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The differences between South Africa and New Zealand were far greater than the ability of one attack to take 20 wickets and the struggle of the other to do half of that or that one batting line-up could score over 300 and the other just over that in both innings combined. According to Graeme Smith what really separates top sides from those in the tier below is whether they can know their game and play it.”The biggest thing is an understanding of what needs to be done and then going and doing it,” Smith said. And for that, it takes experience. South Africa, although not to the same depths as New Zealand, have been through years of what was considered underachievement when they could not reach the top ranking and hovered below.What they learnt in those years was the ability to withstand, what they learnt after that was how to push on. “There is resilience in the squad. We’ve been under big pressure. We’ve fought back from tough positions and we’ve worked our backsides off to get back into games. Then, when we’ve had that opportunity, we’ve driven a bus through the door,” Smith said.At the moment, New Zealand are still on level one but only barely. Sometimes, like in the first innings, they cannot withstand. On other occasions, such as the second, they can for a little while. On every instance over the last 12 months when South Africa have been under that kind of pressure, they have survived.The Oval, where they came back after a sorry day one; Headingley, where Kevin Pietersen’s innings could have blown them away; Lord’s, where Matt Prior may have derailed them; Adelaide, where Faf du Plessis rearguard action was epic; and Perth, where Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn played Australia out of the match, all stand out as examples of that. Those performances have shaped the character of the South African squad that exists now.”There is a good degree of confidence within the squad, which enables you to play that way going forward. If guys have got good performances behind them and come off with some good wins … it’s a lot easier to play that way when you haven’t got that kind of confidence,” Smith said.New Zealand are side that does not have it. Hobart and Colombo aside they have not had a good last year. It’s obvious even to their opposition where their faults lie. “They are struggling to find who fits in where and how can perform in certain role,” Smith said. “It’s more than who bats at No. 4, it’s about behind the scenes and the environment. They are growing there.”South Africa have leaders other than Smith in the dressing-room, a solid top six and a bowling attack that is the envy of the cricketing world. They look a perfectly balanced unit whose only worry is to drive home their No. 1 ranking as hard as they can. “It’s just about winning really, that is what you are defined by in modern-day sport,” Smith said. “If you play games like this and you are dominant and you take the game forward, it’s very nice.”They have been in control before but rarely as much as they were against New Zealand at Newlands, when Smith looked at the scoreboard and saw New Zealand were 26 for 9. “I couldn’t quite believe we were in that situation,” he said. “We bowled superbly in our new spells. We didn’t start sluggish and we asked questions early on.”What was as important as the emphatic nature of the bowling for Smith was the calmness of the batting that followed. “After bowling them out for 45, the attitude we had as a batting unit was so important. It would be easy to go out there and think: ‘What’s happening out here?'” he said. “It was great to see Alviro push through those little sessions where he has found it tough in the past, because his potential is huge.”Petersen’s hundred could end up as the least talked about but most telling act in the match. That would not matter to Smith, even if he doesn’t get his due, because it’s not as much about the individual as it is about the collective. “There’s honesty in the group. I see us as mature team. We’ve grown up now.” New Zealand will hope they can do the same.

Lalit Modi, the former chairman of the IPL, has claimed that he survived three assassination attempts for refusing to fix matches in the tournament.Modi, who was sacked from the IPL in 2010 over allegations of corruption and money-laundering and now lives in London, has made the allegations in written by the British journalist Ed Hawkins.In Mumbai, in March 2009, Modi says: “There was a shoot-out outside my house and one guy got killed and one got picked up.”The other attempts, according to Modi, came in South Africa and Thailand and on each occasion he was warned that he was in danger by police or intelligence agencies.Modi alleges that spot-fixing, in which cricketers fix a particular element of the game but not the overall result, is widespread: “Spot-fixing is rife in the game. And I’m talking globally. It’s a Pandora’s box. It’s staring you straight in the face, but difficult to prove. Almost impossible to prove.”While he remained confident the IPL was clean he could not give 100% assurances and said there were times when he was concerned by certain incidents.”I think it was clean, but I could never, sitting here today, categorically tell you that we picked up everything for spot-fixing, and that goes for all games, not just IPL. We had to warn players from time to time. We found undesirable elements in the stadium and removed them. We found them touring with players or managers of players who were in touch with bookmakers and we removed them.”

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Parthiv Patel’s massive century led Gujarat to a commanding score on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh in Indore. Coming in with his side in trouble at 30 for 2, Parthiv batted aggressively and formed the mainstay of substantial partnerships for subsequent wickets.Parthiv added 133 with Niraj Patel, 87 with Venugopal Rao and 48 with Manprit Juneja before falling to Jalaj Saxena in the 81st over. He had batted 205 balls for 162 runs and hit 26 fours. Juneja remained unbeaten on 42 at stumps, as Gujarat ended on 327 for 4. Anand Rajan took 2 for 67 for Madhya Pradesh.
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All five of Hyderabad’s top-order batsmen made starts but only Akshath Reddy converted it into a half-century, as the hosts Punjab struck at regular intervals to take the upper hand on the first day in Mohali. Medium-pacers Manpreet Gony and Amitoze Singh took three wickets each while conceding less than three runs per over.Punjab had a solid start after winning the toss, with their openers adding 77 before Ravi Teja was dismissed by Amitoze. Sandeep Sharma then dismissed his fellow Under-19 World Cup winner Hanuma Vihari to break a second-wicket stand of 59. Gony had Reddy caught behind in the next over, reducing Hyderabad to 138 for 3, after which Amitoze struck with consecutive deliveries, dismissing VVS Laxman and Syed Quadi in the 62nd over.So while Punjab had a satisfactory day overall, their captain didn’t fare as well. Harbhajan Singh, who was left-out of India’s Test squad, took 0 for 39 in 20 overs.
ScorecardThe poor light in Kolkata allowed only 59 overs to be bowled on the opening day between the hosts Bengal and the champions Rajasthan at Eden Gardens. During that time, Bengal laid the platform for a solid first-innings score, but their advantage was weakened by two late wickets.The hosts lost Jayojit Basu, dismissed for 6 for Pankaj Singh, early after choosing to bat, but the other opener Subhomoy Das anchored the innings. He added 68 runs with Writam Porel for the second wicket, and 95 with his captain Manoj Tiwary for the third. Bengal had progressed to 169 for 2 when Tiwary was dismissed by Madhur Khatri for 47. Seven runs later, they lost Das for 95, unlucky to be given lbw to a delivery from Pankaj that was missing leg stump. Pankaj took 3 for 30 and was economical too, conceding only 1.76 runs an over.
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The start of the Ranji Trophy has rarely been under such scrutiny. The return of India’s star players to their domestic sides has been the biggest draw for fans, but not too far behind are those players possibly competing for a place in the Test squad during a long home season. At the Wankhede Stadium, Sachin Tendulkar batted with comfort, assuredness and ultimately supreme confidence to give a disappointingly small crowd of a few hundred spectators the performance they’d come to watch. Click here to read the full report.

ScorecardSam Northeast has enjoyed a coming-of-age season•Getty Images

Derbyshire are not happy, not by a long way. And the suddenly vulnerable second division leaders will be fuming all over again by tomorrow night if England spinner James Tredwell bowls promotion rivals Kent to a vital victory here.The visitors were shocked to learn just 45 minutes before play resumed this morning that, contrary to emails sent by the ECB to both teams and the umpires ahead of this game, vastly experienced campaigner Tredwell was being allowed to replace fellow off-spinner Adam Riley in the home side at the halfway stage of this highly significant match.”They told us Tredwell could come in if he didn’t play at Trent Bridge and we have got an email to that effect,” explained Derbyshire’s head coach Karl Krikken. “He played in that game, so from half past two yesterday we thought he wasn’t going to play here. At a quarter to 10 in the morning, I found out from the umpires that he was able to play.”The rules were set at the start of the game but it’s like saying ‘it doesn’t matter, let’s tear that up and he can play anyway’. It’s wrong, it’s totally and utterly wrong. I feel sorry for the Derbyshire supporters and for the players because they have worked their knackers off to get into this position and you look to play a fair game and then don’t get it.”Kent want to do their best so they will try to push every rule they can, but it’s totally wrong. It’s nonsense. It’s moving the goalposts.”The principle of England players leaving and joining Championship matches on days one and two is now firmly established, even though it goes against the grain for those traditionalists who insist cricket is an 11-a-side game, full stop. But it was the ECB’s change of mind, under the “exceptional circumstances” rule mentioned in the competition regulations, that so annoyed Derbyshire.Because the ODI at Trent Bridge was won by South Africa with more than 15 overs to spare, the Board accepted Kent’s request to release Tredwell after all – on the basis he would have plenty of time to travel to Canterbury from Nottingham last night. And they are not at all apologetic about the revised decision, seeing it as a sign of their flexibility and desire to let county cricket supporters watch the best players in action whenever possible.”We operate on the basis that England players should be made available for their counties so long as there are no fitness or workload issues,” an ECB spokesman said.Kent chief executive Jamie Clifford added: “It is crucial that there is a spirit of co-operation between the counties and the ECB, and in particular concerning England players if we are to continue to support Team England.”The bottom line here, of course, is that a 20-year-old spinner, Riley, playing only his 13th first-class match, has been replaced by a 30-year-old, Tredwell, who has taken 332 wickets at this level.Tredwell warmed up for tomorrow’s task by bowling five maidens tonight, having earlier played a part in the one wicket to fall after Derbyshire had been set a mighty 404 to win. When Wayne Madsen edged Mark Davies, Darren Stevens parried the chance at third slip for Tredwell, at second, to hold the rebound.Whatever happens on the final day, Derbyshire will go into next week’s final round of matches as second division leaders. But having been top of the table almost all season, the gap is now far too small for their comfort. Yorkshire have already won so defeat tomorrow would leave them just one point clear – with Kent only a further five points back in third spot.It is a great pity, though, that this bit of a rumpus over Tredwell’s introduction took some of the shine off a terrific Kent batting performance which saw Sam Northeast, the highly talented 22-year-old opener, make a championship best 165.This was the former England Under 19 batsman’s sixth first-class hundred overall and his third of what has turned out to be a coming of age season.Northeast has taken a little longer to develop than had seemed likely when he was scoring centuries for fun as a schoolboy and making the Harrow 1st XI as a 14-year-old. But he batted beautifully for six hours here without giving a chance, striking 14 fours and depositing spinners Wes Durston and David Wainwright for one six apiece.Having taken three wickets, for one run, just before close of play yesterday, Derbyshire appeared to be right back in this match with Kent only 120 ahead. But Northeast and Nash combined brilliantly to deflate the visitors during a stand of 137. Then Northeast twisted the knife by adding 123 alongside Mike Powell before finally upper-cutting a catch to third man.Derbyshire had endured more than enough for one day. But they will be back to fight again in the morning.

The IPL’s “frustrating” refusal to recognise player representatives has sidelined the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA), reducing it to an advisory role, in the current payment dispute between Royal Challengers Bangalore and some of its top players, FICA chief executive Tim May has said. This is a departure from FICA’s usual role in other similar disputes, where it deals directly with employers to bring about a resolution.May said the Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers managements have not replied to correspondence from FICA regarding the salaries they still owe players. “We try to become directly involved but we never receive any responses from the Indian Premier League, which is frustrating for all,” May said.Several members of the Royal Challengers 2012 squad, including captain Daniel Vettori, are still awaiting the first instalment of their pay, while salaries are also owed to members of the Deccan Chargers side. May said FICA had advised players to make queries through their home boards, as FICA have been rendered powerless by the IPL’s stonewalling. National cricket boards’ requests for status updates on the outstanding payments were also yet to be answered, May said.”The reality of the situation is we’re sitting in the background advising the players on these particular issues. If they can’t get addressed, we’ll look into the matter in legal terms, how [we can] pursue these monies.”Payment delays such as this one and the ongoing issue with players and coaching staff who were a part of the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League, have led to FICA insisting on franchises providing bank guarantees for player salaries in the upcoming Sri Lanka Premier League.Under every identical IPL contract, signed between the player, the franchise and the IPL, the players are due 15% of their fee for the season by April 1 (before the IPL or very early into it), 50% by May 1 (during the IPL or towards its end), 20% after the Champions League and 15% by December 1. It is understood that the players emailed the management after the season finished in May, but did not receive a straightforward response. Royal Challengers’ franchise owners, the UB group, have recently hit financial strife, with owner Vijay Mallya’s airline found to be in debt of $1.3b.

Mohammad Kaif, who last played for India in 2006, has found support from former captain Anil Kumble. Kaif, Kumble said, could add value to an Indian Test team that is without Rahul Dravid, and will only lose out on more experience once the other seniors retire.”Kaif is only 31, and I believe this is the time when, as a batsman, you are nearing the peak of your powers,” Kumble told . “He has been consistent in domestic cricket, had a good last season, and he continues to be a brilliant fielder. As much as anything else, he has great attitude, so I don’t see why they should not look at him at the Test level. I really am at a loss to figure out where and why he missed out.”Kaif, who had given up the Uttar Pradesh captaincy prior to the 2011-12 season, went on to score 537 runs in the last Ranji Trophy, at an average of 59.66. He has played 13 Tests, spread over a period of six years. His 624 Test runs came at an average of 32.84, with his only century coming in his last series for India, against West Indies in mid-2006. Kaif averaged 56.50 in that series – second only to Dravid.”I think that was the time when a lot of flamboyant cricketers came to the fore – the likes of [Suresh] Raina, Rohit [Sharma] and, a little later, [Virat] Kohli,” Kumble said. “Kaif has always been a solid, disciplined performer, and perhaps in the clamour for flamboyance, the selectors lost track of him.”He has the experience and the technique to do well, as he has shown in the past. I can understand the selectors wanting to look ahead when it comes to the one-day game, but as far as Test cricket is concerned, Kaif is still a very good bat.”

Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan’s new Twenty20 captain, has said there was no excuse for his team not chasing 132 in the first match against Sri Lanka, despite them returning to the international circuit after a two-month layoff. Hafeez made an encouraging start to his new role by restricting the hosts’ strong batting line-up, but his first-ball duck was the start of Pakistan’s slide.After the defeat in his maiden game as captain, Hafeez was philosophical, admitting that Pakistan were beaten by a better team. He said the pitch was difficult to bat on, but didn’t offer that as an excuse for his side crumbling to 95. He didn’t attribute the loss to Pakistan’s lack of match practice over the last couple of months either.Pakistan had the upper hand at the start thanks to Sohail Tanvir’s incisive new-ball spell and some poor shot selection. Sri Lanka were struggling 96 for 7 at one stage but Thisara Perera’s late 32 converted a paltry score to a match-winning one.”As a bowling unit we did well to restrict them to 132. Tanvir was brilliant with the new ball,” Hafeez said. “This was a difficult pitch to bat on and we were hoping to restrict them to 110-120 after getting seven wickets. But in the end Perera made the difference. He took the game away from us.”Umar Gul, one of Pakistan’s most effective slog-over bowlers, had a poor game, conceding 43 in four overs. “We also thought that on this pitch, had we batted first, we would have posted 140,” Hafeez said. “But we did not finish well when we bowled. Umar Gul is usually our match-winner but today he wasn’t able to do that job. Having said that, 132 was still chaseable but if your main batsmen fail then it’s very difficult to win such games.”Pakistan were jolted early when Hafeez and debutant Shakeel Ansar were dismissed with the first two deliveries of the chase. The number of dot balls in the first half of the innings increased the pressure, as did Sri Lanka’s effective fielding. Two experienced batsmen capable of changing the game, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi, were sent back by terrific catching. Commenting on Pakistan’s approach, Hafeez said there was no specific plan to be watchful after the loss of two wickets.”There was no such instruction for the two batsmen [Ahmed Shehzad and Khalid Latif] to be defensive,” Hafeez said. “They were trying hard and Angelo Mathews bowled a good spell. I think as a batsman it’s up to him to decide how to approach the situation, how to build the innings.”Hafeez is leading an experimental Twenty20 side with a few new players, after Misbah-ul-Haq was dropped from the format. He backed the squad to come good ahead of the World Twenty20 in September.

The ICC is to review the playing condition regarding lbw decisions in international cricket in response to the emergence of the switch hit.ESPNcricinfo understands that the ICC cricket committee, a group that includes Ian Bishop, Kumar Sangakkara and Mark Taylor, is to consider amending the playing condition whereby a batsman attempting to play the shot cannot be given out lbw if the ball has pitched outside the leg stump.The news, first mentioned in passing in , will mean that any right-handed batsman who switches his stance or grip to effectively play as a left-hander, will be able to be given out even if the ball had pitched outside the leg stump and vice-versa. Bowlers will also be allowed more leeway as regards leg side wides in limited-overs cricket. The cricket committee meets in Dubai later this month.While any recommendations cannot come into force until they are ratified by the ICC board and the ICC’s chief executives’ committee, it is unlikely that the cricket committee’s proposals would be ignored. The decision will not affect the laws of the game, which are governed by the MCC, leading to the possibility that playing conditions in first-class cricket around the world will differ from playing conditions in the international game. It is up to each national board to determine whether to adopt the ICC’s playing conditions in their domestic cricket. While some boards – including those in Sri Lanka and South Africa – tend to default to the ICC stance, others – such as the ECB – are more independent minded. At present the major differences between ICC playing regulations and MCC laws concern the rules regarding the degree of flexion bowlers are allowed, the use of runners and decisions relating to the DRS.The MCC is also considering the repercussions of the more regular use of the switch hit stroke. Two members of the MCC’s laws subcommittee – Dave Richardson and John Stephenson – also sit on the ICC Cricket Committee.The switch hit first came to prominence in 2008 when Kevin Pietersen played it in an ODI against New Zealand in Durham. The same batsman was involved when matters came to a head in a Test in Sri Lanka recently when Tillakaratne Dilshan pulled out of his delivery stride on several occasions as Pietersen shaped to play the shot and the stand-off threatened to reach stalemate. The umpires, Asad Rauf and Bruce Oxenford, warned Pietersen for time-wasting, but the ICC is now looking for a more permanent solution.The ICC will be keen not to encourage negative bowling, however. The shot is sometimes played, even at Test level, to counter a leg stump line from right-hand bowlers coming round the wicket and many feel that the switch hit, a shot requiring high skill levels and remarkable reflexes, has been an entertaining addition to the game. It may also be that the ICC asks for some analysis as regards the risk-reward ratio of the shot and whether its usage really does disadvantage bowlers.Any amendment to the playing conditions is likely to prove torturously difficult to phrase. For a start, it could prove tough to define exactly what constitutes a switch hit – whether it involves a change of stance, a change of grip and when they take place. It is worth noting that the ICC, reacting to David Warner’s decision to remain in his normal left-handed stance but with a right-handed grip, issued a directive to umpires in February 2010 that stated such a tactic should be tolerated as long as it did not change once the bowler had begun their run up. As things stand the laws do not define what it means to bat left- or right-handed.Fraser Stewart, MCC’s Laws Manager, recently raised an interesting quandary. “What would happen,” Stewart asked, “if a batsman stood chest on to the bowler? If may sound a ludicrous suggestion now, but we have a generation of young cricketers growing up playing the switch hit and prepared to experiment with their stance and their grip. It may well happen.”

Cheteshwar Pujara, who is looking to work his way back into the national Test team after recovering from a knee injury sustained during the 2011 IPL, will lead India A on a tour of the Caribbean in June. West Indies A will host India A for three four-day matches, three one-day matches and two Twenty20s on the tour, which begins in Barbados on June 2.

India A squad

Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Wriddhiman Saha (vice-capt), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Jalaj Saxena, RP Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Robin Bist, Akshay Darekar, Shami Ahmed

Pujara will be assisted by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. Rohit Sharma, Abhinav Mukund, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Ashok Dinda, Rahul Sharma and RP Singh also feature in the 15-man squad named by the BCCI. The team will play three four-day matches, three one-dayers and two Twenty20s in all.West Indies chief selector Clyde Butts said that A tours provide an opportunity for fringe players to develop their game at the international level and impress the selectors. “The West Indies Cricket Board has shown a commitment over the last few years to providing a number of opportunities for our players to develop,” he said. “We hope that the players selected will take the opportunity to play meaningful cricket and put their hands up in the hope of making the senior team.”

Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder who is now a British citizen, has not been able to play for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL because he has not yet been given an Indian visa. Mahmood had been bought by Kings XI for $200,000 at the 2012 player auction.The Kings XI management had said Mahmood had taken a short break after playing in the Bangladesh Premier League, but the captain Adam Gilchrist said there had been visa issues. “It’s up to the government. I believe that he has not yet got his visa,” Gilchrist told . “When we picked him at the auction, we were given to believe that he would be available for all the matches. But that has not happened. He is yet to get his visa. He is a class player and we are missing him.”Following the 2012 auction, Kings XI had appeared to be one of the weakest teams, and Mahmood was their highest-profile signing. They struggled in the early part of their campaign, losing two games, and are presently second last in the points table. Kings XI are also without Stuart Broad, who is missing the tournament because of injury.Mahmood is the only player to have represented Pakistan in this season of the IPL. While Pakistan players were part of the inaugural tournament in 2008, they have missed out since then, after cricketing ties between India and Pakistan broke down following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.IPL chairman and BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said earlier this week that the participation of Pakistan cricketers in the tournament was dependent on the resumption of bilateral ties. “No one is against Pakistan or Pakistani players in India, or else we would not have allowed Pakistani commentators or umpires in IPL 5,” he said. “Everything is tied to the resumption of bilateral cricket ties between the two countries. Once that happens, I think everything will happen automatically. The IPL functions under the BCCI and when bilateral relations resume between the two boards, the IPL will also not be a problem for Pakistani players.”