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.

RSBL First innings letdown put us in a spot

The Australian players may have enough time to reflect on the missed opportunities that - barring a miraculous performance on Tuesday morning- will likely cost them a series victory.

The game seemed finely balanced when Australia began their second innings, trailing India by 32 runs, but the batting line-up crumbled under a sustained assault of both short-pitched bowling and spin. Steven Smith's dismissal - he misjudged the length of a Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery and was bowled - was the catalyst for a collapse that gave Australia a meagre lead of 105 to defend.

There was hope when Glenn Maxwell counter-attacked to score 45, but Australia lost five for 31, including his dismissal, with Matthew Wade running out of partners. By stumps, India had all 10 wickets in hand and now require a mere 87 runs to clinch the series and regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"Just stating the obvious, you could hear a pin drop in the dressing room," Australia batting coach Graeme Hick said. "A very disappointing day. There is always a chance until the final ball is bowled. But yeah, a hard day today. The boys are pretty down but they will give it a good crack in the morning and you never know. But it is a tough ask.

"You know when you come here, there is the danger of losing wickets in clumps. The hardest part is getting yourself in, getting that first half hour out of the way and then making sure you do the job. I think if I look back over this game and one or two others in the series, I will say we missed an opportunity and left some runs there in the first innings.

"From a 130 for 1 on the first day to only put 300 on the board... if we had another 100 runs, 150 runs in that first innings, then we are in the game tomorrow. So while today was very disappointing, it's not the only reason why we find ourselves in this position."

Australia stuttered right at the start in their second innings when David Warner, after being dropped for the second time in the match by Karun Nair at third slip, drove hard at Umesh Yadav in the fourth over and edged to Wriddhiman Saha. It capped off a disappointing tour for the opener - he has averaged 24.12 for the series, compared to his overall average of 47.42. He did little to change a growing perception that he struggles away from home.

"Obviously David will be very disappointed with his aggregate on tour," Hick said. "He is a very aggressive player, that's the way he likes to play and the way we like to him play. He was desperate to have a very big tour and to have a very big influence here.

"Whether he put himself under a bit too much pressure to do so, only he can answer that. He will reflect on it, as champions do, and feel and assess it himself. But without a doubt, he is one of our major players and you would have hoped for a little bit more from him but he was challenged.

"It is tough up front, [Ravindra] Jadeja into the rough, [R] Ashwin bowls really well at him. [They] certainly questioned him. That's the beauty of the game, it puts these challenges up between great players and makes it very interesting to watch. David will obviously be very disappointed with the way things have gone."

But the critical blow was the loss of Smith's wicket. The Australian captain has accumulated 499 runs in the series - more than anyone else - and his outstanding form has arguably papered over any weaknesses in Australia's relatively new-look top six. He had just dispatched consecutive Bhuvneshwar deliveries to the boundary before his dismissal and there was no middle-order stand to provide a Ranchi-style rearguard action.

"You'll look back, and in hindsight in this series, and say that we have been a bit reliant on him, but there again, you've had some great contributions and performances," Hick said. "Saving the game in the last Test, with [Peter] Handscomb and [Shaun] Marsh was as good as any hundred that Steve Smith scored, in those conditions and that pressure. Yeah, the scorecards will show that Steve Smith has had an amazing series and it has looked that way.

"He's just playing wonderful cricket at the moment. He asked me in the dressing room and I just said I think you're just playing too well. You're seeing the ball like a football and hitting it to all parts of the grounds. He's just playing beautifully.

"Steve Smith is a huge wicket for us, especially in the form he's in. Yeah, he'll be disappointed, as would anyone else. But yeah, very unfortunate for us because he's had a very good series. He's got seven hundreds in the last eight Tests against India. He's got a lot of runs against them. In some respect, you think they haven't worked out how to bowl to him yet. So that was a bit unfortunate."

'Pujara is priceless for the team' - Kohli RSBL

Following the drawn Test in Ranchi, Virat Kohli has hailed Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha for overcoming a difficult situation and taking India to a position from where they could have won the match. When Saha joined Pujara in the post-tea session on day three, India were 328 for 6 in reply to Australia's 451. They went on to add 199, and India eventually declared with a 152-run first-innings lead.

Australia were four down and still trailing by 89 runs at one stage on the fifth day, with more than two sessions of play still left, but India couldn't quite push on and win, with Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh batting out 62 overs while adding 124 for the fifth wicket. Kohli said he wasn't surprised Australia, the world's second-ranked Test side, fought the way they did.

"Everyone has to take responsibility equally on the field and our players want to do that," Kohli said in his post-match press conference. "Conditions were such in the first innings that it wasn't easy for the bowlers, the pitch was very good. It played very well in the first two innings. In the second innings, [Australia] batted well so it ended in a draw.

"But where we were in the first innings, 450 [451] was the [Australian] score and we were 320-odd for 6. From there to make 600 was a very difficult task. We put ourselves in a position to win, so we feel it was a very good effort from us to get into a winning situation.

"But then again, if you are playing against the No. 2 side, you will expect that they will come out and fight, not just roll over. Everyone has his point of view. We will look at our positives and we are happy with where we brought the game to after just one innings. We didn't need to bat in the second innings. But they had to play for a draw. Like I said, they will look at their positives, we will look at our positives and move forward. There is still one match to go, both [teams] will give it their best."

Kohli said the bowlers had struggled to extract help from the pitch when the ball grew older and softer, but did not want to stress the point and take credit away from Handscomb and Marsh.

"They batted very well," Kohli said. "Four down by lunch, and after that they didn't lose a wicket in the entire session. So credit to them, when someone plays well, you have to give them credit, we understand that.

"But we are also very happy with our efforts. [Ravindra] Jadeja's bowling was outstanding in this match. All the bowlers bowled very well but Jadeja in my opinion was standout. If you look at his economy, on this pitch it was high-class bowling and showed why he is the joint No. 1 bowler [in the ICC rankings for Test bowlers] alongside Ashwin.

Pujara won the Player-of-the-Match award for his innings of 202 off 525 balls, which was the longest ever by an Indian batsman (in Tests with ball data available). That knock took Pujara's tally for 2016-17 to 1259 runs at an average of 66.26.

"You know, sometimes I really feel bad for him," Kohli said, when asked about Pujara's contributions through the season. "People don't understand his importance so much in this team and what a valuable player he is for us. He is the most composed player we have in the team, he is willing to grind for his runs, he doesn't mind batting under pressure, he likes to take a challenge of batting.

"So someone like that is priceless to have in the team. When the pressure situation comes up, he is someone who will put his hand up and play long for the team and hold up one end, which I think is a great quality in him. This season he has been outstanding. I don't know the number of runs he has scored but he has contributed throughout. He has not been spoken about much or has been in the focus too much but he deserves much more than that. People need to stand up and take notice of what he has done this season, he has been outstanding with the bat and hopefully he will continue that in the last Test."

Saha, Kohli said, was similarly underappreciated. "See, Saha's knock again was brilliant for us. He's always stood up when the team needs him and this game was no different. His partnership with Pujara was the reason we had a go at winning this Test. A lot of credit goes to him also.

"Again, [he has] not been mentioned too much but he deserves a lot of credit. He's one guy who is always willing to do anything for the team. Wherever we ask him to bat, he bats. He has no problems in batting after [R] Ashwin, before Ashwin, whenever we want him to do it. He plays any kind of role - positive, defensive, you know, whatever we ask him to do, he never says no.

"So you really really feel glad for a guy like that. He's willing to do anything for the team and put his best foot forward. As I said, I'm really happy he performed in a big pressure match, in a difficult situation and put us in a position to have a shot at winning the game."

Mohammed Shami, who has not played for India since suffering a leg injury during the Test series against England, is making a phased return to action. He bowled in the nets in the lead-up to both the Bengaluru and Ranchi Tests, but has not been named in India's Test squad yet. He has also played 50-over games for Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, and on Monday took four wickets in the tournament final against Tamil Nadu. Kohli said he hadn't spoken to the selectors yet about Shami's availability for the fourth Test in Dharamsala, but hinted that it could happen.

"Yeah, Shami also we sent him to play [the Vijay Hazare Trophy] because we saw him bowling 10-12 overs in a go, and we wanted to give him some match practice." Kohli said. "I don't know [about his selection], I haven't spoken to the selectors still. All kinds of possibilities approaching the next Test."

Mahmudullah dropped for second Test RSBL

Hours after Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud confirmed that allrounder Mahmudullah would not be a part of the playing XI for the Colombo Test and would fly home on the eve of the match, BCB president Nazmul Hassan claimed the player's return would be a personal decision and not one taken by the team management.

The Test, which begins on March 15 in Colombo, will be Bangladesh's 100th and Mahmud had said that given the match would be an emotional, landmark occasion, it was decided not to keep a high-profile, senior player sitting on the bench.

Hassan said the decision to either stay in Colombo or return to Dhaka was up to Mahmudullah.

"It is totally up to him [Mahmudullah], whether he wants to stay [in Colombo] or return [to Dhaka]," Hassan said. "There's no question about sending him home by us or the team management, because the ODIs are coming up. I am sure he is supposed to stay back. At least I would have known if something like that had happened."

Mahmud later confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that Mahmudullah could return to Dhaka, either on March 14 or 15, depending on the availability of an air ticket. Sources, however, indicate that Mahmudullah's likely return will be discussed after Hassan arrives in Colombo on Tuesday.

Mahmudullah made scores of 8 and 0 in Bangladesh's loss in Galle, and bowled just two overs of his offspin. He had made a half-century in the one-off Test in India before this, but before that had gone ten innings without getting to a fifty.

He was at the ground with the team at practice today and took part in the warm-ups, but did not train thereafter.

Hassan also backed Mahmudullah's selection for the three ODIs and two T20Is that follow. The ODI series starts from March 25, while the two T20Is will be played on April 4 and 6.

"The ODI team isn't submitted to me yet," Hassan said. "Whether he will play or not, but I don't think anyone will drop him from the squad without talking to me first.

"He is a senior player who has made a lot of contribution. I don't see any possibility of him being dropped from the squad."