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Bangladesh will play their 100th Test match, against Sri Lanka, on March 15 in Colombo. Having played their first Test in November 2000, Bangladesh will be the last of the Full Members to complete the century, having taken little over 16 years to the mark.The visitors will begin their tour with a two-day practice game in Moratuwa before the first Test in Galle on March 7 and their milestone match at P Sara Oval a week later.The limited-overs leg begins with a warm-up game on March 22, before Dambulla hosts the first and second ODIs on March 25 and 28. The series concludes in Colombo – unusually at the SSC, which has not hosted an ODI since 2011.Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said the decision to play this match – a day game – was made on the basis that Bangladesh were not a major drawcard. The SSC has a capacity of about 10,000.”The reason we don’t host one-day games at SSC when we play other teams, is because we feel we won’t be able to accommodate the crowds there – the capacity is very limited at SSC,” de Silva said. “But when we play against Bangladesh, though there will be crowds, it will not exceed the capacity which can be accommodated as SSC, I’m sure.”When you play at a smaller ground also, it would seem like there are crowds – even for a Bangladesh tour. We can market it better.”The two T20Is to finish the tour, however, will be played at Khettarama.The Bangladesh squad is expected to be announced by February 20, while training begins in Mirpur on February 24. This is Bangladesh’s first bilateral tour of Sri Lanka since 2013, when they drew the Galle Test and also secured a 1-1 result in the three-match ODI series.

Angelo Mathews has called on his batsmen to take a cue from Dean Elgar on how to bat in seaming conditions. Sri Lanka were blown away in the Newlands Test, losing by 282 runs by lunch on the fourth day.Sri Lanka were dismissed for 110 in the first innings, and 224 in the second. In comparison, Elgar’s match aggregate was 184 – 129 of those runs coming in the first innings, when the green Newlands pitch was at its freshest.”Elgar left a lot of balls, and the way he batted is a lesson to learn for all of us,” Mathews said. “Yes, it was never going to be easy on that wicket. It had a little bit of bounce and pace and seam. But as an opener, Elgar has left a lot of balls. He has scored whatever he gets off his legs. He’s keeping it pretty simple. He has made us work extremely hard for his wicket and he’s been in good rhythm.”Disappointingly for Sri Lanka, six of the top seven were guilty of getting out playing expansive strokes on what was quite obviously a seamers’ deck. Four of the top seven fell playing attacking strokes in the first innings, and six of the top seven fell that way in the second. Kaushal Silva was the only batsman who was out playing two defensive shots. Indiscipline had plagued Sri Lanka’s batting at Port Elizabeth as well.”It’s disappointing to repeat the same mistakes over two Test matches,” Mathews said. “You need long hours of concentration against a quality attack like South Africa. They give you a very rare loose ball, and if you try to score runs off the good balls, you end up nicking off to the slips or the keeper.”We’ve been working hard in the nets trying to leave a lot of balls. That fifth, sixth stump has been troubling our batters quite a lot. We can’t just say we are used to slow, low conditions – we’ve got to come and play well in foreign conditions as well. Most of the teams do struggle when they go to foreign conditions – it’s not only us. But we just want to concentrate on our performance. We’ll make sure that we work harder. The only solution is long hours of concentration.”Part of the problem for Sri Lanka is that more aggressive batting approaches have recently paid dividends at home, where pitches are consistently bowler-friendly. Mathews had told his team to “get your runs before the good ball gets you out” in both of their recent home series against West Indies and Australia. In South Africa, however, the same outlook has paved the route to a heavy series defeat.”Batsmanship is always about scoring runs,” Mathews said. “You should have that balance – but you need patience as well as aggression. You should be able to balance it out. There will be phases when you will face a guy like Vernon Philander or Kyle Abbott who will not give you a loose ball. You need to try and work that situation out. You do need to look for the bad ball, but that is going to be very rare. We need to tighten our game more.”Mathews also took responsibility for failing to review Dhananjaya de Silva’s lbw dismissal in the second innings. De Silva had been hit on the front pad by a full delivery from Kagiso Rabada, and was given out on the field. He had consulted with Mathews – the non-striking batsman – before leaving the field. Projections soon showed the ball to be missing leg stump. De Silva was on 22.”Well, I think it was my fault,” Mathews said. “I actually saw him after that shot he ended up on middle stump, so I thought he was a dead duck. To see it in real time was pretty difficult. I thought, after he hit that ball, he was in the middle of the stumps. That’s why the only question I asked him was whether he hit it. He said ‘no’ and he was also pretty certain. It was a mistake on our part.”Mathews lauded Suranga Lakmal, who has been Sri Lanka’s player of the tour so far. Lakmal claimed 4 for 69 in the second innings, and has 12 wickets at an average of 24.08 in total.”Rangana Herath has been neutralised in these conditions, and we needed our fast bowlers to hit their straps and take responsibility. I’m glad that Suranga has been bowling extremely well in the first couple of games. He’s been hitting a very good length. Even their top order has been struggling to play him – unfortunately we haven’t been doing that for quite long enough.”

Mohammad Amir has picked up a side strain that will limit his role in the ongoing third and final Test in Sydney to batting.Amir pulled an intercostal muscle on his right side during pre-match training on the fourth day of the Test and was taken for a scan. He did not appear on the field at all, putting more strain on an already thin bowling attack that was then reduced to just three specialist bowlers.That left Pakistan to open Australia’s second innings with Imran Khan and Yasir Shah, David Warner taking full toll in an explosive start. Yasir himself has been suffering from a slight hamstring strain in his left leg.Pakistan’s management believe Amir will recover in time to take part in the ODI series against Australia, which begins on January 13, but concerns about the workload on him and others such as Yasir will grow.For much of the last year, Pakistan have operated outside of the UAE with a four-man bowling attack, increasing the load on Yasir and Amir in particular. Since his return to Test cricket on July 14 last year no fast bowler has bowled as many overs in international cricket as Amir, a list otherwise dominated by spinners. The leading bowler in that time, by overs bowled, is Yasir, in Tests alone as well as across all formats.Amir injured his knee in the first Test in Brisbane earlier in the series and though it looked serious at the time, he was back on the field and bowling within an hour. In the same Test his thigh was heavily bruised after he was hit by a Mitchell Starc delivery.Earlier in the Test, coach Mickey Arthur acknowledged the workload his bowlers had to take on. “The guys are pretty tired, they really are,” Arthur said. “Amir… he keeps going you know.”Over the last six months or so we have played massive amount of cricket and he just keeps going and keeps going even though he has taken a lot of niggles, and he hasn’t shirked his responsibilities and he keeps running for us. They are not in good shape but they have kept going.”

A breakdown in communication between the umpires and Australia captain Steven Smith has emerged as the reason an extra eight overs were bowled on the fourth evening at the Gabba. Smith has confirmed that his preference was to finish play at the scheduled stumps time to allow his bowlers a chance to recover, but the umpires allocated extra time based on an earlier conversation with Smith.The ICC’s Test match playing condition 16.2.1 states that “the umpires may decide to play an extra 30 minutes (a minimum of eight overs) extra time at the end of any day (other than the last day) if requested by either captain, if in the umpire’s opinion, it would bring about a definite result on that day”. However, Smith said he did not officially request the extra time from umpires Ian Gould and Richard Illingworth.The ICC said in a statement on Monday evening that: “The umpires believed they were acting on a request from Steve Smith, based on a conversation with him about the granting of extra time a few overs before the scheduled end of play. It is the umpires’ decision as to whether to agree to the request, and the guide for umpires is that a team should be at least seven wickets down before such a request should be granted.”Pakistan were seven wickets down at the scheduled stumps time of 9.30pm, which was already 90 minutes later than usual due to rain earlier in the day.”Early on in the day, I sort of said ‘it’s great that we have that extra half hour up our sleeve if we need it’,” Smith said after the match. “And then later on, Gunner Gould was pretty adamant that he wanted to sort of stay out there and try and get the game over and done with.”The umpires deemed for it to be an opportunity of a result. We went with that. I probably, at that point of time, would have liked to come off and given our bowlers a rest – they’d worked incredibly hard all day and Pakistan were just starting to get onto a bit of a roll and looked quite comfortable.”I would’ve liked to have come off. But you’ve got to go with the umpire’s call. It’s their decision out on the ground, and they decided to stay out there.”‘The umpires believed they were acting on a request from Steve Smith, based on a conversation with him about the granting of extra time a few overs before the scheduled end of play’ – ICC•AFP

It was believed the confusion arose from a conversation between Smith and the umpires with approximately six overs left in the day’s play, during which Smith asked the umpires what the situation was with the extra time. The umpires replied that the guidelines were that extra time would be granted if the batting team was seven wickets down. Smith replied to the effect that Australia had already achieved that.Then, at the scheduled stumps time, Smith moved towards slip, assuming that the decision rested with the umpires, while the umpires saw this as confirmation that Smith wanted the extra time. No conversation took place at 9.30pm as to whether Smith, in fact, did want the extra eight overs to which he was entitled.The extra time had the potential to significantly alter the outcome of the Test, for Australia had taken only one wicket in the preceding 27 overs. Their bowlers were tiring, and Pakistan’s batsmen were well set. In the end, Pakistan added 51 valuable runs during the extra eight overs, although they lost a wicket in the final one before stumps was finally called at 10.09pm.Pakistan’s captain Misbah-ul-Haq said although the runs were useful in his team’s push for what would have been a world record Test chase of 490 had they achieved it, the decision to play extra time did concern him.”It was a bit of both. Everybody believed that after watching day and night Test cricket, especially in Brisbane, that the most difficult time to bat is under lights,” Misbah said. “We were a bit concerned but at the same time we were a bit relaxed because at that time, when they took the extra half hour, their main bowler [Mitchell] Starc just finished a spell.”We were just hoping that now he’s not bowling and from one side maybe they have to bowl [Nathan] Lyon and there’s a bit of moisture in the ground, so it might not swing and turn that much. I thought if we could add another 40 runs it would help us the next morning. That exactly worked for us. That could have gone either way, but we got 50-something runs in that session and that just got us a bit closer.”Wahab Riaz, who was batting with Asad Shafiq when the extra time was called, said he was happy with the decision because the conditions were good for batting.”I was not expecting it, but then when the umpire said that we have a half-hour extension, I felt it was good because the ball was coming onto the bat really nicely and Asad was playing really well as well, so I wanted him to score his century last night,” Wahab said on on Monday morning. “Coming up today it was going to be a different atmosphere.”

Match Facts

Wednesday, November 16
Start time 0930 local (0730 GMT)Zimbabwe didn’t test Sri Lanka’s inexperienced batting line-up on Monday, but West Indies’ attack could pose a bigger threat•AFP

Big Picture

Visiting teams to Zimbabwe often use their time here as a looking glass into the future: which new combinations might be worth exploring? Who are the up-and-coming players? Who’s staking a claim for the next major tour? While West Indies’ circumstances might be a little more tempestuous, both they and Sri Lanka have picked forward-thinking squads for this series, and there is plenty to prove on both sides.This is particularly true of the batsmen. Darren Bravo has been culled from West Indies’ squad for his outburst on Twitter, and they are also missing batsman Marlon Samuels, wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin and allrounder Kieron Pollard, depriving them of a combined 521 ODIs’ worth of experience. With 44 ODIs to his name Johnson Charles is, by some distance, West Indies’ most experienced batsman. Several somewhat unknown entities have a chance to stake a claim.The same goes for Sri Lanka, who already have one eye on their tour of South Africa in the new year. Sri Lanka have captain Upul Tharanga’s 189-match ODI experience to call upon, with Kusal Perera’s international nous to back him up, but not an awful lot beyond that. Their relative familiarity with Zimbabwean conditions and the sparkling form of young batsman Dhananjaya de Silva may give them an advantage, but they will likely find themselves more tested by West Indies’ attack than by anything Zimbabwe have thrown at them in the last few weeks.Sulieman Benn and Sunil Narine have their wiles, and Shannon Gabriel’s improved fitness and balanced action enhances his menace. Captain Jason Holder will be personally buoyed by his recent second innings five-for against Pakistan in Sharjah, but the Bravo imbroglio may dampen the momentum West Indies gained from their historic Test success over Pakistan.Or it may not, given that in recent times West Indies have rarely seemed more than a tweet or two away from controversy, and weathering such storms is all in a day’s work for them. On the field, however, conditions are setting this match up as a middleweight fight that will favour the most sturdy batsmen and most incisive bowlers on either side.

Form Guide

Sri Lanka: WLLLW (Last five completed matches, most recent first)
West Indies: LLLLW

In the Spotlight

Kraigg Brathwaite‘s Herculean efforts in Sharjah helped secure West Indies’ five-wicket win there, but his one-day record remains rather more modest than his Test record. With no Samuels or Bravo to provide the ballast in West Indies’ top order, West Indies will be looking to Brathwaite to step up and glue the top order together.Sri Lanka’s questions around their inexperienced middle order are yet to be answered, given the tiny target and limp bowling attack they faced on Monday. How they stand up to the greater challenge provided by West Indies may be crucial to their overall success.With 44 ODIs, Johnson Charles is the most experienced top-order batsman in West Indies’ tri-series squad•AFP

Team News

Multiple changes to their squad will have shaken West Indies up somewhat, and despite their long-form success in the UAE, West Indies’ recent 3-0 defeat in the ODIs against Pakistan will be in the back of their minds. All the new names in their batting line-up have a chance to clean the slate, and there are several middle-order slots up for grabs and several all-round options.West Indies (possible): 1 Johnson Charles, 2 Kraigg Brathwaite, 3 Evin Lewis, 4 Jason Mohammed, 5 Shai Hope, 6 Shane Dowrich (wk), 7 Jonathan Carter, 8 Carlos Brathwaite, 9 Jason Holder (c), 10 Sulieman Benn, 11 Shannon GabrielShehan Jayasuriya came in for some tap from Peter Moor on Monday, but there is no urgent reason for Sri Lanka to tinker with their XI. When the tri-series moves to Bulawayo, they will have expanded opportunities to play their spinners, and there should be a similar make-up to their line-up against West Indies.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Dhananjaya de Silva, 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Upul Tharanga (c), 6 Asela Gunaratne, 7 Shehan Jayasuriya, 8 Sachith Pathirana, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Nuwan Pradeep

Pitch and conditions

Zimbabwe coach Heath Streak suggested it wasn’t so much the grass on the pitch as the clouds overhead that aided swing and seam on Monday, and both the pitch and weather conditions are expected to be very similar. Much of the day is expected to be cloudy and overcast, with occasional sunny spells, while there may well be thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Stats and trivia

• In 54 ODIs between these countries, West Indies hold the advantage with 27 wins to Sri Lanka’s 24. Yet that is weighted somewhat by West Indies’ yesteryear prowess. Sri Lanka have won six of the last seven matches between the teams
• Suranga Lakmal is Sri Lanka’s leading wicket-taker this year, with 11 scalps from eight matches at 26.72
• West Indies last visited Zimbabwe in 2007-08, when they won a five-match series 3-1, with one game abandoned

Quotes

“We’ve been facing Carl Mumba who has been bowling very fast, so West Indies’ pace won’t be a problem, rather the ball seaming around will be the challenge for us.”
“It’s obviously a big impact to lose senior guys with experience who bring pedigree to your side. It’s a situation where we have to cope with what we have, and gel together as quickly as possible.”

A century stand for the fourth wicket between centurion Gautam Gambhir and Rishabh Pant helped Delhi finish the second day with a 114-run lead over Odisha in Mohali. Delhi resumed on 43 for no loss, with an overnight deficit of 194, and lost Unmukt Chand (19) in the fourth over of the day, dismissed by Suryakant Pradhan. Delhi captain Gambhir put on 71 for the second wicket with Dhruv Shorey (29) and then joined the 19-year-old Pant (80) to put on 114 in only 117 balls to help Delhi go past Odisha’s 237.With the lead only 18, Dhiraj Singh dismissed Pant, and Gambhir fell seven overs later, three runs short of 150, as Delhi lost three wickets for 28 runs. Milind Kumar and Sumit Narwal steered the lead past 100 with a 56-run seventh-wicket stand, out of which Narwal struck 35 off 30 balls. Dhiraj dismissed him with just under 10 overs left for stumps, before Milind (39) and Manan Sharma saw out the day without further losses. Dhiraj ended the day with figures of 3 for 61, while offspinner Govinda Poddar took 2 for 65.Unbeaten centuries from Robin Uthappa and Karun Nair helped Karnataka regain the impetus against Assam in Mumbai.Karnataka began the day by breaking the overnight stand, as Stuart Binny removed Swarupam Purkayastha for 59. Former Karnataka batsman Amit Verma, who had rescued Assam on the first day, scored 41 of the 57 runs Assam added to their total, remaining unbeaten on 166 as they folded for 325. Legspinner Shreyas Gopal took the last three wickets to finish with 3 for 74. S Aravind didn’t add to his five-for from the first day.In response, Karnataka were in early trouble, losing both openers for ducks, before Uthappa and Nair came together to put on an unbroken 219 to take them to 223 for 2 at stumps. Both were batting on 108.Maharashtra stretched their first-innings total to 461 on the back of half-centuries from Rahul Tripathi and Vishant More, against Rajasthan in Hyderabad. In reply, Rajasthan reached 76 for 2, losing their first two wickets with 29 on the board before Manender Singh (31) and Ashok Menaria (19) took them to stumps without further damage.Naushad Shaikh and Tripathi extended their overnight 63-run stand to 122 before Shaikh fell for 143. Tripathi, who began the day on 18, put on 67 with More before falling five short of his fourth first-class century. More (62) then batted with the tail to score his maiden first-class half-century and take Maharashtra to 461. He was the last batsman dismissed, falling to Pankaj Singh who finished with 4 for 87.Ishank Jaggi’s unbeaten 112 helped Jharkhand declare with a 257-run first-innings lead against Vidarbha in Wayanand.Jharkhand began the day 146 for 1, leading by 41. They lost both their overnight batsmen, Anand Singh and Pratyush Singh, with neither converting their half-centuries into hundreds, before Saurabh Tiwary (45) and Jaggi put on 83 for the fourth wicket. Jaggi went on to score his second consecutive first-class century though he found little support from the lower order. Jharkhand slipped from 272 for 3 to 346 for 8, before they declared at 362 for 8. Medium-pacers Shrikant Wagh and Rajneesh Gurbani and the ambidextrous spinner Akshay Karnewar all finished with two wickets each.Sanjay Ramaswamy and Faiz Fazal played out the last 11 overs of the day as Vidarbha went to stumps 48 for no loss in their second innings.

Match facts

September 28, Dhaka
Start time 14.30 local (08.30 GMT)1:34

Isam: Afghanistan has been the story of the tour so far

Big picture

Predictably, the first ODI ran close. Afghanistan were in the best position to win when they had eight wickets in hand and required 77 runs to win off the last ten overs. Bangladesh took over from that point, showing their steady temperament in a situation that required them not only to cut down the runs but also to pick up wickets.While Mahmudullah suggested that Bangladesh would have liked to have won more convincingly, there was plenty for them to draw heart from in their first ODI of the year. Shakib Al Hasan broke the big third-wicket stand between Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmat Shah, and gave away just one run in the 47th over when 28 were needed off the last four. Comeback men Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain squeezed Afghanistan out of the match with regular yorkers in the last three overs. Captain Mashrafe Mortaza kept the rampant Afghanistan batsmen in check for most of his ten overs, while Taijul Islam looked decent as the second specialist left-arm spinner.When they batted, the home side would also have been encouraged by Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes and Mahmudullah who looked in good form, though there will be some concern about Soumya Sarkar and Mushfiqur Rahim.Afghanistan, meanwhile, would be worried about their pace bowling; though Dawlat Zadran did finish with four wickets, both he and debutant Naveen-ul-Haq were expensive. The visitors would also like to see Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi get into the game a lot earlier than they did in the first game. Rahmat’s leg-spin is another option that captain Asghar Stanikzai might explore.The fielding from both sides sorely needs a lift as some easy catches were put down in the first match. But another thriller can be expected in Mirpur, with Afghanistan living up to the home crowd’s expectations as a competitive international opponent.

Form guide

Bangladesh WWWWW (completed matches, most recent first)
Afghanistan LLWLW

In the spotlight

Imrul Kayes batted confidently and timed the ball well during his 37 off 53 in the first ODI. He displayed a new, adventurous side to his limited-overs batting, even if it meant chipping a few in air every now and then. He can be expected to bat the same way, and cement his place at No. 3.Rahmat Shah used his experience of playing domestic cricket in Bangladesh very well during his 93-ball 71 in the first game. He rotated the strike regularly with Hashmatullah Shahidi in a 144-run third-wicket stand that took Afghanistan to a very strong position. But it was his dismissal that turned the tide against Afghanistan. He would surely be keen to weigh in with more runs in the second ODI. Given his form, he might well do so.

Team news

Barring injuries, Bangladesh shouldn’t change their winning combination. This would mean Mosaddek Hossain would have to wait a little longer for his ODI debut, while Nasir Hossain and Shafiul Islam would also remain on the sidelines.Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Imrul Kayes, 4 Mahmudullah, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Sabbir Rahman, 8 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 9 Rubel Hossain, 10 Taijul Islam, 11 Taskin AhmedA possible change for Afghanistan could be to replace Naveen-ul-Haq with Karim Janat, bringing in one teenage fast bowler for another. On the other hand, Afghanistan might make allowances for Naveen’s understandable nerves on debut and give him another outing.Afghanistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 2 Shabir Noori, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 5 Asghar Stanikzai (capt), 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Najibullah Zadran, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mirwais Ashraf, 10 Dawlat Zadran, 11 Naveen-ul-Haq

Pitch and conditions

The Mirpur pitch was sluggish, but the four half-centuries in the first game showed that any batsman who was patient enough could bat comfortably. The forecast is for late afternoon rain in Dhaka.

Stats and trivia

• Shakib Al Hasan is now the only bowler in world cricket to hold his country’s record for most wickets in all three formats
• Afghanistan have bowled out Bangladesh in all three encounters between the two sides
• If Bangladesh win tomorrow, it will be their 100th ODI win

Quotes

“He [Taskin] delivered what we needed him to do. Credit to him for how he came back. He could have had a completely bad day and that could have cost us the match.”

ScorecardKeith Barker made early inroads for Warwickshire•Getty Images

On what is likely to be a pitch of diminishing returns, you would expect Warwickshire’s lead of 67 on first innings to have given them a better than even chance of winning, which they must do if they are to be sure of avoiding relegation for the first time since 2007.The news for Lancashire is not so good. Lose here and a Hampshire win would send them down.Intriguingly, Warwickshire were relegated that year at Old Trafford, beaten by nine wickets in what would be Mark Greatbatch’s last match as coach. They bounced straight back, winning the Division Two title under Greatbatch’s successor, Ashley Giles.Giles, now Lancashire’s coach, will be reasonably confident that his new side will be capable of something similar should they go down, although he has been having trouble convincing some disgruntled Lancastrians that they should share his optimism and enthusiasm.Three wins in the first five Championship matches led some of them to believe there was a serious chance they could be going toe-to-toe with their rivals from across the Pennines, so no wins in 10 subsequently has come as something of a let-down.Yet by other measures, Giles can claim an outstanding season, given that his brief was to dismantle an ageing team and restock it with vibrant youth. This season, three of the four young players to whom he has given first-class debuts – Liam Livingstone, Rob Jones, Matthew Parkinson and Saqib Mahmood – have made a first-class century or taken five wickets in an innings. And Haseeb Hameed, introduced only in August last year, is already on the brink of a Test call-up.A draw here would quieten the natives in any event, guaranteeing that Lancashire finish ahead of Warwickshire and therefore not in the bottom two, even if Hampshire win. It is going to take some getting, though.Dismissing Warwickshire for 219 did not look a bad effort but, after reaching 134 for 5 midway through the afternoon session, Lancashire’s reply fell away rapidly as the combination of Keith Barker and Jeetan Patel claimed the last five wickets with only 18 added to the total.Lancashire supporters began to feel twitchy in the 10th over of the day after the introduction of Rikki Clarke in the first change of the morning drew a quick dividend for Warwickshire, the big one as far as they were concerned, when Hameed was leg before trying to flick one off his legs.In the blink of an eye 35 for 1 became 37 for 4, Chris Wright striking in consecutive overs to remove Jones and Karl Brown with a couple more lbws. On a hazy morning with still plenty of cloud there was clearly something in the conditions for Warwickshire’s bowlers to exploit and when Lancashire lost Luke Procter, the left-hander succumbing to a beautiful outswinger from Barker that drew him into the drive and took the edge, they had lost four wickets for four runs in 35 deliveries.This was followed by a recovery of sorts engineered by Steven Croft and Livingstone, who have both looked to be aggressive. Yet that recovery was punctured in the last over of the morning when Livingstone whipped one off his pads against Oliver Hannon-Dalby only to plonk it straight into the hands of Barker at shortish midwicket, leaving Lancashire to take lunch contemplating where they might go from 79 for 5.In the event they rebuilt promisingly, Croft and Jordan Clark continuing to push the score along and adding 55 in 18 overs before Barker, coming round the wicket, bowled Croft with one came back as he shaped to play him off the back foot. Croft’s 45, the second highest innings of the match so far, was a good innings in the circumstances, a positive counter-attacking effort that made the scorecard look somewhat healthier.But this breakthrough gave Patel his first sight of a long Lancashire tail and there are few spin bowlers more adept at cleaning up when conditions are in his favour, the New Zealand off-spinner bamboozling Arron Lilley before having Tom Bailey caught sharply at leg slip by Ian Bell.Barker then claimed a give-away wicket when Clark swung at him with more hope than control and finished by uprooting Kyle Jarvis’s off-stump to finish with 4 for 30, taking his haul for the season to 58 in Division One, eight behind Patel, who leads the field with 66.It is the quality, variety and experience that makes up the Warwickshire attack that will probably see them across the line, although there is no escaping the more sobering statistic of their season, which is that they have won only two matches, the same number as Hampshire and one fewer than Lancashire. If they did go down, it would hardly be an injustice.Warwickshire had added 12 to their lead without loss when bad light, quickly followed by rain, prevented further play.

ScorecardNed Eckersley held the Leicestershire first innings together•Getty Images

Teenage left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson took three wickets on debut as a depleted Derbyshire attack responded impressively to adversity on the first day of the Specsavers County Championship match against promotion candidates Leicestershire.With pacemen Will Davis and Ben Cotton both injured, and overseas player Hamish Rutherford perhaps surprisingly left out, Derbyshire gave a first-class debut to wicketkeeper Alex Mellor, on loan from Warwickshire, as well as to Parkinson. There were also first first-class appearances of the season for seamers Alex Hughes and Tom Milnes.Foxes’ skipper Mark Cosgrove won the toss and chose to bat, but Milnes struck early, finding the edge of Angus Robson’s bat with a delivery which swung away from the right-hander. Wayne Madsen held a sharp catch low down at third slip.The experienced pairing of Paul Horton and Neil Dexter batted solidly, however, with Dexter looking in particularly good touch. He had hit six fours, mostly driven through the off side, when an uncharacteristic flash at a wide delivery from former Leicestershire allrounder Shiv Thakor shortly before the break saw him edge a catch behind.Leicestershire resumed after lunch on 102 for 2, but 19-year-old Parkinson – twin brother of Lancashire legspinner Matt – first bowled Cosgrove, who went back to a ball which turned and stayed a touch low, for 14, and then had Paul Horton caught behind for 42 with a delivery which bounced more than the opener expected.Thakor then picked up the wicket of Mark Pettini for 13, leg before to a well-pitched up delivery which also stayed a fraction low.A stand of 68 for the sixth wicket between Niall O’Brien and Ned Eckersley saw Leicestershire pick up their first batting bonus point, but O’Brien became the third Leicestershire batsman to reach 40 but fail to go on when he went leg before to the very occasional offspin of Wayne Madsen, playing for turn that was not there.Eckersley looked in good touch, however, and found a positive partner in Clint McKay. The big Australian pulled Thakor for a massive six early in his innings, and had hit 40 from 42 balls in adding 83 with Eckersley for the seventh wicket when he swung and missed at Parkinson, who finished with 3 for 64 from 26 overs.Eckersley was unbeaten at the close, on 73 – comfortably the highest score of the day – made from 160 balls.

The merits, or otherwise, of putting cricketers through military-style “boot camps” have been debated at length over the years. In 2010-11, James Anderson emerged from England’s camp in Bavaria with a broken rib, courtesy of a boxing match with the squad’s Terminator lookalike, Chris Tremlett.And four years prior to that, Shane Warne famously spat his dummy straight in the face of Australia’s then-coach, John Buchanan, after being subjected to three days in the Queensland jungle ahead of the 2006-07 Ashes. Midway through that trip (which led, coincidentally or otherwise, to a 5-0 series whitewash) he reportedly turned on his coach with the words: “I’m weak as piss, I hate your guts and I want to go home.”Only time (and, perhaps, a few reveal-all autobiographies) will tell how some of the less naturally compliant members of Pakistan’s Test squad have taken to the events of the past few months, in which their preparations for a seminal tour of England have included beastings at the country’s Military Academy at Abbottabad, as well as intensive skills and acclimatisation camps in both Lahore and Hampshire.But on the opening day of the first Test at Lord’s, and in the captain’s maiden first-class innings on the most famous ground in England, Misbah-ul-Haq not only gave incontrovertible evidence of the benefits of such exhaustive preparations, he even displayed enough surplus energy to drop to his hands and knees after 154 balls of stereotypically frill-free accumulation, and reel off ten press-ups in tribute to the men who had helped make his innings possible.”That was my promise to the army guys,” Misbah said afterwards. “We did a camp in Abbottabad before the skill camp in Lahore, and we used to do an honour code every time, we just stepped into the ground and did ten push-ups. And I promised them, if ever I score a hundred, I will definitely do that to remind you that we were there.”He did admit, on the sly, that his drill sergeant might well have sent him back to do another set of ten, given that his arms were too bent first time around, but Misbah’s gleeful team-mates on the visitor’s balcony had no such qualms about the performance their skipper had just put in.At the age of 42 years and 47 days, and having had nothing but a diet of limited-overs cricket for Islamabad to sustain him since his victorious performances in their most recent Test series against England in November, Misbah confirmed the wisdom of his decision to stay at his country’s helm by leading from the front in the most inspirational manner possible.In so doing, he rolled back Father Time himself – who was watching benignly from the top of the Tavern stand clock – to enter the sort of rarefied atmosphere that players of his age, and in this era, are simply not meant to reach. Among his many accolades, he’s the oldest player to score a Test hundred since Patsy Hendren in 1934, and the oldest to do so at Lord’s since Jack Hobbs and Warren Bardsley traded scores in the 1926 Ashes Test.”Obviously when you are playing competitive cricket you don’t just think about your age,” he said, “but if you think you are [still] competitive you can take the challenge of playing that game. These records are always something special, and you are satisfied at getting these achievements, but the main thing is to perform for your team and country.”He did that to supreme effect, and acknowledged the latter with a subtle salute towards the pavilion as he shuffled down the pitch after bringing up his three figures. “That was for the flag,” he later confirmed. And, notwithstanding the loss of two late wickets that allowed England to regain a measure of parity of a fascinating first day, his tenth Test hundred has established the sort of platform, at 282 for 6, that could yet allow Pakistan’s talented crop of bowlers to thrive in the second innings.”Obviously you need at least 400, that’s what we are looking forward to,” Misbah said. “We have to work hard tomorrow, so if we can bat more than a session we could really give us a big advantage. Here at Lord’s, the average score is around 400 in the first innings, so that could give us something to put pressure on England.”Obviously, we worked really hard in terms of our fitness and skills, and in terms of acclimatising and coming here before [the start of the series],” he added. “All those aspects are really helping us. The batsmen are now adjusting to these conditions, they have got runs under their belts so they are confident, and now everyone is looking in good shape so that really helped us today.”Despite the intensity of their preparations, Pakistan’s batsmen didn’t all hit the ground running at the same speed – and it took a critical 148-run stand for the fifth wicket with Asad Shafiq to rescue their side from a post-lunch nadir of 134 for 4. Shafiq, who has been in promising form on the tour so far with scores of 80 and 69 not out in the first warm-up against Somerset, seemed set for a century until Chris Woakes’ disciplined line and waspish aggression caught him in two minds on 73.”It would have been really nice for us if Asad and me could have batted the whole day, but then they just came back into the game so there’s still a lot of hard work to do tomorrow,” said Misbah. “But Asad has been a star for us in the previous four or five years, he’s the top player at No. 6, scoring so many hundreds and scoring consistently. He’s a special player and I think in future Pakistan will be looking to him.”For the time being, however, Pakistan are looking no further than their leader, who will resume on the second morning on 110 not out, with a special place in history already confirmed following an innings that the man himself admitted was his best he has yet produced.”It’s a dream to play at Lord’s, and especially getting a hundred and my name on the honours board,” he said. “It’s something special, and a century is always satisfying for a cricketer, but I rate this innings at the top in Test cricket especially. I am really happy about that.”