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Even as the BCCI office bearers dither over announcing the date for a special general body meeting (SGM) to discuss the new Future Tours Programme, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has given its nod to the broad plans devised by board chief executive officer Rahul Johri.The ICC has scheduled a workshop on December 7 and 8 in Singapore to discuss the minutiae of the new cricket schedule agreed in-principle by the Full Member nations at an ICC Board meeting in Auckland in October.At the workshop, the countries would chalk out a week-by-week plan for the FTP that will span the period between the 2019 and 2013 World Cups. Apart from the global events, the calendar would comprise the Test and ODI Leagues which start in two years’ time.The CoA, having received a request from the acting board secretary Amitabh Choudhary, had asked the BCCI to call for an emergency meeting to discuss the FTP along with the settlement of a dispute concerning Kochi Tuskers, the former IPL franchise, and revoking the suspension of the Rajasthan Cricket Association.In its e-mail sent to BCCI acting president CK Khanna on November 15, the CoA told him to finalise a date for the SGM and send a notice to all board members (state associations) within two days. However, an alert is yet to go out. Khanna told ESPNcricinfo a final decision would be taken in a meeting between the CoA and office bearers on Tuesday. He also said that he had tried to call an SGM on December 1, but Choudhary was unavailable on that day.On Tuesday, the COA chairman Vinod Rai recommended that the BCCI office bearers comprising Khanna, Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhry (BCCI treasurer) fix the SGM before the ICC workshop. “I told them there is the ICC meeting in Singapore to finalise the FTP, so please convene your SGM before that. Till today they have not sent the notice.”It is understood that the three office bearers sat with Johri and set December 9 as the date for the SGM – the day after the ICC workshop – but the state associations have received no notice.This current episode of infighting is part of the prevailing power struggle between the COA and the office bearers, the latter a group that is deeply divided.After the COA asked Khanna to call the SGM last week, reported a strongly-worded e-mail sent by Chaudhry to Khanna and Choudhary in which he wondered how the state associations could be expected to take a call when proceedings were being “hustled through”.”It is absolutely shocking that a decision of this magnitude may be hustled through when all the members ought to have been given proper notice and time along with all relevant documents to study and deliberate on the item,” Chaudhry was quoted as saying in the letter.On Tuesday, though, Rai pointed out to the office bearers that Khanna was supposed to call the SGM on November 15, three weeks before the ICC workshop. Under the BCCI rules only the president can call an SGM with 10 days’ notice, and at the SGM, Johri was meant to talk about the FTP and explain to members the BCCI’s plans.A BCCI member claimed the infighting between the office bearers has been creating unnecessary hurdles. “Where is the question of hassling,” they said. “If BCCI cannot hold the SGM, you can’t hold the world to ransom.”

Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Aravinda de Silva and Anura Tennakoon have been appointed to a five-member committee to rehabilitate cricket in Sri Lanka. Brought together by the country’s sports ministry, the committee will make recommendations to the sports ministry and to Sri Lanka Cricket. Former SLC president Hemaka Amarasuriya heads the committee.Though largely tight-lipped about the exact changes they wish to bring about, committee members did single out Sri Lanka’s poor injury record as an issue they had discussed. The likes of Asela Gunaratne, Kusal Perera and Angelo Mathews were all unavailable for the ongoing Test series against Pakistan, and Sri Lanka has also had long-term problems with its fast-bowling battery.”One issue to look at in the short-term is the frequency of injuries,” De Silva said. “Whenever we have a good run of form, we get injuries to key players. We need to look at the research and try and gain a better understanding of why this is happening and how we can better handle it.”Given Jayawardene’s presence, it can be presumed that the committee will also push for a revamp of Sri Lanka’s domestic cricket structure. Jayawardene has been a vocal critic of Sri Lanka’s present domestic system and had even drawn up plans for a provincial tournament, which was ultimately rebuffed by the incumbent board in 2015. Having worked on that plan for months, only to see it shelved, Jayawardene and his fellow committee members hope the new committee’s recommendations will be taken more seriously.”We are not part of Sri Lanka Cricket,” Jayawardene said. “It’s up to them to implement these plans and we hope they do, because if not all these meetings would just be a waste of time.”I’m willing to put in one final effort to help cricket in the country, but it’s up to the board to make it happen. We can’t just keep coming back over and over again, as some sort of band-aid solution.”It appears that the SLC is indeed keen to revamp provincial cricket – as advised by Jayawardene two years ago – and a plan on the basis of that is expected to be presented towards the end of the year.While it remains to be seen what other issues the committee will address, some attention might be paid to overhauling SLC’s bloated voting system. Sidath Wettimuny, when he was in-charge of the board on an interim period, advocated for the move quite strongly and had also recommended Jayawardene and Sangakkara to be brought in to the SLC decision making process.As it stands, the committee has said it will first focus on short-term fixes following assurances by Sri Lanka’s sports minister that their suggestions would be taken seriously by SLC.

Like lifts passing in opposite directions, Essex and Warwickshire are destined to conflicting emotions at the end of this season.While Essex, going into this round of games 36 points clear of second-placed Lancashire, look all but certain to finish as County Champions for the first time since 1992, Warwickshire are doomed to life in Division Two for the first time since 2008. Both eventualities could be confirmed in this round of games.If Essex do go on to clinch the trophy – the first time a promoted side will have done so since Nottinghamshire in 2005 – it is a success that will be celebrated far beyond the county’s own boundary. They have shown what can be achieved by building their revival on the skills of locally-developed players – even without Alastair Cook, eight of this side could be so described – with a shrewd Kolpak signing filling a hole when it comes to spin-bowling talent.By doing so they have not only provided opportunities for England-qualified players to develop – and several of this Essex side could have England careers ahead of them – but improved the standard of the county game. They have, in short, almost perfectly fulfilled the role of county clubs. They gain full-houses for their home T20 matches, too.Essex took a firm stride towards their desired destination on the first day of this game. Taking advantage of an early start (10.30am for September matches), a fresh surface and a batting line-up lacking confidence, they had Warwickshire two down within the first 15 deliveries and never relented. Had Dominic Sibley, the one man to pass 37 in the Warwickshire innings, been held at slip on 2 – as he should have been – Essex might already have a first innings lead.As it is, that may have to wait until early afternoon. But the comfort with which they started their reply wasn’t just due to the easing nature a pitch that may have dried out as the day progressed, but the difference in confidence between these sides. Essex expect to win; Warwickshire know they are relegated.It was Simon Harmer who dropped Sibley, but he more than made amends. Bowling the sort of spell that would have him pushing hard for England selection if he were qualified, he harnessed a surprising amount of turn (this pitch has not been used previously this season) allied to some admirable accuracy and well-controlled variation. He has, no doubt, benefited this season from the footholes provided by playing with a couple of left-arm seamers – but here, without much assistance from that, he troubled all the batsman and was largely responsible for Warwickshire losing their last six wickets for 48 and their last five for 20.Jamie Porter was in the wickets again•Getty Images

But it was Jamie Porter who made the key breakthroughs at the start of the day. Bowling from slightly wide of the crease, he pushes the ball into the batsman but looks for away movement rendering it hard to leave him and dangerous to play. He also hits the seam often and bowls wonderfully, relentlessly full and straight. It is no coincidence that Essex claimed seven leg-before dismissals; one more would have equalled the first-class record. Porter is currently, with 61, the leading wicket-taker in the division. He and Harmer (59) are the only men in Division One with 50 wickets.Porter’s first spell set the tone for the day. He punished both Sam Hain (preferred to the dropped Andy Umeed) and Jonathan Trott for falling to the off side with straight deliveries and should have had Sibley caught in the slips with one that left him. Later he punished Keith Barker for playing across one before Sibley, left only with the No. 11, dismissed any thought of trying to carry his bat in a selfless attempt to hit a few quick runs. An edged drive was his reward.Should Porter be in consideration for an Ashes place? His skills are timeless and universal, so he would not let England down. The lack of height or pace is a concern, though, and pitches in Australia are unlikely to offer this sort of assistance. Besides, England may consider they are already well-served by fast-medium seamers in the presence of James Anderson. Porter seems unlikely to make the trip.For a while it seemed Ian Bell might be on the brink of a long overdue return to form. Certainly he timed a few strokes, notably a pair of cover drives off Neil Wagner, beautifully. But, having made his highest score for 10 first-class innings, his planted front foot was struck by a fine inswinger from the same bowler.Meanwhile Matt Lamb, having fought well for a time, hung his bat out at one from Sam Cook, before Chris Woakes was beaten by a quicker one from round the wicket that held its line, Alex Mellor (playing instead of Tim Ambrose, who hurt his neck in training on Monday) left a straight one, Jeetan Patel played across another, though replays suggested he was unfortunate, and debutant Henry Brookes was bowled through the gate.The fact that 18-year-old Brookes is playing – he was preferred to Chris Wright and playing instead of Olly Stone, who has a bruised heel after Finals Day – speaks volumes for Warwickshire’s situation. After a few years where the squad was allowed to stagnate, the club is now aggressively – desperately, even – pursuing a more youthful policy. That Brookes is the 24th man to represent them in first-class cricket this season and the 30th in all first-team cricket (the likes of Ed Pollock, Adam Hose and Aaron Thomason have not featured in the first-class team) suggests they are none too sure about the identity of the next generation, but know they have to find it.One of the next generation will, no doubt, be Sibley. There was little pretty about this innings, but it demonstrated the virtues of great application, leaving well and playing straight. Without him Warwickshire would have been routed.It will have rubbed salt in the wounds of Warwickshire supporters that Varun Chopra, who could easily still be playing for the club, looked so accomplished in reply. It’s going to take a few years to turn things around at Edgbaston. They could find the climb out of Division Two slippery and steep.

Faf du Plessis is comfortable with the selection process in South African cricket and believes transformation targets are not stopping them from fielding their best teams. The South Africa Test captain was responding to fresh criticism by Graeme Pollock of a system that requires the national side to field a minimum average of six players of colour (including two black Africans) over the course of a season.Speaking at an event in London earlier this month, Pollock said South Africa would become a “middle of the road” Test team in future if the transformation policy remained in place. Du Plessis said he had not heard “the context in which Pollock was speaking” so it would be “unfair” to respond to Pollock personally but said that the team understood the policy.”We as a team understand what we need to do and how we need to take the country forward,” he said. “We get on with our business as usual. We play the best team and we try and win every game we play.”In 2016 the South African government banned four major sports – cricket, rugby, athletics and netball – from bidding for or hosting international events for not having done enough in terms of transformation. Each sport signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the sports ministry, the terms of which remain private. CSA has, however, made public the targets they decided to implement at national level and after exceeding them in the 2016-17 summer the ban was lifted.”The major thing is the problem with the politics and interference with the selection of players,” Pollock had originally said. “It’s affecting the performance of the side – they don’t put the 11 best players on the field. It’s never going to change. As South Africans, we’ve got to accept that South Africa are going to be middle of the road in their future Test cricket.”He took issue with the domestic set-up, where targets are applicable per match and require each franchise and provincial team to field six players of colour including three black Africans. Pollock said this created an inherently weak structure which produced below-par cricketers of all races.”You are going to pick a guy like Heino Kuhn, the opening batsman, who got a couple of hundreds in first-class cricket. He’s not good enough to play Test cricket. The guys are playing in a bad standard of first-class cricket in South Africa because of the politics and interference in selection.”A week after Pollock’s comments were first published, however, his spokesperson Basil O’Hagan issued a statement which claimed the quotes were “totally misconstrued”, issued an apology and said Pollock is in favour of transformation.”Graeme extends his sincerest apologies to CSA Board and the South African cricketing public for the manner in which his comments at recent function in London were totally misconstrued. Graeme fully supports the endeavours of the transformation process,” O’Hagan said.When asked by ESPNcricinfo which part of Pollock’s original statement was misconstrued, O’Hagan said he would not respond to every paragraph of the original article but called it “incorrect” as a whole. O’Hagan also said Pollock “maintains transformation is the way to correct decades of oppression of black South Africans and marginalisation of black cricketers.”The clarification did not prevent strong criticism from former Test player and current Cobras coach Ashwell Prince in the where Prince detailed his own struggles across a two-decade long career.”Pollock’s comments most definitely struck a nerve. Not just with myself, but it seems the overwhelming majority of South Africans. Quite frankly, as a former Protea, one has reached the point where you simply just cannot sit back and allow people with these kind of mindsets to keep feeding the world this kind of rubbish and just let it be,” Prince said.”People who were disadvantaged under the previous political regime simply have to be given opportunities which in the past were reserved for a privileged minority.”South Africa will have five players of colour in their side for the third Test against England at The Oval with Kagiso Rabada’s return following his suspension. They fielded four at Trent Bridge with JP Duminy dropped, but with the targets being assessed over a whole season whether they have been met or not for 2017-18 will not be known until after the home summer against Bangladesh, India and Australia.

Alex Hales’ century helped Notts chase a formidable target [file picture]•Getty Images

An explosive century from Alex Hales led Notts Outlaws to a thrilling victory over Yorkshire Vikings in their NatWest T20 Blast meeting at Trent Bridge.Hales scored 101, his first hundred for the county, as Notts completed a record run chase to defeat the Vikings by five wickets with five balls remaining.Yorkshire had posted 223 for 5, with Adam Lyth scoring 59, one of five top order batsmen to register 28 or more, after the visitors had been invited to bat first.Amidst the carnage Samit Patel maintained creditable figures of three for 29 but there was little joy for any of the other bowlers to celebrate as Yorkshire plundered 10 sixes in their 20 overs.Requiring more than 11 runs an over Notts got off to a flying start with Hales and Riki Wessels putting on 87 in the first 5.4 overs before Wessels fell to Azeem Rafiq for 34.Tom Moores, promoted to No 3 in the order, was unluckily run out by a direct hit from David Willey, who threw down the stumps from 60 yards.Hales reached his hundred from 45 balls, heaving four huge sixes and 14 fours, before falling shortly afterwards, lofting Willey to deep midwicket, to leave the score on 177 for 3 in the 15th over.Brendan Taylor made 41, having put on 83 with Hales, before being trapped lbw by Rashid. Outlaws’ captain Dan Christian hit a quickfire 24 but when he fell 17 were still needed from the final two overs.Steven Mullaney immediately calmed any nerves amongst the home supporters by twice lifting the ball over the ropes, including the winning blow from the bowling of Tim Bresnan.Earlier, Tom Kohler-Cadmore made 37 in an opening partnership of 83 with Lyth, a stand that was broken by Mullaney, with the first ball of the seventh over.Australian internationals Shaun Marsh, who made 47, and Peter Handscomb, 31, added 68 from 35 balls and the final lustre to the Vikings’ innings was supplied by Jack Leaning’s 16-ball unbeaten 28.Notts had never successfully chased anything higher than 207 before but thanks to Hales’ magnificent effort they accomplished the feat with time to spare.Despite the loss Yorkshire remain top of the North Group but the table is so tight that sixth -placed Notts are only two points behind them, with a game in hand.

It was a “dream to play more international cricket” that made the newly-retired Luke Ronchi switch allegiances from Australia to New Zealand back in 2012.Steady performances since his first-class debut for Western Australia in 2002-03 – and an untimely injury to Brad Haddin – shoehorned Ronchi into Australia’s tour of the Caribbean in 2008. He showed promise with a 22-ball fifty in only his second ODI innings but then his numbers dipped. Eventually, he found himself out of favour.Ronchi returned to his country of birth – New Zealand – in a bid to restart his career. A first-class century on debut for Wellington in March 2012 might well have assured him to keep at it. “In the end, it wasn’t really a hard decision,” he told ESPNcricinfo last year. “I wanted to play international cricket and I wanted to play more. It wasn’t like I had retired or wasn’t playing or dropped and wasn’t getting picked. The thought of not trying in New Zealand would’ve been a lot harder for me.”Everyone was right behind me, even players from Western Australia and coaching staff. That was a nice feeling. You get a bit worried about what might happen, but everyone was fully behind me.”In 2014, Ronchi made his ODI and T20I debut for New Zealand. He fell for ducks in both those games but was persisted with until he smashed 170 not out off 99 balls against Sri Lanka. That innings remains the highest score by batsman at No. 7.Ronchi played his first Test in May 2015. Coming in with his side trailing England 0-1 in a two-match series, he struck 88 and 31 at Headingley, to help spearhead a memorable victory. “It was something I always dreamed of and wanted to do well in,” he said. “Leading up to the match, I thought I shouldn’t go in nervous, because if you go in nervous and muck it up, that might be the only time you ever get to play. So I sort of went out there, just being relaxed, and, just free off whatever happens. To get the win in the end was pretty cool. It was pretty cool to be one from one (win-match ratio).”As for career highlights, Ronchi said “you can’t get past the World Cup.” New Zealand, fuelled by passionate home support, earned their first ever final after beating South Africa in the semis – a game that went down in history as an ODI classic.”To be involved in semi-finals, to get into the finals, even thought that wasn’t our best game of the tournament… For the New Zealand team to get into a World Cup final and play in front of 90-odd thousand people, the whole six-eight weeks was a fantastic time to be playing cricket.”Having been on both sides of the Trans-Tasman production line, Ronchi, in 2016, believed “Australia has got a little more depth and more money to put into development and facilities.”But having said that New Zealand cricket has been doing fantastically well at the moment in all three forms,” he added. “So, depth doesn’t always make a big difference but if you want to stay consistent – like how Australia have – you need to have the depth to keep pushing guys and making guys perform and getting better. I think New Zealand’s getting there. We still have a little way to go, but we’re doing pretty well at the moment.”

Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club beat Mohammedan Sporting Club by one wicket with two balls to spare at the BKSP-3 ground in Savar. Dhanmondi Club chased down their 340-run target, a List A record for the highest-successful chase in Bangladesh, when No. 11 Shahadat Hossain struck the winning four after they needed three runs from the final over.The record for the previous highest chase was held by Chittagong Division, who made 333 for 6 against Rajshahi Division in 2007. Dhanmondi’s chase was also the highest second-innings score in List A games in Bangladesh, bettering Mohammedan’s 339 for 9 against Abahani earlier this season.Both Dhanmondi Club and Mohammedan made it to the Super League phase of the Dhaka Premier League, alongside Gazi Group Cricketers, Abahani Limited, Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club and Prime Bank Cricket Club. But it was Dhanmondi Club’s chase that stole the show on the final day of the first round.Their fast start was upended when they lost their first two wickets by the seventh over. Then, Prashant Chopra, their Indian recruit, and Sohag Gazi added 96 runs for the third wicket. Chopra’s dismissal for a 60-ball 86 was followed by that of Rajin Saleh for a duck six balls later, in the 20th over. When Gazi fell for a 64-ball 89, Dhanmondi Club slipped to 233 for 6 in the 33rd over.The chase was revived through an 87-run stand between Tanbir Hayder and Elias Sunny. Hayder struck six fours and a six in his 72-ball 77 while Sunny’s cameo ensured the lower order didn’t capitulate quickly. Sunny ended unbeaten on 39 off 45 balls. Mohammedan pace bowler Mohammad Azim took four wickets for 70 runs.Dhanmondi Club’s brilliant chase overshadowed centuries from Shamsur Rahman and Rony Talukdar as Mohammedan were asked to bat. Shamsur struck seven fours and as many sixes in his unbeaten 144 off 152 balls, which was his highest List A score. Talukdar’s 110 came off 99 balls and was his third List A century.Gazi Group Cricketers finished as table toppers at the end of the Dhaka Premier League’s first phase despite slipping to their second successive loss. Prime Bank Cricket Club trounced them by seven wickets in Fatullah and finished on 16 points to draw level with Abahani Limited and Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club while Gazi Group were on 18 points.Batting first, Gazi Group made only 214 for 9, with Mominul Haque (79 off 106) and Jahurul Islam (66 of 84) consolidating the innings after they were 3 for 2. But Gazi Group slumped again, losing their last five wickets for 16 runs after the 149-run stand between Mominul and Jahurul was broken, with Nazmul Islam finishing with three wickets. Zakir Hasan and Abhimanyu Easwaran set up Prime Bank’s chase by adding 95 runs for the second wicket. The formalities were completed by Al-Amin who was unbeaten on 41.Kalabagan Krira Chakra kept themselves firmly afloat in the Dhaka Premier League after their five-wicket win against Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan Samity at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.Having finished tenth in the points table, Khelaghar now have to take part in the relegation playoff matches with Partex Sporting Club and Victoria Sporting Club. Only one of these three teams will remain in the DPL next season while the bottom two will be relegated to the Dhaka First Division League.Khelaghar were restricted to 204 for 7 as No. 5 Rafsan Al Mahmud top-scored with 71 off 98 balls while No. 7 Arifurzaman Sagor made 46. Saad Nasim, the Pakistan allrounder, finished with 3 for 34 in his 10 overs.After adding 50 runs for the opening stand with Tasamul Haque, Jashimuddin (89) added 104 runs for the second wicket with Mohammad Ashraful (56). Even though Kalabagan lost five wickets, the chase was completed by Muktar Ali and Mehrab Hossain jnr with 13 balls to spare.

Rishabh Pant’s unfettered approach to ball-striking has constantly been likened to that of fellow Delhi resident Virender Sehwag. On Thursday night, Pant’s breathless, yet artful decimation of Gujarat Lions with a 43-ball 97, including nine sixes, moved Sehwag to hail his “special ability” on Twitter.Had Sehwag watched Pant’s media interactions following Delhi Daredevils’ chase of 209 with 15 balls to spare, he would likely have smiled at how the 19-year-old channelled his inner Sehwag with straight-faced one-liners.The most revealing insight into Pant’s batting philosophy was provided by Sanju Samson, who made 61 off 31 balls, during their post-match interview with Daredevils mentor Rahul Dravid on . During the course of their 143-run partnership off 63 balls for the second wicket, Samson had struck two sixes in an over and was looking to play safe. Pant, however, didn’t approve of the tactic.”I started the innings really well. After hitting two sixes [in an over], I thought about taking a single,” Samson told Dravid.”He [Pant] came to me and told me: (brother, don’t think too much, just keep hittting)’. I think that really helped me to go on. I really enjoyed batting with him.”Pant walked the talk. Two balls after Karun Nair was dismissed, he whacked Basil Thampi over cover for six. He similarly avenged Samson’s departure by smacking Ravindra Jadeja’s next two deliveries for six and four. He blitzed his way to a half-century off 27 balls and his next 44 came off 16 deliveries.”I will see the ball – if the ball is there to hit, I will hit it,” Pant said of his mind-set. “I was not thinking I will get out or something like that. If the ball is bad, you have to punish it. That’s what I am doing.”‘If I would have got three runs, I would have finished the match. If I would have finished the match, I would have got three runs’•Getty Images

When Dravid asked Pant which bowlers he and Samson targeted, the answer was a variation of the see-ball, hit-ball theme. “We were not thinking about the next ball,” Pant said. “Like I told you, sir, if we get a bad ball … we planned everything like that. I told Sanju [to keep hitting the balls that were there to be hit] – [he] was planning a few things at the start – but when he started getting in the middle, he told me ‘I will go for everything.'”Even when Pant was three short of his hundred, he didn’t hold back. An attempted slog into the leg side off Thampi only resulted in a thick outside edge to the keeper. Pant had to drag himself back to the dugout, but he later said he wasn’t thinking about the hundred.”I was just thinking about chasing down the total as quickly as I can,” he said. For good measure, he topped it off with a philosophical nugget right out of the Sehwag school. “If I would have got three runs, I would have finished the match. If I would have finished the match, I would have got three runs.”It was an attitude that gladdened Dravid. “What was impressive for me was Rishabh – batting on 97 and not thinking about his 100 at that stage and still going for his shots,” he said. “[He was] not worrying about the 100 and [was] looking to get the team home. Incredible innings from the two boys and truly well-deserved.”Dravid, however, raised the bar for Pant and Samson. “I am a hard taskmaster [and] I hope that you guys will next time finish the job and stay not out.”

Mitchell Marsh, Callum Ferguson, Nic Maddinson, Hilton Cartwright, Mitchell Marsh … Marcus Stoinis? The man who may become the latest in a string of Test No. 6s for Australia since the start of the summer has arrived in India, and is confident that he will be able to adapt quickly to the conditions if called on to make his debut in Ranchi this week.Stoinis was flown to India to replace Marsh, who was sent home after Australia’s loss in Bengaluru with a shoulder problem that had also caused him troubled during the home summer. Should Australia’s selectors opt for an allrounder at No.6, the seam-bowling Stoinis and the offspinning Glenn Maxwell are the two likely candidates. Usman Khawaja as a specialist batsman is a third possibility.The call-up of Stoinis raised a few eyebrows in Australian cricket, given his poor batting form this Sheffield Shield season, during which he has made 197 runs at 17.90 without a half-century. It is hardly the kind of form expected of a Test No.6, but national selector Trevor Hohns made it clear Stoinis had been picked due to his performances on a 2015 Australia A tour of India, as well as because he was the strongest bowling option among allrounders.Perhaps the selectors also noted that when they last picked Stoinis, for the Chappell-Hadlee Series tour of New Zealand earlier this year, he was able to step up despite a lean patch that featured only one half-century from his past 29 innings across all formats. Stoinis flew to Auckland and smashed an unbeaten 146 in his first match of the series.”New Zealand was a breakout for me,” Stoinis told reporters in Ranchi on Tuesday. “Waiting 18 months for another international game after my first one was really pleasing personally. And then I still know [I’ve had] a good three or four years of Shield cricket where I’ve been in the top four or five run scorers. So the confidence is there and that’s cricket, it can change so quickly.”It is true that despite Stoinis’ lack of Shield runs this summer, he has been a consistent performer in the long format for Victoria in the past few years. Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Stoinis has been second only to Peter Handscomb on Victoria’s Shield run list – during a period in which the state has won two out of two Shield titles and has also reached the final of this year’s tournament.During that same period, Stoinis was part of the Australia A squad that played two first-class matches in Chennai in 2015, and he impressed the selectors in the first of those games with a first-innings 77. He also picked up three wickets at 31.00 during the series, including the wickets of current India Test players Cheteshwar Pujara and Karun Nair.”Coming here for the Aussie A, it actually did suit my bowling,” Stoinis said. “A couple staying low, a couple grabbing off the wicket, off-cutters. You’ve just got to hit the wicket hard here and see if anything happens off the wicket there.”It remains to be seen whether Stoinis will become Australia’s 451st Test cricketer in Ranchi, or whether the selectors will lean towards either Maxwell or Khawaja. Either way, it will mean a fifth change of Australia’s Test No.6 since the start of the home summer.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsRahmat Shah hit 10 fours and a six in his unbeaten 108•Associated Press

Twice in this series, Rahmat Shah failed to kick on after scoring a half-century. In the decider, he scored in triple-figures, for the second time in ODIs, to help Afghanistan recover from an early wobble and convert a potentially tricky 230 chase into a cruise. He steered them towards the target in Samiullah Shenwari’s company and then sealed a seven-wicket win with a six that helped them clinch a 3-2 series win to go along with the T20 clean sweep in Greater Noida, their adopted home ground.While Rahmat came up with the blockbuster knock, Shenwari’s unbeaten 62 was also important. The fourth-wicket pair added 133, helping them recover from 98 for 3 and overcoming pressure Ireland’s slow bowlers built in the aftermath of Asghar Stanikzai’s wicket for 39 in the 25th over. They eventually won with eight balls to spare and completed their second bilateral series win in three attempts against Ireland. The five-match ODI series in July 2016 in Ireland ended 2-2.Ireland, who won their first toss of the series, elected to bat and were driven by the experienced pair of Ed Joyce (42) and Paul Stirling (51), who added 69 for the first wicket. William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien also got off to starts and put Ireland in a position from where 275 looked a possibility. But the absence of the big-hitting Kevin O’Brien, out due to a hamstring niggle, perhaps hurt them in the end overs.The inability of the lower middle order to bring out the big hits on a slow wicket resulted in a flurry of wickets, the bulk of which were taken by Rashid Khan. The legspinner finished with 4 for 29 to top the wicket-takers’ list with 16 as Ireland lost their last seven wickets for 59 runs to be bowled out for 229 in the penultimate over.Left-arm quick Fareed Ahmad, playing his first game of the series, picked up three wickets, while Dawlat Zadran, who kept the pressure up early on in cloudy conditions, finished with two scalps including a ripper of a yorker that sent back the experienced Gary Wilson in the 39th over to delay their slog.Afghanistan lost the big-hitting Mohammad Shahzad in the fifth over when he was snuffed out courtesy a sensational catch at cover by Porterfield. Three overs later, Najeeb Tarakai, who faced 18 deliveries for 5, let pressure get to him as he skewed a catch to long-on to leave Afghanistan wobbling at 25 for 2.Stanikzai, the captain, held down the fort briefly before falling to George Dockrell’s left-arm spin. With the asking rate escalating and pressure building, Afghanistan needed a rescue act and they had one with Rahmat and Shenwari scoring together at a run rate of over 5.5 per over.