.But Ireland did not sit back – in fact, they upped the tempo. Santner’s sixth over was taken for 15, mostly by O’Brien, and Wilson was comfortably above a run-a-ball before carving to cover which exposed Ireland’s uncertain batting depth. Simi Singh was on debut at No. 7 and probably needed a touch more composure than the charge which saw him stumped when O’Brien was in the 90s.From there, the end came pretty swiftly as Santner had Dockrell superbly caught at midwicket by Latham then removed O’Brien – a few moments after he was dropped in the deep – and McCarthy in the space of four balls. Rance had the satisfaction of sealing the victory with his maiden ODI wicket when he pinned Chase lbw.

Umar Akmal’s international career appears to be at crossroads after the PCB omitted him from the list of 35 centrally contracted players for the year starting July 1, 2017. He was the most notable omission from the list, with his fitness having been a major concern for much of his career.Akmal was originally named in the Champions Trophy squad but was axed after failing two fitness tests leading up to the start of the tournament in England. Akmal had previously been dropped from a tour of the West Indies in April for similar reasons. He was excluded from that squad after he was the only player, out of 31, to fail the fitness test during a camp held at the National Cricket Academy in March.

The Central Contracts list

• Category A: Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Amir
  Category B: Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Asad Shafiq, Hasan Ali

• Category C: Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Haris Sohail, Sami Aslam, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Junaid Khan, Ahmed Shahzad, Mohammad Abbas, Shahdab Khan

• Category D: Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Zakir, Usman Salahuddin, Amir Yamin, Usman Shinwari, Faheem Ashraf, Ruman Raees, Imam-ul-Haq, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza, Umer Amin, Mohammad Hasan, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Rizwan

He was named in the national high performance camp organised by the NCA but pulled out, citing a knee injury. He informed the relevant officials – including head coach Mushtaq Ahmed – and excused himself for five weeks, during which he intends to undergo rehabilitation with his private trainer in England.The selectors have handed out 15 new central contracts, with 10 players including now retired Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan dropped from the previous list of 30. Junaid Khan, who had been axed last year has been offered a Category C contract, while fellow left-arm fast bowlers Wahab Riaz and Rahat Ali have been demoted from Category B to C. Pakistan’s lead seamer Mohammad Amir, meanwhile, was given an A grade contract.Babar Azam and Imad Wasim were promoted from Category C to B while openers Sami Aslam and Shan Masood were retained in Category C along with Mohammad Nawaz – who has served out his two-month ban for failing to report an approach in the PSL 2017. The monetary value of the monthly retainer has also been increased by 10% for all categories.”The central contracts were awarded after keeping in mind the performances, fitness, and discipline of the players,” the PCB said in a statement. “A number of young players have been awarded central contracts this year keeping in mind that the national teams in all formats will be going through a transitional period after a number of retirements from last year’s central contract list.”The selectors have also picked an additional wicketkeeper, Mohammad Hasan, in the list along with Sarfraz Ahmed – captain in all three formats – and Mohammad Rizwan, who was demoted from Category C to D.Usman Salahuddin, who was given a contract in 2012 before fading away, has once more returned to national contention. As a possible contender for one of the vacancies in the Test team’s middle order, he was given a Category D contract. Umar Amin, who has also been absent from the central contracts list for the past few years, returns in Category D. Bilal Asif, who was included in Category D, is the only off-spinner among the 35 players to be offered central contracts.The PCB has named chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq’s nephew Imam-ul-Haq in the emerging players category. He recently had a productive stint with Pakistan Under-23, scoring two back-to-back hundreds in Bangladesh. Asif Zakir, a batsman from Karachi, has also been rewarded with a Category D contract for successive prolific domestic seasons after he scored 791 runs in 10 first-class matches in 2015-16 at an average of 56.50, and 853 first runs at 85.30 in 2016-17.

Reeza Hendricks carried his bat through•Getty Images

Reeza Hendricks smashed an unbeaten 173, his ninth List A century, as South Africa ‘A’ crushed Afghanistan ‘A’ by 164 runs in Pretoria to secure their second win of the tri-series.Hendricks, who carried his bat through the innings, struck 14 fours and five sixes in his 145-ball knock as the hosts posted 336 for 5 after being put in to bat. Afghanistan ‘A’ had as many as six batsman crossing double digits, with the highest being Rahmat Shah’s 55 at No. 3. They were bowled out for 172 in 32.2 overs with Tabraiz Shamsi, the left-arm wristspinner, taking 4 for 19.Afghanistan ‘A’ were up against it right from the outset as Hendricks and Henry Davids put on 79 for the opening wicket in 13 overs to set the platform. Mangaliso Mosehle was out for 17 but each of the other batsmen got among the runs. The middle-order lift was provided by Khaya Zondo, the captain, who made a 55-ball 62 during the course of a 135-run stand with Hendricks. The last 15 overs fetched them 144.Afghanistan ‘A’ were rocked early when Dwaine Pretorius struck in the second over to remove Javed Ahmadi. He made it a double-strike by dismissing Usman Ghani in the sixth over. Rahmat hit five fours and a six to raise a half-century, but was trapped lbw by Shamsi to trigger a middle-order slide.Najibullah Zadran (26), Afsar Zazai (24) and Shafiqullah (16) got off to starts but fell to expose the lower order. The innings was wrapped up when Dane Paterson bowled last man Fareed Ahmad to finish with three wickets.Afghanistan ‘A’ have now lost both their matches in the tri-series. They take on India ‘A’ in their next outing on August 1 at the same venue – the LC de Villiers Oval.

The PCB is set to take the BCCI to the ICC’s dispute resolution panel, with the two boards having failed to resolve their long-standing issue of not fulfilling a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral tours. The matter was initially meant to be resolved through a “good faith negotiation”, but has dragged on with the boards not finding common ground. The PCB has also weighed up all legal options by hiring a UK-based law firm to take the matter to court if it cannot be settled in the corridors of the ICC.”This process which is under the aegis of the ICC has now reached its final point,” the PCB chairman Najam Sethi said, sitting beside the ICC CEO David Richardson on the sidelines of the second T20I between Pakistan and the World XI. “We’ve had our last meetings with India and the last one was under the chairmanship of [former BCCI president and current ICC chairman Shashank] Manohar. That process is over and the next stage will begin. We are in active consultation with our lawyers and I and others are recording our statements with our lawyers.”Within a month or two months at most, we will go back to the ICC – we have in fact written a letter already asking for the nomination of a three-member board that will look at all these issues. We have nominated one member already. This process is active and we intend to pursue it to its logical outcome.”According to the ICC’s terms of reference, both boards have to get into discussions to resolve a dispute amicably. A failure to find a solution within two months, however, would result in the matter being referred to the ICC dispute resolution panel, which will form a three-member board to hear the case. The decision of will be binding on all parties and cannot be appealed.The PCB and BCCI had signed an MoU in 2014 to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. Four of those series were to be hosted by Pakistan and the six series contained up to 14 Tests, 30 ODIs and 12 T20Is. The cycle was scheduled to start with Pakistan hosting two Tests and five ODIs at a mutually acceptable venue. But the MoU included the understanding that all series are subject to government approval and India’s, reportedly, is not keen to give the BCCI a go-ahead amid strained relations between the two countries.Both sides continue to play each other in multi-team events but have not played a full series since the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Pakistan visited India for a limited-overs series in December 2012, which was seen as a stepping stone to reviving cricketing ties between the countries, but there have been no bilateral meetings since amid further border tensions.The leadership of both boards, mediated by the ICC director Giles Clarke, made an attempt to arrange a series in December 2015 with Sri Lanka as a possible venue. But the BCCI remained unresponsive to the PCB and the series was scrapped without official confirmation from India. Pakistan, meanwhile, are set to skip their tour of India next year, with the PCB firm that the cycle of bilateral tours has to begin with them as hosts.Richardson said the ICC would play a facilitating role in trying to resolve the dispute.”As you know when it comes to ICC events there is no question – if India are drawn against Pakistan, they will play,” he said. “On the question of bilateral series between the countries, all bilateral series are agreed upon a bilateral basis. I understand that at the moment diplomatic relations between the two are not as rosy as they could be. For now anyway it seems the BCCI, without the positive affirmation from their government, don’t believe it is the time to play against Pakistan.”I know the PCB has been talking to the BCCI for a number of years to arrange tours with India, in Pakistan or neutral venues. The PCB have filed a complaint under the ICC dispute resolution process which is a mechanism we have to deal with any disputes between member countries. That process is a work in progress. At the moment ICC’s role in this is to facilitate in any dispute – we don’t like our members fighting with each other, being in dispute. We have a process to deal with it and we need to let it take its course.”Pakistan have been playing their home matches at neutral venues, mostly in the UAE, since the 2009 attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore. In 2015, Zimbabwe became the first international team to tour Pakistan since the attack. Now, players from seven major Test nations, along with the ICC, have joined hands to form a World XI team for the cause of bringing international cricket back to Pakistan. India is the only major country apart from Zimbabwe to not feature in the World XI team brought together and coached by Andy Flower.Richardson acknowledged the difficulties of including Indian players in the World XI.”You cannot ignore the political situation that is between India and Pakistan at the moment and the difficulties that might exist,” he said. “India is about to tour Australia and this tour was sandwiched between a very busy FTP [Future Tours Programme]. One of the reasons why many South Africans are in this team is because they haven’t been playing recently. In India’s case they genuinely are a very busy country. From a political point of view, obviously, if an Indian player would have been a part of this tour you can imagine the level of focus he would have attracted and the pressures it would have brought from the security point of view. I think Andy Flower and the PCB have taken a practical approach.”

Danushka Gunathilaka’s suspension for six white-ball matches has been revised to three games, following a meeting of Sri Lanka Cricket’s executive committee in Colombo on Monday. The remaining three matches are part of a suspended sentence over a one-year period, which could come into force in the event of any further disciplinary breaches. He has also been fined 20% of his annual contract fee. The executive committee’s decision came after an appeal on behalf of the player by the Sinhalese Sports Club.The suspension, which was handed out earlier this month, was the reason behind his omission from the squad for the ongoing series against Pakistan. ESPNcricinfo understands Gunathilaka missed a training session, turned up to a match without his gear, and was generally found to have had an indifferent attitude towards training – all during Sri Lanka’s recent home series against India. This was his first serious case of misconduct.The matter was brought to SLC’s notice by Asanka Gurusinha, the cricket manager, and was taken up board’s CEO, Ashley de Silva.Gunathilaka has averaged 42.41 in ODIs this year. He was particularly prolific during the home series against Zimbabwe in June, hitting three half-centuries and a maiden ODI ton in Sri Lanka’s 2-3 loss.

Avon and Somerset Police have reissued their appeal for two witnesses to come forward in the wake of the incident in Bristol last month that led to Ben Stokes’ arrest on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm.Stokes, 26, was last week withdrawn from England’s Ashes squad pending further police investigation into the events that took place outside Mbargo nightclub in the Clifton area of Bristol in the early hours of September 25.Video footage, released by The Sun, purported to show Stokes throwing punches at two men, one of whom appeared to be armed with a bottle. The kit supplier New Balance has since withdrawn its sponsorship of the player, which was believed to be worth approximately £200,000 per year.Stokes’ England team-mate, Alex Hales, who was present at the time of the incident, has also been made unavailable for selection by the ECB, although his lawyer last week said he would be “surprised” if he faced further action.Stokes last week issued a statement, through his agent Neil Fairbrother, in which he promised to give a full explanation of his actions “when the time is right”.It is understood Stokes has claimed, both to the police and to the ECB in their internal investigation, that he was coming to the aid of two men who had been subjected to homophobic abuse prior to the incident.And now, following a previous appeal on September 28 for two key witnesses to come forward, Somerset and Avon Police have reiterated their appeal in a follow-up post on their Twitter feed.The two men in question were seen leaving the nightclub at 2.19am, according to the police statement, and were walking in the direction of Queens Road with two other men.”One of the men is described as white, of slim build, 5ft 9in tall and aged in his early 20s. He had short dark brown hair, was clean shaven and wore a white T-shirt with a sleeveless jumper, jeans and trainers,” the statement continued.”The second man is also white, 5ft 9in tall and aged in his early 20s but is of a slightly larger build. He had short light brown hair, was also clean shaven and wore a long-sleeved round neck T-shirt, dark/black skinny jeans and trainers.”

Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer said his team was “quite happy with a draw” in the second Test match against West Indies in Bulawayo, and any thoughts of a sporting declaration were shelved after Sikandar Raza was bowled by Jason Holder for 89 shortly after lunch on the fifth afternoon.”It’s disappointing to lose a Test series, but we were behind for a lot of this Test match, so credit to the guys for fighting,” Cremer said. “We were quite happy with a draw in the end, and we didn’t feel we had quite enough runs to declare. And it’s probably not a wicket where you can bowl a side out in 30 overs.”There were thoughts of a declaration, but we know it’s quite hard to take 10 wickets in 50 overs, let alone 30, so after Raza got out we almost had to shut up shop there and just take overs out of the game to make sure we couldn’t lose the Test match.”Zimbabwe might have been more tempted to bowl a second time on the final day if the pitch had dusted up and deteriorated as much as expected. As it turned out, there seemed to be more turn on the first two days than the last three, and though there was some inconsistent bounce the pitch became more and more placid.”The pitch definitely held together more than we thought it would,” Cremer said. “It started keeping a bit low, but it didn’t do as much as we thought it might on day five.”Despite losing the series 1-0, both Cremer and Zimbabwe coach Heath Streak were pleased with the individual performances and the improvement shown to draw the second Test.”The more you play, the more you realize how much time there is in a Test match,” Cremer said. “In the first Test, we were a little too aggressive, and didn’t back our defence against spin. But we got better, as we saw in this Test match. It is a learning curve, hopefully we’ll take this experience into the [Boxing Day] South Africa Test match.”All in all, lots of positives,” Streak added. “Raza did well, Chakabva came through today. Hamilton Masakadza got a big hundred. Kyle Jarvis was outstanding in the first Test. Chris Mpofu with the ball, and with the bat.”Regis Chakabva spilled a couple of chances with the gloves but came back with the bat to help Zimbabwe battle to a draw. “It was a tough wicket to keep on, and especially Graeme and (Tendai) Chisoro have a lot of variations,” Streak said. “TC bowls quickly, Graeme’s got googlies and stuff. With the wicket being up and down and turning so much, it’s tough to sustain [wicketkeeping] over a lengthy period.”The grit he showed today, and the composure and determination to stick it out was exemplary. Hopefully we can build on that. Lance Klusener spoke to him about trusting his game, trusting his defence, trusting his attacking shots and not trying to play in fast forward. He had a really good game and hopefully he can continue to build on that.”Zimbabwe missed Kyle Jarvis in the second match to ankle injury, and chose an attack heavily weighted towards spin. However, Streak was confident he would have more fast bowling options to choose from for Zimbabwe’s next Test engagement, against South Africa on Boxing Day.”We’ll hopefully have a few more guys available to us,” Streak said. “Carl Mumba has been out, I’m not sure where he’ll be by then. We’ve got guys performing well, like Richard Ngarava. Tendai Chatara was injured so he wasn’t really in consideration here, but hopefully he’ll be back in consideration for that Test series. We know what he’s capable of. Brian Vitori is also due to do his re-test [of his bowling action]. So we should have more options at that time.”

ScorecardPCB

SNGPL beat WAPDA by 103 runs to clinch their third Quaid-e-Azam trophy title in four years.The hard work had been done on Sunday, where the core of WAPDA’s batting line-up was dismantled. This left Mohammad Hafeez’s side needing only three wickets to regain the trophy. They faced a hint of resistance on Monday, but weren’t to be denied in the end.Samiullah Khan, the left-arm fast bowler, took all three remaining wickets to post career-best figures of 8 for 62, as Salman Butt’s side’s title defence came to an end.Any thoughts of a competitive final day had been killed off late on the fourth evening in a spectacular 19-ball collapse that saw WAPDA reduced from 86 for three to 86 for 7, with all their recognised batsmen dismissed.Khushdil Shah fell off the third ball on the final day before dogged partnership between Wahab Riaz and Khalid Usman took the hosts past 150. However, Samiullah returned to dismiss Wahab before taking the final wicket in the 11th over of the day to complete a 11-for.For a man who played two internationals for Pakistan nearly ten years ago, it was a sweet career-high in his twilight years.