Non-wide in Mumbai's final over stirs Rohit's emotions RSBL

Mumbai Indians needed 17 runs off the last over against Rising Pune Supergiant to complete their seventh straight win in IPL 2017, but their pursuit received a jolt on the first ball as Hardik Pandya holed out to deep extra cover. Their captain Rohit Sharma, though, had piloted Mumbai's chase up to that point and was intent on seeing things through. With one almighty swing at Jaydev Unadkat's slower ball, he brought the equation down to 11 off four balls.

Unadkat's next delivery was going to be another slower one, but having seen Rohit shuffle across the stumps, he pushed it wide. Rohit, on the other hand, realised that the ball was veering away from the guideline for wide deliveries, and left it alone. However, when umpire S Ravi didn't call it a wide, Rohit shrugged in disbelief, and remonstrated with Ravi even as the square-leg umpire A Nand Kishore intervened. With 11 needed off three balls now, Rohit miscued a slog and was caught-and-bowled for a 39-ball 58, and eventually Mumbai went down by three runs.

In the post-match media interaction, Harbhajan Singh and Ajinkya Rahane, representing Mumbai and Rising Pune respectively, had contrasting views on the legality of the contentious delivery. Neither player, however, felt Rohit's animated conversation with the umpire was a serious transgression.

"I think it was the right call," Rahane said. "Because, as a batsman when you move [across the stumps], that area outside [the off stump] goes to the bowler. Rohit's behaviour at that point was natural. As a captain, as a player, when the game is so close, it comes automatically; nobody does it deliberately. I don't think there was anything wrong with his behaviour, but the umpire's call was right too, for us.

"It happens on the field and remains on the field. In this format, in close games, this will happen in the future as well. You should respect the umpire's decision as well as whatever Rohit did that was completely natural."

Harbhajan also said Rohit was only checking with the umpire what the rule was. "He didn't shout at the umpire or ask why it wasn't given a wide," he said. "He just wanted to know where he should stand for the wide to be called and he was told that the amount he moves is the amount of margin the bowler gets."

While Harbhajan felt the ball was fairly wide off the guideline, he said the umpire's decision had to be respected. "I don't really know if it was actually a wide ball or not," he said. "I feel if both the legs of the batsmen move across the stumps, then the bowler should get the [benefit of the] margin. But, if you see, only one leg of the batsman went across, so I feel it should have been a wide. But, in the end, whatever is the umpire's decision we have to move on with it."

Harbhajan, though, didn't agree with the suggestion that the argument over the wide had led to a loss of momentum for Mumbai.

"I don't think momentum was lost, because Rohit was hitting the ball nicely, but [it was] unfortunate that he ended up hitting the [next] ball straight up in the air," he said. "Cricket is a game where anything is possible. Just before that he hit a big six and a similar sort of ball went up and he got out. At that point all you need to do as a batsman was see the ball and hit the ball, and Rohit was batting on 50-odd."

While Harbhajan admitted that the penultimate over, where Ben Stokes conceded only seven runs, was crucial, Rahane revealed the thinking behind giving Unadkat the ball in the last over. He said Unadkat was preferred to Shardul Thakur because of his relatively slower pace.

"I think after the 19th over when [Steven] Smith, Mahi bhai [MS Dhoni] and I were discussing, we talked about bowling Shardul or Jaydev," Rahane said. "But we opted to bowl Jaydev because Shardul has quite a bit of pace, and we wanted to take the pace off and not give the batsmen any in the last over.

"JD's pace comparatively is slower than Shardul and his slower ball could be more effective as the wicket was slow. We didn't want to give them any pace because Rohit was already set. One side [of the ground] was very short, so that was the plan for the last over."

The dismissals of Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya were also a result of smart thinking and understanding of angles. Rising Pune had three fielders in the V for Pollard - a long-off almost right behind the bowler in addition to a conventional long-off and long-on - and as many fielders on the bigger off-side boundary for Pandya.

"We knew Pollard doesn't play the lap sweep, so we wanted to keep two fielders straight - one right on the sightscreen and one slightly wider," Rahane said. "That worked for us. For Hardik, he likes to play over covers and the boundaries were bigger too, so that's why we brought square leg in and had three fielders on the line on the offside."

Kieran Powell recalled to West Indies Test squad RSBL

Leeward Islands batsman Kieran Powell is in line to play his first Test in nearly three years after being recalled to the West Indies squad for the first match against Pakistan at Sabina Park beginning on Friday. The uncapped batting pair of Vishaul Singh and Shimron Hetmyer have also joined Powell in the 13-man squad, after all three batsmen made runs in the warm-up game against Pakistan.

Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo and Leon Johnson were dropped from the squad that toured the UAE for three Tests against Pakistan in October.

West Indies chairman of selectors Courtney Browne said, "We have a young Test squad, which was admirably led by Jason Holder during the last series and, though there are some noticeable absentees, we believe that the players will give a good account of themselves especially in their own backyard."

Powell, 27, last played Test cricket in 2014 and briefly quit cricket altogether not long afterward in a failed attempt to break into baseball in America. He returned to the West Indies domestic scene last summer in the Caribbean Premier League with St Kitts & Nevis Patriots, and then finished as the leading scorer in the Regional Super50 competition in February, with 513 runs in eight innings at 64.12. He earned a recall to the West Indies ODI team for the three-match series against England in March and was subsequently picked for the ODI series against Pakistan earlier this month.

Powell's form in the domestic four-day competition is not as solid as his one-day record this season, with 342 runs at 28.50 and just two half-centuries. However, he produced scores of 58 and 84 not out for the West Indies President's XI in the drawn three-day tour match against Pakistan that concluded on Tuesday.

"We are happy to be able to give a recall to Kieran Powell for one of the opening slots, although he did not have the best regional first-class season," Browne said. "He showed for the President's XI that his experience can add value to our team.

"West Indies cricket has invested heavily in him over the years and with the void of openers within the Caribbean, the panel felt a need to fast track him through our A-Team programme last year with a view in helping him to bridge that gap."

Singh, a 28-year old right-hand batsman from Guyana, similarly had an underwhelming season in the domestic four-day competition, with 317 runs at 26.41 and a best of 71. However, he was the third-highest scorer in the 2015-16 season with 712 runs at 50.85 and three centuries. Like Powell, he also produced a strong performance for the West Indies President's XI, making an unbeaten 135 in the first innings.

"Vishal has been one of the more consistent batsmen in the Regional 4-Day Tournament over the last few seasons and had a very good A-Team series against Sri Lanka last year," Browne said. "His hundred over the weekend for the WICB President's XI against the Pakistanis helped to fortify in our minds that he has a place in our squad. He gives us the option of a solid middle-order batsman around whom our more free-scoring players can bat."

Hetmyer, 20, captained West Indies to the 2016 Under-19 World Cup title in Bangladesh last year and had a promising campaign for Guyana in the four-day competition, scoring 496 runs at 38.15 including four half-centuries in 15 innings. He has just one first-class hundred in his 17-match career, but it came against Jamaica in the last match of the 2015-16 season to clinch the four-day title for Guyana.

The ascension of Hetmyer coincides with the continuing impasse between Bravo and the WICB. Bravo was the second-highest scorer for West Indies in the Test series against Pakistan in October, but had his match contract cancelled for criticising WICB President Dave Cameron on Twitter in November. Browne said in January that Bravo would not be considered for selection again until the dispute was settled.

Also dropped from the previous Test squad against Pakistan were Carlos Brathwaite and Jomel Warrican. Though he was part of the Test squad in the UAE, Brathwaite didn't play any of the matches and his last appearance in the format was against India in Antigua last July. He is currently at the IPL and West Indies coach Stuart Law said he had been left out of the ODI squad ahead of the Test series to work on improving his fitness and bowling.

WI squad for first Test
Jason Holder (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich (wk), Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Kieran Powell, Vishaul Singh

In: Shimron Hetmyer, Kieran Powell, Vishaul Singh

Out: Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Leon Johnson, Marlon Samuels, Jomel Warrican

West Indies look to end 26-year RSBL

Big Picture

Pakistan ended a run of four consecutive ODI defeats with a thumping win in the second ODI against the West Indies. In doing so, they ensured that whatever the outcome of the deciding contest, they will remain in the eighth and final automatic qualification place for the 2019 World Cup at the end of the series. However, this alone is unlikely to satisfy their legion of fans, many of whom had been expecting the series against a significantly weakened West Indies side to be a cakewalk. Instead, it has become a bit of a dogfight, and anything less than a win for Pakistan to protect a proud 26-year unbeaten series record against their hosts would be seen as a failure.

West Indies will bemoan a failure to keep wickets in hand to give themselves a chance of chasing down Pakistan in the second ODI. Much of that was down to a tactically odd - poor, frankly - decision to take the attack to Pakistan's bowlers right from the start, and continue to do so in spite of losing wickets in clumps. As such, they were well out of the game before their innings reached the halfway mark, and meant that Ashley Nurse and Jason Holder's rearguards weren't going to do any more than restore respectability in defeat. The good news for them is they have one more chance to seal a series win, and because of that, the decider can safely be billed as the biggest limited-overs home game they will play this season.

Form guide

West Indies LWLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan WLLLL

In the spotlight

Evin Lewis has been riding the wave of his 51-ball 91 in the third T20I, but he has endured a frustrating lack of consistency around that knock. He scored 29 runs in three ODIs against England earlier this season, and, aside from that 91, has only managed one international score above 15 this year - 47 in the first ODI against Pakistan. The 25-year old's talent is obvious to anyone who remembers his demolition of the Indian bowling attack in Florida last year, where a 49-ball century set his side up for a one-run win. He could be due another explosive innings, and with the series on the line, the third ODI wouldn't be a bad time to get going.

Sarfraz Ahmed got a fair bit of attention during the second ODI, despite a fairly quiet game both with bat and behind the gloves. What caught people's eyes (or more accurately, ears) were his bellowed instructions to fielders almost every single ball, and his hands-on approach with the bowlers, particularly Shadab Khan. Despite Pakistan looking set for a comfortable win, the skipper looked unhappy for most of the West Indies' innings, and much of the body language appeared, at least to an outsider, to be damagingly negative. The third match is a pressure game, and there will be plenty of focus on the newly appointed ODI captain to get the best out of his side, and whether he changes his approach in order to do that. It hasn't helped that the 29-year old has had a quiet period with the bat that has carried on from the PSL, and though it has slipped under the radar so far, it is unlikely to remain that way for too much longer.

Team news

Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul has been added to the squad as cover for fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, who was seen clutching his hamstring during the second ODI and left the field after finishing his ten overs. Gabriel is scheduled to undergo treatment and will have a fitness test on the morning of the match. The hosts, however, do have a like-for-like replacement in Miguel Cummins, who may make his first appearance this series.

West Indies (possible): 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Chadwick Walton, 3 Kieran Powell, 4 Shai Hope (wk), 5 Jason Mohammad, 6 Jonathan Carter, 7 Jason Holder (capt), 8 Ashley Nurse, 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Alzarri Joseph, 11 Miguel Cummins/Shannon Gabriel

Pakistan may decide to stick with the side that levelled the series, especially since there were no glaringly poor performances. Junaid Khan, who came in for Wahab, bowled better than his figures suggested, and is expected to keep his place.

Pakistan (possible): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Kamran Akmal, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Junaid Khan

Pitch and conditions

All bets are off with the Providence Stadium's new pitch, which yielded two starkly different contests in just three days. However, there are showers expected for parts of the afternoon, and a curtailed contest is possible.

Stats and trivia

Pakistan's record in bilateral series deciders since 2003 has been quite poor. In 14 series-deciding final matches, they have lost 12 and won just 2 - both against Zimbabwe.
Babar Azam has the most runs (1306) after 25 ODIs by any batsman. The previous highest was by Jonathan Trott, who scored 1280 runs in the same period.

RSBL Watson to stand in as Royal Challengers captain

Australian allrounder Shane Watson has been named interim captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The franchise has had to dig deep into its contingency plans over the past week. When it was learnt that the shoulder injury that Virat Kohli sustained would rule him out of the initial stages of the tournament, coach Daniel Vettori had said AB de Villiers would captain the team.

But de Villiers was ruled out of the opening game of the season, against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5. He had missed playing the final of the Momentum Cup, South Africa's premier one-day tournament, on Friday with a back injury, according to a tweet from CSA. And though he has joined the franchise in Bengaluru and was among the players who trained at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, Vettori thought it was best to give de Villiers more time to recuperate.

"He still has some minor discomfort and we felt that couple of days off would be best before we have him back in action," Vettori said. "We hope to see him on the field in good form by 8th April match against Delhi Daredevils."

Meanwhile, 19-year old batsman Sarfaraz Khan sustained an injury to his leg at practice on Monday and had to be stretchered off the field. He is likely to miss IPL 2017.

Royal Challengers face defending champions Sunrisers in a rematch of last season's final on Wednesday. The team's chairman Amrit Thomas has said Kohli will be travelling with the team as a mentor.