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MSK Prasad, India’s chairman of selectors, said that MS Dhoni’s decision to step down as India’s limited-overs captain came at the right time and showed Dhoni had the best interests of the team in his mind.”Had Mahi [Dhoni] taken the decision one year or even six months earlier, I would have been a bit worried,” Prasad told . “But I salute him for his sense of perfect timing. He knew that Virat [Kohli] is now a proven customer who has done exceptionally well as a leader in Tests.”So it is a correct decision by Dhoni. It showed that he had the best interest of Indian cricket in his mind.”Prasad, a former India wicketkeeper-turned-selector, said that Dhoni still had more international matches under his belt. “I still feel he has a couple of years of cricket left in him and as a wicketkeeper-batsman, he can still make an invaluable contribution to the team’s cause,” he said. “Dhoni’s presence will help Kohli as he now captains across three formats. Had he quit, Virat would have missed out on his immense experience.”Prasad said Dhoni, India’s most successful captain, had nothing left to prove as a leader, and praised his foresight in the role. “What else was left for him to achieve as a captain? He has achieved everything under the sun in his tenure as India captain. He has won World T20, 50-over World Cup, Champions Trophy, all three global trophies,” Prasad said. “Apart from that he has won IPL, Champions League T20. He has nothing to prove to anybody. He has been a great leader.”I believe his match reading was brilliant. That’s why he was quick on his feet and could assess any situation with a lot of clarity. For a captain, foresight is an important aspect and he had that in abundance.”Although he found a clear distinction in the personalities of Dhoni and Virat Kohli, who appears set to take over as captain in ODIs and T20Is, Prasad said the urge to win for India was the same for both cricketers. “Dhoni never gave away anything in terms of body language while Kohli has always been aggressive,” Prasad said. “What I have loved about Dhoni is that he will never give away anything as to what is going on in his mind. That’s his personality. He can keep things submerged in him.”But deep down, both Dhoni and Kohli’s urge to win matches for India is equal. There is no letdown in intensity.”

Australia’s emerging Twenty20 talent D’Arcy Short has declared he wants to keep the opening spot alongside David Warner, and the recent middle-order IPL record of the vastly more experienced Aaron Finch suggests he may well be able to do so.Short has shown plenty of promise in all three of his appearances so far, following on from an explosive Big Bash League for Hobart Hurricanes – where he set a new record for the most runs ever scored in a single edition of the tournament – that vaulted him into the team in the first place. To a degree his role has been affected by the sheer effectiveness of Australia’s bowling attack in restricting England and New Zealand to low totals, but after Saturday’s innings, Short was singled out for praise by the assistant coach Ricky Ponting for his composure – the moment captured by television cameras.”He knows so much about the game, the ins and outs of it, and he was just going through saying it was a good knock and a composed knock, especially at the start where I probably could have tried to blast my way out of it,” Short said of Ponting. “I worked through it and he was just congratulating me on that one.”Definitely [want to open], I think I’m suited there and that’s where I like to bat, and hopefully I can stay there. I didn’t know what to expect until a couple of days ago, just chatting to other guys. I think they wanted to keep me opening because I’d done so well in the Big Bash and throwing me down the order might change it a little bit. Definitely a little bit surprised considering how well he [Finch] has done at the top.””I didn’t feel like I could hit a ball, especially at the start. But I knew that if we didn’t lose wickets and I stayed in with whoever was in and scoring runs then we’d get the total easily. I had to work hard in terms of trying to get my runs early, they bowled well at the start and I had to work a little bit harder. I just tried to keep at a run a ball basically and then go from there.”Before the triangular series, the stand-in leader Warner had spoken about how the preponderance of openers in the Australian squad – Short, Finch, Chris Lynn and Alex Carey have all typically opened for their teams in addition to the captain – needed to be addressed with a measure of flexibility. The combination of Finch’s injury making room for Short and his decent record as a middle-order batsman in the IPL seems to have made up Warner’s mind.Finch has played 36 of his 208 T20 matches as a middle-order batsman, most recently doing the job for Gujarat Lions in the IPL in 17 matches over the past two editions of the tournament. During that time he has made 448 runs at 32 with a strike rate of 150.33, as against career figures of 34.26 and 139.02, and on Saturday night put an explanation mark on Australia’s victory with a pair of mighty sixes after coming in at the fall of the third wicket.At the same time, the team hierarchy will also have reasoned that Short is better off starting against speed than spin, given a wide disparity in his strike rates when given pace on the ball to work with. While agreeing it was something he needed to work on, Short said he was tired of hearing about it – a pair of clean hits worth four and six from Liam Dawson’s second over during the MCG chase were a move in the right direction at any rate.”I went at [Liam] Dawson because I had a look at his first over and felt like I could take him down in the second over and it worked in my favour in the end,” Short said. “I go at a run a ball against spin, I don’t see what the problem is there. I’ll obviously keep trying to work on it and to get my strike rate up against them a bit more would be good, but I’m happy with where it’s at at the moment. A little bit [sick of it] but I can’t do anything about it, that’s people’s opinion.”I think it’s just about keeping your game plan simple and knowing how you’re going to go about the game. Working on things you need to work on and different areas you want to hit the ball, but I think if you’ve got your game plan set and if you go out with your mindset to do that, then I think you should be right. They’re always going to try different things and you’ve got to negate that, work around it and try to work through it.”The innings was all the more noteworthy for the fact that the 27-year-old Short admitted to plenty of nerves about playing an international match at the MCG for the first time, reflecting how quickly he has risen through the ranks after taking some time to mature as a player. He has been aided by an Australian T20 collective functioning impressively under the stand-in leadership of Warner. “A year to two years ago if you asked me was I going to be here I probably would’ve said no,” Short said, “but just being consistent and working hard has got me to where I am now.”I was a bit more nervous than the first two games, just because its a big stadium at the MCG, but I tried not to think about it too much. All the players playing at the moment are playing with freedom, and I think it shows in our batting, bowling and fielding as well. You’re here to go out and do what you love and show off a little bit and see how you go – play with confidence and go from there.”One major factor in the composition of this T20 side has been the looming Test tour of South Africa, for which the likes of Steven Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins have been saved. Short expressed hope that the current group could be kept together for future assignments, but also acknowledged the scheduling issues facing the selectors.”If we win this tri-series and go through, if we can try and keep it together, that’d be good,” Short said. “I suppose you always put your best team out, and whether we all fit in the best team, that’s up to the selectors. I think it definitely gives you the opportunity to showcase your skills in front of other people on the international stage and you always try to take it with both hands.”

Chris Lynn looks set to be ruled out of the Pakistan Super League, and will return to Brisbane for further assessment, after suffering a dislocated right shoulder while diving in the field during Australia’s T20 Tri-Series final victory over New Zealand.It was another cruel stroke of injury misfortune for Lynn, who left the field midway through the ninth over of New Zealand’s innings after attempting to intercept a clip through midwicket from Ross Taylor. Sprinting to his left, he reached for the ball with his right arm, in an apparent attempt to protect his troublesome left shoulder, on which he has undergone three bouts of surgery in recent seasons.However, he appeared to jar his right arm on the turf, and it was later confirmed that he had popped the shoulder out of its socket. Although the team medical staff were able to put the joint back into place, he took no further part in the match after being sent for a scan.”Chris dislocated his right shoulder after landing awkwardly on it when fielding the ball,” said Australia’s physio, Alex Kountouris. “His shoulder was able to be put back into place at the ground and he was consequently sent for X-Rays which revealed no major bone injury.”At this stage Chris will not travel to the Pakistan Super League in Dubai. He will return to Brisbane to undergo further scans and assessment and from there we will have a better understanding of the ongoing management, along with the return-to-play timeframes.”Lynn had previously said he would avoid diving in the field in a bid to prevent any further shoulder problems.”It’s something that’s played on my mind for about four years,” he said. “Let’s go one step at a time – I want to dive, there’s no doubt about that, I want to do well and contribute. But at the moment, I don’t want to have another setback because I feel like I’m making good ground.”Lynn had been due to travel to Dubai imminently to take part in Lahore Qalandars’ first match of the Pakistan Super League, on Friday, against Multan Sultans. The Qalandars will be hoping Lynn’s injury is not serious, considering the explosive Australian was their first pick at the PSL draft.Another franchise that will be anxiously hoping for a swift recovery for Lynn is Kolkata Knight Riders. Lynn was the Knight Riders’ most expensive buy at the IPL auction last month, fetching $1.5m. The team is yet to announce its captain and Lynn was one of the names on the shortlist.

Harbhajan Singh, India’s most successful offspinner at the moment, has opposed the kind of surfaces the team has played on at home over the last ‘four’ years. He’s stated as much in several interviews. He used the hash tag ‘tailor-made conditions for spinners’ while referring to the Indore surface. He went on to say his and Anil Kumble’s wickets tally would have been “something else” if they had bowled more on such pitches. Virat Kohli, to whom the mention of the word ‘pitch’ is a red rag, was told of Harbhajan’s comments after India had completed the whitewash of New Zealand inside four days in Indore.Kohli was then asked if he attributed these wins to pitches or “something else”. “Who made that statement?” Kohli shot back. “Harbhajan Singh,” he was told. “Oh? Okay,” he stopped.It must be mentioned that while the conversation around pitches has been subdued this season because they haven’t been as dramatic as they were against South Africa last season. Kolkata, in fact, was a seaming pitch, which brought the New Zealand fast bowlers into the game. However, Harbhajan’s is the first instance of someone criticising the pitches from inside the system. He is an active cricketer who was a part of the India squad in the Asia Cup played in Bangladesh earlier this year. Kohli refrained from directly reacting to Harbhajan’s statement although he did sound a little taken aback.”Obviously, I mean,” Kohli paused. “See even if it is a turning pitch you have to bowl well. There is no… spin doesn’t happen only off the pitch. Spin is about how many revs you impart off the shoulder first. And then the ball will do something off the pitch. I quite clearly remember after we lost to New Zealand in the World T20, suddenly their spinners were quality and we were found out. I don’t see anyone talking about that now. The same spinners have played. Why have they not been able to pick wickets? It is as simple as that. Our fast bowlers picked wickets everywhere. We never complained about anything. So… see you can give a guy a cement track to bat on. He [still] needs to have the mindset to score runs. It is as simple as that.”Earlier when asked about complete team performances on three different tracks and how much confidence that gives India for the England series, Kohli once spoke about the pitches. “Well, we knew before the series that people are going to start talking about pitches,” Kohli said. “But we made it a point that we… we knew that there are monsoons everywhere, wickets are not going to be as dry. Especially in Kolkata, we knew that it wouldn’t be dry; it was a newly laid wicket. We didn’t say anything once. We believe in our abilities, we should be good enough to do it on any surface and against any team.”That is a step in the right direction as far as our team is concerned. We believe in our skill much more, and not focus on creating atmosphere or conditions that might suit us partially. We just wanted to express ourselves the way we can on a cricket field. We finished two games in four days on perfectly fine Test cricket pitches. That gives us a lot of confidence.”

Former South African Test opener Jacques Rudolph will retire from all forms of cricket at the end of the 2017 English season. The 36-year old has stepped down as four-day captain for Glamorgan with immediate effect, but will continue leading the T20 side until his retirement.”The time feels right to call an end to my playing career,” Rudolph said. “I have been incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed playing the game I love for the last 20 years. But at the end of this summer it will be time to focus on a new venture away from cricket and spend more time with my young family.”Rudolph, a product of the famed Afrikaans Hoer Seunskool, made his first-class debut twenty seasons ago in the 1997-98 summer. He played 48 Tests in two stints – the first 35 came between 2003 and 2006 and the remaining 13 between 2011 and 2012 – because he had signed a Kolpak deal with Yorkshire in 2007.By scoring 1000 runs or more in his first four seasons with the county, Rudolph found his way back into the South African team. But his second coming yielded only one Test century and he was dropped in November 2012. Rudolph then turned his attention to playing franchise cricket for the Titans and eventually called time on his South Africa career after the 2015-16 season.Rudolph has been with Glamorgan since 2014 and has captained them for the last two seasons. In 2017, he scored 319 runs in five first-class matches at 35.44 and 305 runs in eight one-day matches at 38.12. The T20 competition he will lead Glamorgan in begins on July 7. While Rudolph has not detailed what life after cricket holds, he has interest in a game farm with fellow South African batsman Boeta Dippenaar.With Rudolph standing down, Glamorgan have given the Championship captaincy to their 35-year-old Australian seamer Michael Hogan until the end of the season.

Courtney Walsh has been named Bangladesh’s interim head coach for the Nidahas Trophy as the BCB is yet to narrow in on a replacement for Chandika Hathurusingha.Walsh joined the Bangladesh coaching group in September 2016 as a bowling coach on a three-year deal. He is currently the senior-most coach in the group and was an obvious candidate.Meanwhile, Khaled Mahmud will no longer be a part of the support staff. Formerly the technical director, he is now expected to return as team manager. The former Bangladesh captain made public his displeasure at the function of the team earlier this month, calling the environment “dirty.””Since I will be going to Sri Lanka, a lot of the directors also will come with me. I personally feel that [Khaled Mahmud] Sujon should go as team manager,” said BCB president Nazmul Hassan. “We still haven’t talked to him about it. We have finalized on the other roles like we have also decided to give the batting duties to someone which we will announce on Tuesday.”Hassan is also likely to have a more hands-on involvement in the team’s affair. “I didn’t bother about playing XI selection in the last series. I left it to everyone else, including players and management,” he said. “This time we have made a squad after considering who will play in the playing XI. So since there is a final decision being taken, there is obviously a direct involvement.”

Misbah-ul-Haq has decided to continue as Pakistan’s Test captain, a decision that has been accepted by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, who also named Sarfraz Ahmed as the vice-captain in Tests. Misbah’s decision to lead in the West Indies put to end questions over his retirement, which have made news over the last few months, at least for the next two months as Pakistan will play three Tests in the Caribbean in April and May.After returning from Australia, Misbah had said he would take a call on his future after seeing how he would fare in the PSL. During the league, he told ESPNcricinfo that he was “most likely” to go to the West Indies, where they are yet to win a Test series. And once his team Islamabad United was knocked out of the tournament, he said he would meet Shaharyar upon his arrival in Pakistan and inform the chairman about his decision.”Misbah-ul-Haq has conveyed to the Chairman [of] PCB his desire to continue as captain of the Pakistan Test team,” the PCB said in a statement. “Accordingly, the Chairman has approved his appointment for the upcoming West Indies Test series. The Chairman has also approved appointment of Sarfraz Ahmed as vice-captain of the Pakistan Test team.”Misbah, who will turn 43 in May, has been under immense scrutiny having led the team to five successive Test defeats, although it was under him that Pakistan were ranked No. 1 last year. A dip in his batting form and his age added to the drama that reached its peak after the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last year when Misbah admitted to being unsure about his future as a cricketer.ESPNcricinfo understands the PCB wants to eventually appoint a single captain for all formats, but such a decision will have to wait until Misbah takes a call on his future. The decision to appoint Sarfraz as vice-captain in Tests came after Azhar Ali stepped down from ODI captaincy and later relinquished his Test vice-captaincy as well. The role was vacant since then. Sarfraz is already leading Pakistan in the Twenty20 format.Pakistan will start the West Indies tour with four T20s starting March 26, followed by three ODIs in early April and the three Tests starting April 22 in Jamaica. Pakistan’s selection committee is due to announce a limited-overs squad later this week while the Test team will be announced later.

Farhaan Behardien’s sixth-wicket stand with Dwaine Pretorius was the game changer•AFP

Farhaan Behardien’s unbeaten 37 guided South Africa A to a two-wicket win against India A in the tri-series opener in Pretoria.Yuzvendra Chahal almost pulled it back with three quick wickets to leave South Africa A on 145 for 8 in their chase of 153. Behardien calmly finished the game off in ones and twos, with Aaron Phangiso, who earlier in the day picked four wickets, for company. South Africa A won with 74 balls to spare.Their seamers Beuran Hendricks and Dwaine Pretorius did the early damage, removing Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer respectively, inside two overs. Pandey and Karun Nair put together 42 to lead a brief recovery before Pretorius trapped Nair lbw for 25. When Rishabh Pant (10)and Krunal Pandya (0) fell, India A slipped to 65 for 5.Pandey waged a lone battle from there on to raise a half-century off just 86 deliveries. He was the seventh batsman out, stumped for 55 off left-arm spinnner Phangiso. Pandey found some support from Chahal, who made 24 not out, to lift the total past 150 before they were bowled out in 41.5 overs.South Africa A wobbled at the start with the seamers picking up the first three wickets. India turned to spin from the 12th over; Axar Patel struck in his first when he removed Khaya Zondo. He then dismissed Heinrich Klaasen (24) in his very next over.South Africa A, tottering at 71 for 5, were then driven by a 62-run sixth-wicket stand between Behardien and Pretorius, who made 38 to go along with his three wickets earlier in the day. As it turned out, the partnership helped them ride a wobble and register two points.India A will play Afghanistan A in the next game on Friday.

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The spin combination of Hayley Matthews, Afy Fletcher and Stafanie Taylor worked through Sri Lanka’s batting order to set up a six-wicket victory for West Indies in the first match between the two – which counts for points in the ICC Women’s Championship – in Tarouba. Sri Lanka’s batting floundered against the three, who picked three apiece, as they collapsed from 63 for 1 to 136 all out.Sri Lanka lost their first wicket in the 12th over after opener Nipuni Hansika was struck on the pads by legspinner Fletcher. Yasoda Mendis and Chamari Atapattu set up a 41-run second-wicket partnership, with the latter becoming the first Sri Lanka batswoman to score 2000 runs in ODI. Matthews’ charge, however, removed both the batsmen before they could build on their starts. She also dismissed the No. 5 Prasadani Weerakkody for 8.Taylor and Fletcher scythed through the rest of the order as Sri Lanka fell away quickly.West Indies were off to a shaky start as they lost Kycia Knight and Taylor inside the first five overs. With 49 for 2 on the scoreboard, Matthews retired hurt on 22 and had to be stretchered off after the third ball of the 20th over. Having pulled the ball to short square leg, she dropped on her knees, clutching her right thigh. Earlier, following the third ball of the 14th over, she had received medical assistance for what seemed to be slight unease with her left hamstring. However, later she confirmed to ESPNcricinfo: “It was just bad cramp, but I’m all good”.After Matthews departed, Chedean Nation and Deandra Dottin kept the chase ticking along before slow left-armer Inoka Ranaweera removed both of them and reached the 50th-wicket milestone in ODIs. However, Merissa Aguilleira (32 of 48 balls) and Kyshona Knight (21 off 36 balls) finished the job over the next ten overs.Matthews was named the Player of the Match for her spell of 10-2-18-3.

Australia’s captain Steven Smith has never felt better at the crease than during the early part of his Perth Ashes epic, before he re-adjusted to grind down England and absorbed a considerable physical toll to do so.By reaching 239 before his dismissal, Smith raised his career average to 62.32 after 108 innings in 59 matches, ranking him the second best batsman to Sir Donald Bradman in terms of average – now ahead of his former team-mate Adam Voges. The innings pushed Australia into a strong position to regain the urn with victory in the final Ashes Test at the WACA Ground, and Smith said it was not achieved without considerable exhaustion – support staff ran out a chair for him to sit on during drinks in the final session.”I was actually really tired at tea yesterday, and was struggling a little bit then, and went in and had to have some sugar and a banana and something to eat,” Smith told ABC Radio. “I don’t like to eat too much when I bat.”The strength and conditioning coach Kelly [Aaron Kellett] basically forced it down my throat and said ‘You need something to eat.’ It was good in the end, because it switched me back on and I actually felt pretty good in the last session. I was a little bit tired last night, but a good tired after batting for so long.””I really enjoyed it, particularly out there with Mitch [Marsh] who was playing so well and scoring so freely, it just enabled me to just keep batting and keep batting, and hopefully a few more this morning.”Smith’s innings was played in two distinct phases, as he motored to 92 on the second evening with scarcely believable levels of ease, before digging in on the third day to press into the lead, largely in the company of the recalled Mitchell Marsh. “I think that first night I was on, as you say,” Smith said. “I was in the zone, and everything hit the middle of the bat. I felt incredibly good. Probably didn’t feel quite as good yesterday, but still came off well and got the runs that we needed. That first night was probably as good as I’ve felt.Steven Smith walks off after making 239•Getty Images

“I guess it’s just getting across into that position I’ve been getting into for a while, with my back foot on off stump or thereabouts, and watching the ball. If it’s at my stumps and it’s a good length, defending it, and if it’s too full, hitting it. Just defending good balls and putting away bad balls, really.”I just [try] not to think too much. Keep batting and keep enjoying it. I’d prefer to be out there. I don’t like watching cricket that much, to be honest. So I’d prefer to be out there making runs than up there watching someone else do it. That just motivates me to try and score as many runs as I can. I just sit on my bat at the other end if I’m off strike, and try and relax as much as possible. But nothing too different I don’t think.”As for Marsh, who in making 181 stamped himself as a long-term Australian Test player, Smith said the allrounder had made significant technical improvements. “I think his defence, he’s softened his hands a little bit,” Smith said.”He actually nicked one yesterday and it went down and didn’t carry here at Perth on a wicket that’s been pretty quick, to be fair, so I think that’s something he’s improved a lot. He was just defending the good balls, and anything that’s loose he was putting it away. We spoke about it out there: I said ‘That’s just batting. That’s how you do it.’ He was really confident and played exceptionally well.”