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Western Storm won the second Kia Super League after an explosive innings from Rachel Priest set up an easy seven-wicket victory over Southern Vipers. In front of a 3,500 crowd at Hove, Priest became the tournament’s leading run scorer after hitting 72 off 36 balls as Storm comfortably reached a target of 146 with 12 balls to spare in a repeat of last year’s final.The New Zealander unleashed some powerful shots around the wicket with ten fours and three sixes, including a brutal assault on Linsey Smith in the final over of the Powerplay. Priest hit four boundaries and a six in an over that cost 25 runs.Priest overtook Vipers’ Suzie Bates as leading run-scorer when she reached 71 and although she was well caught on the midwicket boundary by Dani Wyatt in the tenth over, Storm only needed 52 and Stafanie Taylor, Player of the Match in their semi-final win over Surrey Stars, and Sophie Luff had little trouble in knocking off the runs.Although Taylor had to bat with a runner after suffering a hamstring strain earlier in her innings, they shared an unbroken stand of 57. Taylor cleared the long-on rope to win the game with a six.Vipers appeared to have set a challenging total on a good pitch when they posted 145 for 5 after they were put in. Openers Bates and Hayley Matthews put on 47 in eight overs although both were dropped, with Bates reprieved on 6 and Matthews off the ball before she was athletically caught-and-bowled by West Indies team-mate Taylor, having struck six fours in her 31.Bates came down the pitch to hit Jodie Dibble for a straight six and had moved ominously to 21 when Taylor trapped her leg before working across the line.Georgia Adams went cheaply but Vipers pushed on through England allrounder Wyatt and Mignon du Preez, who added 37 in five overs. Wyatt was superbly caught by Georgia Hennessy running in from long-on and Dibble held a good catch at mid-off in the 18th over to end du Preez’ run-a-ball 31, but captain Charlotte Edwards rolled back the years at the end with a cameo of 20 from eight balls including boundaries off last three balls.

James Hildreth guided his side to victory•Getty Images

James Hildreth swept Somerset to an against-the-odds four-wicket win over Surrey in a thrilling NatWest T20 Blast contest at Taunton. Replying to Surrey’s 157 for 6, the home side appeared down and out at 47 for 5 in the ninth over. But the experienced Hildreth top-scored with 45 not out and shared in a restorative stand of 69 with Roelof van der Merwe as Somerset attained their target with 10 balls to spare.A fourth consecutive home win moved the cider county up to second place in the South Group and, with three games remaining, they trail table-topping Glamorgan by two points.Just as they did in defeat against Gloucestershire at Bristol two days earlier, Somerset’s top-order batting imploded, Steve Davies, Johann Myburgh, Jim Allenby and Lewis Gregory each making a mess of the Powerplay. It was left to Hildreth and the hard-hitting van der Merwe to repair the damage, the sixth wicket pair raising a 50 stand inside three overs to put the Londoners on the back foot.Former England paceman Jade Dernbach removed van der Merwe for 36, but Hildreth and Craig Overton staged an unbroken stand of 42 to see Somerset home and materially improve their prospects of qualifying for the knockout stages.Hildreth’s unbeaten 45 came via 33 balls and included a quartet of fours, while Overton raised a quickfire 36 not out from 19 balls with a brace of fours and two maximums. Had Hildreth not been dropped by Jason Roy at backward point when he had scored 9, the outcome might have been different. But then Surrey only had themselves to blame for a shaky performance in the field.Somerset were staring down the proverbial barrel when Surrey openers Roy and Aaron Finch, approaching the Powerplay with destructive intent, blazed their way to 39 inside four overs.Australian Finch was in particularly good touch, finding the boundary rope on five occasions in harvesting 26 from 16 deliveries. No wonder Somerset supporters breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Victorian mistimed an expansive drive and was held by Overton at long-on off the bowling of Tim Groenewald.Roy fell to a horrible shot in the very next over, playing across the line and losing off and middle stumps to a straight one from Overton. He departed for 11, slamming his bat into the ground in a public show of frustration.When Mark Stoneman suffered a momentary loss of judgment and was bowled through the gate by Max Waller’s legspin, Surrey had lost three wickets for the addition of 14 runs from 18 balls. It fell to Moises Henriques and Ollie Pope to rebuild the innings, a task they accepted with alacrity, Surrey’s fourth-wicket pair adding 66 in nine overs in businesslike fashion to redress the balance.Van der Merwe disrupted their smooth progress, luring Pope into front-foot indiscretion and affording Steve Davies an opportunity to perform a smart stumping. Pope’s restorative innings of 46 occupied 31 balls and included five fours. Henriques followed him back to the pavilion in the next over, the Australian pulling Gregory to midwicket for a 32-ball 26 as Somerset reasserted a semblance of control.Charged with the task of accelerating, Sam Curran risked all against Groenewald, and holed out to the ubiquitous Waller at long-off, leaving his brother, Tom, and Rikki Clarke to hit out at the death, the seventh-wicket pair raising an unbroken partnership of 22. Yet their aggression could not quite dispel the sense that Surrey had fallen short.

Returning from a shoulder injury, batsman KL Rahul is taking “nervous” steps forward as India prepare for their first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle next week. In his first competitive fixture in four months – a two-day tour game that ended in a draw – he smashed a 58-ball 54 – but felt there was still a way to go before feeling back to his best.Rahul had injured his shoulder during the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February. But he continued to play through pain and finished the series as the third-highest run-getter from either side with an aggregate of 393, including six fifties from seven innings. Since then, however, he has had to concentrate on rehabilitation work, forcing him to miss the IPL, the Champions Trophy and India’s limited-overs tour to the West Indies.Rahul, 25, has been bogged down by injuries in his brief international career, and this was the first one that required major surgery. “I am still very nervous,” he told . “The body is still very unsure and it keeps holding me back every time. That’s the biggest challenge coming back from injury.”You know that you are physically fit and you have done everything that you can, worked really hard, you are feeling stronger, you are feeling fitter. But the mind always tells you what if it happens again, what if you have to go through the same grind for three months, what if your shoulder is not ready, what if you [have] come back early?”There are a lot of questions, a lot of doubts and that’s the biggest challenge and fight for me. I have been enjoying each day and I have been a person who takes it as it comes. If it happens again, it happens again. It’s not in my control, I have done everything I can to get back. I tried to get my shoulder stronger, my body stronger. Once I put my helmet on, I forget all of these things. You see the ball, you see the ball pitched up to you and it has to be driven, you will drive. Your body is used to that for 15 years. Injured or not injured, your body just reacts. The fear is obviously there but I will fight it and I will overcome that.”KL Rahul, with his left-shoulder, fully strapped•AFP

Returning to fitness, Rahul said, was a tough exercise, but he was able to do so ahead of schedule because of a desire to be back representing India again. “Just wake up every morning and to do the same boring thing again and again is quite tiring and it starts to get to you,” he conceded. “You start questioning yourself, asking yourself if you really want to do all these boring things. You chose a sport that is exciting and challenges you every day and here you are, waking up and doing boring things.”But I woke up and there was something that pushed me to go to the gym, go to the physio, go through the painful process, needling and then pushing my shoulder. It was quite tough but it is part of a sportsman’s life and part of our career. It’s good that things like this happened to me early and I am hoping for an injury-free career going forward. The surgeon and the physio were really happy that I could come back in three months. They were expecting me to come back a lot later but I did pay a lot of attention to my rehab. I was very disciplined and very eager to get back to the team as soon as I could. I didn’t want to miss out on any more matches”.The last time India went to Sri Lanka in 2015, Rahul’s century in the second Test was sandwiched by meagre returns as he tallied only 126 runs in six innings. He hoped to do better this time around, having worked on making his technique tighter.”The pitches here are very helpful for whoever does well. Fast bowlers have something [for them] in the wicket, the ball will spin and bounce a little bit, but if you apply yourself, you will get a lot of runs,” he said. “What I learnt from the last tour was, I left a few balls and got bowled. I went back and worked a lot on my batting. I decided to play a lot closer to the body and the Kookaburra ball does a little bit for the first 20-25 overs and then you can play your shots and get a lot of runs. So, if I can fight through that as an opening batsman, then there are a lot of runs to be made”.His performance in the practice game has also put him in a good frame of mind after the lengthy lay-off. “It has been quite a tough time to be away from cricket, to be away from the thing that you love the most. To just sit at home and watch the boys playing, it was really hard for me. I was middling the ball from ball one, hit a few boundaries from the middle of the bat, rotated the strike and not a lot of balls beat my bat.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Mithali Raj and Veda Krishnamurthy’s 108-run stand made the difference for India•Getty/ICC

Suzie Bates’ decision to bowl first in a virtual quarter-final seemed to work out perfectly for the first hour. But Mithali Raj’s sixth ODI hundred – a decidedly positive innings, formed on the foundation of two century partnerships, with Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy – lifted India to 265. It was a total that became increasingly daunting with every passing over of New Zealand’s chase.They found themselves three-down in the 11th over and after a brief, ineffective resistance from Amy Satterthwaite and Sophie Devine, they unraveled quickly to lose by 186 runs. Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, brought in to replace Ekta Bisht after warming the bench for six games, finished with a career-best 5 for 15.Raj admitted that she too would’ve bowled if the toss had gone her way. But when she came out to bat, though, it didn’t appear like the conditions played on her mind despite India losing Punam Raut and Smriti Mandhana early. The wickets were more to do with New Zealand’s discipline than prodigious movement either in the air or off the pitch. In fact, the first signs of swing came when Suzie Bates came on in the 11th over. And even those gentle awayswingers didn’t cause Raj any trouble.She creamed drives all day long, to the covers ring for a while, but eventually through them. Raj’s conscious effort to keep her strike rate in the vicinity of 80 shone through. Her fifty against Australia on Wednesday – 69 off 114 – was called out for lack of intent, and it was clear she wanted to put it to rest. So, she did. This didn’t necessarily mean India were any quicker. In fact, the run-rate hadn’t even crept past four-per-over at the end of the 30th.Raj was the aggressor, but at the other end was the promoted Harmanpreet whose longest innings of the tournament up until Saturday was a 23-ball knock against Pakistan. When she middled them, they sounded sweet, but she struggled to find the gaps. And so, once again, it looked like India were falling to the old trap of relying too much on boundaries. And the feeling was amplified when they lost two wickets in the first two overs of the batting Powerplay. Harmanpreet, who battled through injured left hand to make a half-century, chipped one back to Kasperek, Deepti Sharma fell to a stunning Rachel Priest catch, and 153 for 2 turned to 154 for 4 in the space of nine balls.India set themselves up for 250, but losing quick wickets left them with the possibility of finishing around 230 again. Raj dropped anchor and Veda Krishnamurthy looked awkward, poking and prodded to 11 off 16, before two dominant hits off Amelia Kerr in the 43rd over injected momentum. Satterthwaite dropped her on 32 at the start of the 46th, Lea Tahuhu’s chest-high full toss offered her a free-hit soon after, and by the end of the over, she had motored to 46. The first ball of the next over was drilled flat over long-on and New Zealand were now visibly anxious. Fielders ran in from the boundary and let balls bounce over them and different varieties of length balls were served in the buffet.Raj hit one boundary after the 39th over, and it came in the last over. By then, she had trotted through to her sixth ODI century. Both her and Krishnamurthy fell in that last over, but India had put up 265. Both their innings were the deflating kind – Krishnamurthy’s an ungrateful butchering, Raj’s a controlled suffocation.And Krishnamurthy was there again, during New Zealand’s chase. Bates, looking to flick Shikha Pandey’s first delivery, found the leading edge to first slip. New Zealand couldn’t find a way back – Priest hit one back to Jhulan Goswami in the next over, but the old cricketing cliche of “chasing pressure” was upon New Zealand before they could get their eye in. The ball was swinging now. And drifting, and dipping, and turning. Satterthwaite hung in, like her role demands, but No. 4 Katey Martin looked out of place all along; she’d seen one too many dot balls, and was promptly down the pitch to hit one to Kaur at midwicket.New Zealand’s hopes rested on Satterthwaite and Devine; they seemed to know this as they decided caution would be the best way forward. Raj, sensing this, unleashed her spinners on the pair. India rattled through 17 overs in an hour. The score was 51, the required rate 6.51. Gayakwad swooped in on Satterthwaite’s vulnerability and got one to spin away from her after she had stepped down. That was the start of New Zealand’s crash.The nail found the coffin in the 20th over. Gayakwad switched to over the wicket, tied Devine down to three dot balls, then pushed one wide. It was meant to turn away from the big slash through the off side, and that’s exactly what Devine did. It was too far away. She sliced it, teasingly behind Deepti at extra cover. It was India’s day, and this wasn’t getting away from the 19-year-old. She got under it, reached for it with a dive and held on. New Zealand had nothing further to offer against Gayakwad.

Defending champions Abahani Limited finished the first phase of the Dhaka Premier League with a loss, after Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club trounced them by four wickets at the BKSP-3 ground in Savar.Batting first, Abahani lost their in-form opener Liton Das in the second over before slipping to 50 for 4 by the 16th over. Allrounder Afif Hossain led the recovery with a swift 94. He also struck an 89-run fifth-wicket stand with Mohammad Mithun and a 46-run stand with Manan Sharma, helping Abahani finish with 246.Doleshwar cruised to a comfortable win, completing the chase with 2.5 overs to spare. Shahriar Nafees and Marshall Ayub added 89 runs for the third wicket before Jakir Ali took them close to the target. Marshall top scored with 83 while Nafees made 69.Brothers Union ended their 2016-17 Dhaka Premier League campaign on a winning note after their thrilling one-run win over Victoria Sporting Club at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.With nine runs required off the final over, bowled by left-arm spinner Nihaduzzaman, the Victoria batsmen could only manage singles off the first four balls before Abu Sayem fell off the fifth ball. Moinul Islam could only muster two off the final ball.Uttam Sarkar scored 39 while Moinul top-scored with 41. Manvinder Bisla took three wickets while Iftekhar Sajjad took two wickets.Batting first, Brothers Union were bowled out for 235 in 49.1 overs. Bisla top-scored with 78 off 87 balls with three fours and three sixes. Victoria captain Monir Hossain Khan took five wickets.The loss confirmed Victoria, alongside Partex Sporting Club, will have to play in the relegation playoffs. The third team in the playoffs – either Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan Samity or Kalabagan Krira Chakra – will be decided in the final round matches on Sunday.Legends of Rupganj kept themselves in hunt for a Super League place after their five-wicket win over Partex Sporting Club at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.Batting first, Partex posted a competitive 272 for 9 in 50 overs. Jatin Saxena slammed five sixes and 11 fours in his 50-ball 91. Sajjad Hossain also struck 50 off 85 balls. Syed Rasel took four wickets while Mosharraf Hossain picked up three wickets.In reply, Rupganj lost two early wickets but Raza Ali Dar and Mahmudul Hasan added 182 runs for the third wicket. Raza was bowled for a run-a-ball 99, after having struck ten fours and a six. Mahmudul’s 70 came off 93 balls with three fours and a six before he retired hurt. Naeem Islam shepherded Rupganj to the target with four balls to spare.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
4:23

Agarkar: Disgraceful batting performance from RCB

One hundred and thirty-two runs. That’s all Royal Challengers Bangalore needed. A little over 13 runs per wicket, only 6.6 runs an over, with Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their side. Against quality pace bowling led by the astute Gautam Gambhir, the most glittering batting line-up in Twenty20 cricket sensationally collapsed to 49 all out, the lowest score in the IPL and the 10th-lowest in all Twenty20 cricket. Not one man reached double figures. This was only the 10th time in the IPL that a total of 131 or under was defended successfully.At the halfway mark, Kolkata Knight Riders felt they were about 50 short of the par score, especially after the start Sunil Narine had given them: a 17-ball 34 in the fastest team fifty this IPL. They had collapsed from 65 for 1 to be bowled out only for the third time when batting first in IPL. That fall couldn’t hold a candle to Royal Challengers, though, who batted with their edges, starting with a golden duck for captain Kohli.Nathan Coulter-Nile began the slide with the wickets of Kohli, AB de Villiers and Kedar Jadhav in his first three overs, and then Chris Woakes and Colin de Grandhomme feasted on the carcass, taking three wickets each. With Umesh Yadav taking the other wicket, this was the fifth time all 10 wickets had fallen to pace in the IPL.Trini PosseAt the toss, Kohli said he expected the pitch to be a little tacky, and thus helpful to seam, after rain last night and a delayed start because of more rain. However, he opened with his trusted legspinner Samuel Badree, who has for long been one of the best T20 new-ball bowlers. Fellow Trinidadian, Narine, played him like a man who knows him inside out. Immediately he played him like a slow seam bowler angling the ball away from him as opposed to bringing it back in. 4, 4, 6, 4 in the first over, and Knight Riders had their most productive first over since 2013. Narine continuing punishing S Aravind, who had a decent Powerplay economy rate of 7.32, in the third over.Mills, Binny strikeThe Narine onslaught forced Kohli to bowl half of Tymal Mills’ quota in the first four overs. It also meant Kohli had to hold back his two other big bowlers, legspinners Badree and Yuzvendra Chahal. Mills responded, though, hitting Gambhir’s thumb on the way to Jadhav in the fourth over. A slower short ball from Stuart Binny in the sixth over accounted for Narine, who pulled and found deep square leg.Legspinners come backIn the last match at Eden Gardens, Knight Riders posted 187, and lost with 10 balls to spare. They must have been under extra pressure now to get a total that was Gayle-Kohli-de-Villiers-proof, which is perhaps why they kept going after the legspinners. Badree and especially Chahal loved it. Robin Uthappa fell playing Badree across the line, Yusuf Pathan was stumped down the leg side off Chahal, de Grandhomme skipped out and edged Chahal to slip, and Manish Pandey flicked a Chahal full toss to midwicket. The real show, though, was yet to begin.Pace like fireGoing into the chase, Royal Challengers might have thought of getting a big net run rate bonus here. Small ground, quick outfield, a paltry total to chase, with explosive batsmen in the shed, this was fertile ground for a quick finish and big momentum.Gambhir, on the other hand, walked out like a desperate nothing-to-lose Tony Montana from . He had his helmet on, and he asked Royal Challengers to say hello to his little friend: raw pace and upright seam. A pumped-up Coulter-Nile began with a massive no-ball, but he hit Gayle on the shoulder on the free hit. And when Kohli faced first up, Gambhir had a second slip in place, which is where the edge to the outswinger went.At the other end, Umesh was cut straight to point by Mandeep Singh, who had moved ahead of de Villiers in the order. The strategy for de Villiers this season has been to give him no room, doing which Knight Riders conceded two early boundaries, but a sharp bouncer from Coulter-Nile drew the fatal top-edge on the hook from well outside off.Towards the end of the fourth over, Gambhir was seen gesturing towards fine leg. He wanted one more from Coulter-Nile, who came back and accounted for Jadhav with the first ball of his third over. Gambhir also knew that Gayle was not enjoying the pace, and he kept peppering him with the pace of Umesh.Gambhir then overlooked Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav, who many might have thought were the key now, with the score 39 for 4 after six overs and with Gayle on 7 off 15. He went to Woakes, who was not going to pitch anything in Gayle’s half, even if it meant bowling a wide. That wide out of the way, perhaps Gayle felt there would be no more short balls in the over, but Woakes still bounced him, handcuffing his attempt at a big shot, and having him caught at wide mid-off. The rest was just a procession.

Match facts

March 25-29, 2017
Start time 0930 local (0400 GMT)4:30

Chappell: One of the best series since 2005 Ashes

Big picture

In a series that has hit plenty of heights, the mountaintop locale of Dharamsala seems as fitting a place as any for the fate of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to be decided. India’s players, and doubtless a few on the other side, probably expected the fourth Test to be a festive occasion, completing a marathon home international season with the completion of a comfortable series win over Australia against the most picturesque background possible. But as the former BCCI president Anurag Thakur found out when the match was first scheduled at the ground of his home association, things don’t always go to plan.Instead Dharamsala plays host to a match that will be anything but valedictory. Australia have fought India all the way through the series, having started with a stunning upset in Pune, and now find themselves needing only a draw to go home with the trophy. India, by contrast, have had to dig particularly deep to avoid defeat, first getting decidedly pugilistic in Bengaluru, then relying heavily on the serene Cheteshwar Pujara to forge ahead of the contest in Ranchi. Even so, Steven Smith’s team refused to buckle under last-day pressure, allowing them to travel to Dharamsala with confidence they can handle just about any situation.There remain questions for both sides to answer. Virat Kohli’s sore shoulder is yet another obstacle for him in a series where the Australians have kept him exceptionally quiet in terms of runs if not words. Quite apart from the physical infirmity, Kohli must find a way to escape the funk he has entered when coming out to bat all series, either attacking too soon as in Pune or finding himself starved into error as in Bengaluru or Ranchi. Equally, Australia’s vice-captain David Warner reaches Dharamsala having not yet made an impression on India’s bowlers; the helmsman of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 2016 IPL title has far more to offer, and in the series’ decisive match he will be straining to prove it.Among the bowlers, the physical strain of back-to-back matches at the end of a long season will loom large. Neither R Ashwin nor Nathan Lyon had as much impact as expected in Ranchi, and only partly because they missed the footmarks provided by the injured Mitchell Starc. Australia’s concern about Pat Cummins’ ability to cope with his workload in the third Test was underlined by precautionary scans on his back that showed no damage done. India have extra pace options in reserve, depending on how the pitch and conditions reveal themselves on match day.In a crucible of this kind, there may of course be further flashpoints between the two opposing sides. The joking observation of Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland – in a radio interview this week – that he’s not sure Kohli “knows how to spell” the word sorry was an unexpected quarter from which to stir things up once more. But as this series has shown and Dharamsala will doubtless confirm, expectation is always a chance of being confounded.If Virat Kohli plays, he will still need to find a way to score runs this series•AFP

Form guide

India: DWLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: DLWWW

In the spotlight

By playing the longest innings ever by an Indian Test batsman, Cheteshwar Pujara made himself Australia’s No. 1 wicket-taking priority in the final Test. The tourists have enormous respect for Pujara’s concentration and shot selection, but also feel that a little extra bounce could be the way to defeat him. As Josh Hazlewood put it: “Any sort of bounce is an added bonus for the quicks against most of their batters, and probably him in particular. But he’s got a great temperament and I guess you’ve just got to try and get under his skin somehow, but he just loves batting and loves batting a long time. He’s definitely a key wicket for us.”By David Warner’s logic, the wheel of his overseas under-performance is bound to turn soon. This series he has hinted at taking control of a match on several occasions, whether the first morning of the series, or the start of the second-innings chase in Bengaluru. But there has also been a sense that India’s bowlers know how to find a way past him, so long as they stay patient. Every other member of Australia’s top six has made a major contribution at least once in this series; Dharamsala could be Warner’s turn.

Team news

Kohli will undergo a fitness test on Friday night or Saturday morning to determine whether he is able to play. If he is ruled out, Iyer is likely to slot into the middle order to make his Test debut, and Ajinkya Rahane will captain the side. M Vijay may also be a doubtful starter – he did not train on Friday, and had missed the Bengaluru Test with a shoulder injury. If either or both miss out, India are unlikely to tamper with their six batsmen + keeper + four bowler combination, given the loss of so much experience from their batting line-up.India still seem unsure whether Mohammed Shami is fit enough to last five days, so if there is any change in their bowling attack, it is likely to be the inclusion of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in potentially swing-friendly conditions, possibly at Ishant Sharma’s expense.India: 1 M Vijay/Abhinav Mukund, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt)/Shreyas Iyer, 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Karun Nair, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 9 Ravindra Jadeja, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Ishant Sharma, 11 Umesh YadavPat Cummins has been cleared of any back trouble after his return to Test matches in Ranchi, so the likelihood is for an unchanged Australian side after Glenn Maxwell’s first-innings century at No. 6.Australia (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Matt Renshaw, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Shaun Marsh, 5 Peter Handscomb, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Steve O’Keefe, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood.Expectations are that the Dharamsala pitch will have help for all disciplines•AFP

Pitch and conditions

Dharamsala’s location and altitude have tended to offer some help to pace bowlers in the past, though during last year’s World Twenty20 the pitch was slow and assisting spin. The surface has a thin film of green grass that is expected to be shaved off by match morning and some help for spin can be expected.Kohli expected it to offer “good bounce for the spinners” and “good pace off the wicket for the quicks”. Dharamsala should have pleasant weather through the Test, with maximum temperatures in the low-to-mid-20s, with forecasts of rain towards the second half of the match.

Stats and trivia

• Australia are seeking their first series win in India since 2004
• Dharamsala will become the 27th Test venue in India
• Should he play, Kohli will need 89 runs to avoid completing his least productive Test series as a batsman – previously 134 runs at 13.40 in England in 2014

Quotes

“I’m focused on what we can control, and that’s playing each ball one at a time and concentrating on the processes of what we need to do in the middle and doing them for just a little bit longer than we have perhaps in the last two Tests. It’s a really exciting time for this team to be involved in this game.”
“I think the series is beautifully placed and everyone’s really excited for the Test match, both sides and people watching as well. It’s been a very, very exciting series of ups and downs, [a] roller-coaster ride. I hope it finishes really well and people get to see some really good cricket here as well.” 

South Africa wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock has been taken for a scan on his right index finger, which he hurt during the Wellington Test.De Kock injured himself in the field and South Africa will wait for results of the scan before making any calls on his availability for the Hamilton Test. De Kock was not present at the start of Wednesday’s training session but was set to join the squad later.South Africa have a reserve gloveman in their squad, the Titans wickektkeeper Heinrich Klaasen, who is yet to make his international debut.New Zealand also have an injury concern ahead of the third Test, with fast bowler Trent Boult recovering from an upper leg injury. Boult has bowled lightly for the last two days but New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watlingt said Boult was not yet 100% fit and a call on his availability would be taken later in the week.The third Test begins at Seddon Park on Saturday.

A five-wicket win for Surrey in a rain-affected game against Middlesex at Lord’s completed the quarter-final line-up of the Royal London Cup. Surrey, last year’s beaten finalists, sneaked above their London rivals into fourth place in the South Group, securing a last-eight trip to face North Group winners Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.

Royal London Cup QFs

• Somerset v Worcestershire, Taunton, August 17, 11am

• Warwickshire v Essex, Edgbaston, August 17, 11am

• Kent v Yorkshire, Canterbury, August 18, 2pm

• Northamptonshire v Surrey, Wantage Road, August 18, 1.30pm

Confirmation that Somerset would top the South Group, setting up a quarter-final with Worcestershire at Taunton, came with the abandonment of Essex’s game at Gloucestershire earlier in the day.Essex were then left waiting on results elsewhere to see if they would go through; Kent’s victory at Sussex moved them up to second but Hampshire narrowly failed to beat Somerset, sending Essex to play Warwickshire in the last eight and turning the match at Lord’s into a straight knockout.Kent will host Yorkshire in their quarter-final. Yorkshire had gone into the final round of North Group games on Monday hoping to secure a home fixture but a heavy defeat to Warwickshire at Headingley saw them slip to third.The first two quarter-finals, at Taunton and Edgbaston, will be day games played on August 17; the games at Wantage Road and Canterbury will start in the afternoon on August 18. The semi-final draw sees the winner of Warwickshire v Essex playing either Somerset or Worcestershire, while Kent or Yorkshire will go on to face one of Northants or Surrey, with the ties taking place on August 28-29.

Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha’s contract has been extended until the 2019 World Cup. The decision was approved at a BCB board meeting on Sunday.Assistant coach Ruwan Kalpage, fielding coach Richard Halsall and fitness and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan were also retained for another three years.Hathurusingha, who was appointed head coach in July 2014, will also hold a place on the six-man selection committee, along with Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud, who is also a BCB director, and the cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan.The proposal to expand the selection committee was put forward last month and ratified by the BCB on Sunday. This means Bangladesh’s national squads will be picked by a six-member panel, which would include three selectors, two board officials and the head coach.”We have only legalised the current process,” Hassan said of the change. “The cricket operations committee chairman will call the meeting with the selectors, coach and manager. The coach will give his strategic input, if he has any. The manager will give his and the captain’s input.”Former Bangladesh batsman and junior selector Sajjad Ahmed was promoted to the three-man panel under Faruque. He replaced former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar, who has been put in charge of picking Bangladesh’s women’s teams. Minhajul Abedin retained his place as senior selector on the panel.Former Bangladesh players Hannan Sarkar and Hasibul Hossain have also been made junior selectors.Another outcome of Sunday’s board meeting was the reinstatement of Bangladesh fast bowler Rubel Hossain’s central contract. He had been omitted from the National Player Contract list in February 2016 due to a disciplinary breach. Simon Helmot, who was named BCB’s High Performance coach a week ago, has been retained until 2019.The BCB are also in the midst of preparing a response to the two-tier Test proposal, although discussion on that matter was not entertained at Sunday’s meeting.”I stopped the CEO when he was giving a presentation on the two-tier system because the discussion itself is now at an early stage,” BCB president Hassan said. “It was only discussed at the CEC [Cricket Executives Commitee] level in the ICC.”