Anamul regrets throwing away disciplined start

Anamul Haque regrets the timing of his dismissal in his debut Test innings, but is hopeful that Mohammad Ashraful and Mominul Haque could take Bangladesh ably forward in the Galle Test. At the end of the second day, the visitors were two down and needed another 236 to avoid the follow-on.

The third-wicket pair had added 70 runs by the close, Ashraful moving swiftly to 65. The team would hope for a measured approach from him on the third morning. Mominul, also on debut, didn't show any signs of nerves in getting to 35 by stumps, and both batsmen would be required to replicate their Matara tour-match partnership if Bangladesh are to prosper.

"I think the momentum will shift if we are able to bat out the third day," Anamul said. "We still have eight wickets in hand and both batsmen at the crease are set."

Ashraful and Mominul came together after Anamul tried an inside-out shot against Ajantha Mendis that went horribly wrong. "This is the first time I got out playing this particular shot," Anamul said. "I had played it in the West Indies series, where I removed my feet from the line of the ball and played the shot. I picked the doosra here, but the ball turned and I couldn't hit it."

Until he fell in the 24th over, Anamul hardly looked in trouble although he took a very cautious approach. He batted exactly an hour and a half as he moved to 13 off 68 balls, leaving as many as possible and merely placing the ball. With Jahurul Islam, who fell in the eighth over for 20, Anamul forms Bangladesh's first all right-handed opening partnership in seven years - the first since Javed Omar and Nafees Iqbal in the Bogra Test against Sri Lanka in March 2006.

Anamul's stand with Ashraful gave Bangladesh the assurance they needed at the start of the innings, but Anamul was not happy that he could not build on his disciplined start. "I got out just when I was supposed to make the runs. I had struggled my way through the innings, playing out the pace bowlers and settling against the spinners.

"Ashraful bhai started to score the runs as soon as he was set. I felt that I should have stayed at the wicket longer to make the runs."

He remained positive though, gaining inspiration from his maiden ODI century which came in only his second game. "My international [ODI series] debut went off well. When it comes to Test cricket, a player feels everything is new in his first Test match. It took me some time to adjust against the different types of bowlers. I tried to spend time at the crease, and overall I didn't feel too bad today."

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Sailkot go top after Amjad ton

Group A

A maiden century by Mansoor Amjad took Sialkot Stallions to a five-wicket win - and thereby top of the points table - over Multan Tigers in Ghari Khuda Baksh.

Multan's innings of 234 revolved around Sohaib Maqsood's 91. The rest of the batting, though, couldn't last long enough to provide him much-needed support. Wickets fell regularly after a second-wicket stand of 96. From 122 for 2, they would be reduced to being bowled out in the last over. All six of the oppositions' bowlers were among the wickets.

In reply, Sialkot struggled at 27 for 3, with offspinner Aamer Yamin taking two of those wickets. But Amjad and opener Yasir Aziz staged a recover with 102 for the fourth wicket, before the later was dismissed for 66. Amjad found able support through Adeel Malik (44), which helped them get home in the 46th over.

An all-round show from Bahawalpur Stags took them to a convincing six-wicket win over Quetta Bears in Karachi. The foundation for the win was laid by seamer Mohammad Mudassar and spinner Faisal Elahi, who shared seven wickets between them to bowl the Bears out for 144, and an aggressive career-best knock of 93 by opener Imranullah Aslam.

Quetta were behind in the game from the outset, as they were 6 for 3. Although a recovery stand of 49 between Taimur Ali and Abid Ali followed, the lower order couldn't follow it up with any resistance.

They picked up an early wicket in Bahawalpur's chase, but that proved to be a false dawn, as Imranullah punished the bowlers in his 88-ball knock with ten fours and four sixes, effectively taking the game away.

A responsible 71 by Sami Aslam was backed up by a decent middle-order batting performance asLahore Eagles defeated Hyderabad Hawks by four wickets in Hyderabad. This was the Hawks' first loss in the tournament, and the Eagles' first win.

They had a shaky start to their chase of 238, with two wickets falling early, but Jahangir Mirza, who scored 54, stuck with Aslam to put on a 111-run stand. Later, the captain and wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal also chipped in with a half-century, to help his side get home with two overs to spare.

Hyderabad, with a 132-run stand for the third wicket between Taj Wasan and Rizwan Ahmed, got to a commanding 173 for 2 at one stage in their innings. But the next eight wickets fell for 64 runs, as the middle and lower order crumbled. Wasan finished on 69, while Rizwan finished on 73. Adnan Rasool was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 28.

Group B

Karachi Zebras won their rain-affected encounter with Faisalabad Wolves in Rawalpinidi by 1 run through D/L method, and moved to top spot in Group B.

Karachi were put into bat, and started solidly to get to 105 for 2. The innings lost momentum thereafter, as Faisalabad struck regularly. Contributions from Tariq Haroon (37) and Anwar Ali (37) helped push the total to 215, as they were dismissed in 46 overs.

Faisalabad, in reply, were in trouble at 18 for 3. They lost two more in quick succession to be reduced to 60 for 5. Zeeshan Butt's unbeaten 67, along with Imran Khalid's 42, did their best to steer the ship, as they put on a 97-run stand for the seventh wicket. However, once rain intervened, Faisalabad were 1 run short of the D/L comparative score.

Islamabad Leopards won their rain-affected game against Abbottabad Falcons by 20 runs through D/L method, in Islamabad.

Islamabad chose to bat, with opener Raheel Majeed scoring 47. A brace of wickets left Umair Khan batting with the rest of the tail as Islamabad struggled to string substantial partnerships. Khan's unbeaten 91, supported by small contributions from other batsmen, and 31 extras, pushed their score to 275 for 9. Kamran Ghulam was the pick of the bowlers with a career-best 3 for 29.

Abbottabad started strongly with a 102-run stand between Ghulam and Sajjad Ali. However, with the fall of regular wickets, they fell behind in the chase, which was revived by a 51-run stand for the seventh wicket. A late rally from Yasir Shah, with an unbeaten 66, tried to keep them abreast of the required run-rate. But once rain intervened they were found short by 20 runs on D/L.

Peshawar Panthers comprehensively beat Lahore Lions by 80 runs at Gaddafi Stadium, to move up to second spot on the points table.

Peshawar, after electing to bat, lost Israrullah for 4. Nawaz Ahmed and wicketkeeper Mohammed Rizwan combined for 118 runs for the second wicket to stage a recovery. Nawaz finished with 93, with further contributions from Rizwan (55), Iftikhar Ahmed (81) and Gauhar Ali (26). Aizaz Cheema took wickets both up front and towards the end of the innings, as Panthers finished with 294 for 7 in their fifty overs. Cheema had best figures of 5 for 61.

Lahore Lions didn't start assuredly well, as they lost opener Imran Butt for 10. They could not string together meaningful partnerships, as the top and middle-order struggled to keep pace with the soaring required run-rate. The innings was kept in check through the bowling of spinner Mohammad Adnan, who picked up 5 for 46, and Zohaib Khan, who picked up 3 for 33. Despite a late order hit-out from Asif Raza (30) and Agha Salman (42), Lahore folded for 214 in the 48th over.

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Finn shines as England close in on draw

Tea England 382 for 4 (Finn 56*, Trott 10) and 167 lead New Zealand 460 for 9 dec by 89 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Steven Finn excelled in a new role as nightwatchman by striking a maiden Test fifty as England made steady progress towards saving the first Test in Dunedin. By tea on the final day, England had a lead of 89 with six wickets remaining, the job as good as done. As Finn walked back to the dressing room full of smiles, with 56 to his name, he was in danger of getting the job on a full-time basis.

England lost Nick Compton on a slow final morning, with Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen following in the afternoon, Pietersen's out-of-sorts innings even bringing conjecture that he might have been carrying an injury. All three batsmen fell to the persistent left-arm seam of Neil Wagner, but if the wickets kept a flicker of interest in the match, they never suggested that New Zealand might be on a roll.

Finn could take much credit for that. His wagon wheel when he reached fifty showed five boundaries scooting off in the general direction of third man, but he made good use of his long reach on a pitch that remained as docile as ever. James Anderson, his predecessor, has taken a battering in some of the most threatening situations Test cricket can offer, but Finn got a cushier job and relaxed into it with aplomb. Wagner did test him against the short ball eventually, but only at around 130kph and only when his eye was in.

He reached his 50 from 152 balls, angling Wagner through gully, but then decided to take stock, scratched a new guard and did not score for the next hour and a quarter, his next single, bringing ironic applause from the Barmy Army and a blast from Billy Cooper's trumpet. It was just as well that he did dig in because Trott fell for 52 in the same over, Wagner taking a good leaping catch in his follow-through from a leading edge, and Pietersen soon followed to a weak edge from a nondescript shot.

Perhaps it will emerge that Pietersen is injured, perhaps he was just having one of those days. Just as he is intoxicated by the big occasion, he can run on empty if a game feels flat. If he guested in a club knockabout, there is every chance that somebody would get him out for nought, just as there would be every chance that Finn would get a hundred.

Finn escaped a couple of tough chances; in the first over of the day edging very low towards Dean Brownlie at third slip and later, on 37, sending an edge between the slips off Kane Williamson. The middle of the bat often proved elusive, especially when compared to the timing shown by Trott, but his stay was testament to the work England's bowlers put in on their batting.

England began the day still 59 runs behind and a couple of early wickets, with the ball still new, would have opened the door for New Zealand. However, it took them more than an hour to make the breakthrough which came when Wagner swung one back into Compton's pads who, for a moment, considered the review before deciding, wisely as replays showed, that it would have been a waste.

Compton's seven-hour innings - 117 from 310 balls - was a study in concentration and determination. He was given a warm ovation as he walked off, his father Richard leading the applause from the crowd, and was safe in knowledge that his Test berth is now secure.

Trott played effortlessly, a punchy straight drive off Bruce Martin emphasising that there would be no last-day encouragement for New Zealand's left-arm spinner, who instead continued toil on a dead surface. England made only 53 from 28 overs between lunch and tea and Finn was responsible for 14 of them. But the overs were ticking down and, for England, that was all that mattered.

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Ankle injury puts Wade in doubt for third Test

Australia wicketkeeper Matthew Wade is in doubt for the third Test after hurting his ankle while playing basketball in Chandigarh on Saturday. Brad Haddin has been placed on standby for Wade, pending the result of scans on Sunday morning, four days before the start of the Test.

"Matt Wade sprained his right ankle playing basketball yesterday afternoon," Australia physio Alex Kountouris said. "His ankle is subsequently swollen and painful so will have a scan this morning to help determine the extent of the injury and how we manage it. He will not take part in today's training session."

This is the second consecutive Test in which there has been doubt surrounding Wade's fitness, after he suffered a minor fracture to his cheek while facing throwdowns in the nets on the eve of the second Test in Hyderabad. Wade played that match and scored 62 in the first innings batting at No.6, which has been his position since the final Test of the home summer.

The Australians arrived in Chandigarh on Thursday but the players have had two days off since following their innings defeat in Hyderabad. The squad will train at the Mohali ground for the first time on Sunday.

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Afghanistan hit Scotland World Cup hopes

Afghanistan 261 for 5 (Nabi 51) beat Scotland 259 for 9 (Coetzer 133, Davey 64) by five wickets
Scorecard

Afghanistan drew level with Scotland in second in the ICC's WCL Championship table after a five-wicket win that boosted their hopes of securing automatic qualification for the 2015 World Cup. A second defeat to the same opponents in three days, meanwhile, was a significant blow to Scotland's chances of finishing in the top two.

Despite Kyle Coetzer's run-a-ball 133, only three other batsmen got into double figures as Scotland made 259 from their 50 overs. Afghanistan put on several solid partnerships, with the lowest score among the top six being 28, and Mohammad Nabi rattled off 51 from 44 balls to put them on the brink of victory. A few blows from the powerful Gulbodin Naib were enough to finish the game with eight balls to spare.

Nabi had earlier taken two wickets but Scotland will rue not having made a more challenging total after reaching 144 for 1 in the 32nd over. Coezter and Josh Davey (64) had combined for a second-wicket partnership of 134 but Hamid Hassan broke the stand and Samiullah Shenwari (3-42) ripped out the middle order. Dawlat Zadran took two wickets and also ran out Coezter to prevent Scotland getting away.

Ireland lead the WCL Championship with 13 points, with Scotland and Afghanistan on 11, having played two games more. Netherlands, in fourth, face Namibia next month, while fifth-placed UAE host Ireland later in March. There will be a further two rounds of games, with the top two teams guaranteed a spot at the next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

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Sangakkara issues challenge to new generation

On the first day of a series aimed at regenerating Sri Lanka's Test side, Kumar Sangakkara has laid down a challenge for the young batsmen who are now set for an extended stint. Sri Lanka fielded four batsmen with fewer than ten Tests' experience, including a debutant, all of whom are yet to score a Test hundred. Angelo Mathews, who was recently appointed Test captain, has a solitary century to his name.

Of the young players, Lahiru Thirimanne finished unbeaten on 74 at stumps, having negotiated comfortably both seam and spin, alongside Mathews who was 25 not out. Dimuth Karunaratne had earlier made 41, having resumed his innings after retiring hurt when he was hit on the elbow.

"For guys like Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo, their target should be to score 35 to 40 hundreds by the time they finish," said Sangakkara, who made his 31st Test hundred on day one. "They've got the ability to do that. Thirimanne batted beautifully today and Dimuth's [dismissal] was unfortunate. Angie [Angelo] is looking really good. When you look at these younger guys, you see that they've got so much to offer Sri Lanka cricket.

"You can say there is a selfish element in getting runs and scoring hundreds, but if you keep doing that, you and your side benefit. When individuals keep pushing themselves to go beyond others, I think that's a really good atmosphere."

Sangakkara moved into tenth position on the all-time run-scoring list with his 142, surpassing Sunil Gavaskar. He had said earlier in his career that 30 hundreds and 10,000 Test runs was his career goal. He has reached both targets comfortably, but says there is still more he would like to accomplish in the game.

"Gavaskar was a fantastic batsman, and I'm very privileged to have had a career where I am able to go past him. Still I am three centuries behind him, but hopefully I can go beyond him on that count too. I'd still like more runs and more wins. I think that's what motivates all the guys who play."

Sri Lanka finished day one at 361 for 3, and Sangakkara said his side would aim to push on in the first session in day two, to set up a position from which they are unlikely to lose. Rain is unlikely to make a major impact for the remainder of the Test, but there have been short afternoon rains on each of the past three days in Galle. Sri Lanka are likely to want the game to progress quickly, to give themselves the best chance of going 1-0 up in the series.

"My idea after getting 100 was that the bowlers were tired and I wanted to get past 300. If we are able to pass 300 on day one, that makes it easier to make a declaration, after a session or so in the second day. Lahiru was batting really well, and my job was to try and accelerate and score runs quickly, so that the team was in a good position. 361 is a good score and it gives us a position to first bat one session [tomorrow], and then Angelo can decide when he wants to declare."

Sangakkara also paid tribute to Thilan Samaraweera, who retired earlier in the week after not being picked for the series. "Thilan was a magnificent servant of Sri Lankan cricket. He never had the limelight or the fame that he probably should have. I remember his debut against India - he scored almost a run-a-ball hundred, and was averaging in the 50s. Suddenly he had to stop playing cricket for two years because Aravinda de Silva made a comeback into the side. That's been the way [throughout] his career. Whenever the team wanted a shift or anything, Thilan was the easiest guy to move up or down, or in or out.

"I just hope that there will be other cricketers out there who will come in and do the kind of service that is unnoticed and unrecognised only [until] when they retire, [so they] can see what an amazing career they've had."

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Samuels returns for Zimbabwe Tests, Narine left out

Allrounder Marlon Samuels returns to the West Indies squad after a two-month injury break, having been picked for the first Test against Zimbabwe that begins on March 12. Offspinner Sunil Narine did not feature in the 13-man squad, and in his place Shane Shillingford came in.

Samuels had missed the limited-overs leg of the Zimbabwe series after picking up a facial injury during the Big Bash League, Australia's T20 competition, in January.

Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, who debuted in the Lord's Test last year but was then sidelined by a stress reaction in his back, made a comeback. Two exclusions of note on the fast-bowling front included Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards. Rampaul had returned to the domestic circuit in February after two months out due to knee trouble and had said at the time that he was "100% fit". Edwards had taken a match-haul of seven in his previous Test match - against Bangladesh in November. His last competitive match was on February 14, in the Bangladesh Premier League.

The other players to miss out from the squad that played the Bangladesh series, which was West Indies' previous Test assignment, include batsmen Kirk Edwards and Assad Fudadin.

Narine had had a poor run in that series, taking three wickets in two Tests at an average of 114.33. Twenty-three-year-old left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, who had a relatively better series with eight wickets at 31.62, retained his place.

Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin kept his role as Test vice-captain, while Chris Gayle returned after asking to skip the limited-overs series against Zimbabwe. Experienced batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan, who returned for West Indies on last month's limited-overs tour of Australia after a contentious 18-month break, was not handed a Test comeback.

West Indies and Zimbabwe will play two Tests in all, and the hosts' squad for the second Test will be named at a later date.

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Cook and Compton set base with century stand

Tea England 139 for 0 (Cook 64*, Compton 60*) and 167 trail New Zealand 460 for 9 dec (Rutherford 171, McCullum 74, Fulton 55) by 154 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Eventually, England might work out why their batting invariably fails at the start of an overseas Test series. Until they do, they will be left with the sort of battles for survival that they faced against New Zealand in the first Test in Dunedin.

As they battled to right the wrongs of their first innings debacle, England's sense of mortification could hardly have been more apparent. The charge of complacency has been levelled at them from many directions, with former England captains such as Michael Vaughan and Michael Atherton prominent in their criticism. It was not a day for fripperies.

Familiarity perhaps made their task feel a little easier, especially as this time there were no mystery spinners in sight, just a willing but limited New Zealand attack.

Alastair Cook and Nick Compton, faced with a first-innings deficit of 293 and five-and-a-half sessions remaining, settled to a laborious task with equanimity. In the 54 overs by tea, their opening stand was still unbroken, 139 runs carefully gathered without much ado, their resistance on a cold and cheerless day giving the crowd another reason for forbearance.

It was Saturday, but it the mood was so workmanlike it felt like Monday morning. New Zealand's bowlers ran in eagerly, their spirits high and their lengths fuller than their English counterparts, and the captaincy of Brendon McCullum was business-like, more proactive perhaps than his predecessor, Ross Taylor, who had lost the captaincy in all forms of the game in such controversial circumstances.

But for all New Zealand's vigour, a stodgy brown surface showed no signs of deterioration. It was treacly at the start and it behaved as if it would be treacly for ever more. Cook essayed an occasional attractive drive or square cut; Compton just bedded in, his mental approach as upright as his stance, his footwork decisive but rarely expansive.

There was a hint of swing for the left-arm quick, Neil Wagner, the least accurate of New Zealand's fast-bowling trio, and when Cook squirted Bruce Martin's slow left-arm off his pads to reach his 50, there might have been a semblance of turn, but any excitement was tempered by the low bounce that made it easier to counter. Martin did nothing out of the ordinary to take four wickets in the first innings and he may never experience such largesse again.

They took time to settle. Cook, on 4, needed an inside edge to survive Tim Southee's resounding lbw appeal and New Zealand lost a review when Compton, on 16, when the same bowler appealed for a catch down the leg-side, replays suggesting that the ball had brushed his thigh pad. Wagner also found enough inswing to give Compton some uncomfortable moments.

After staving off 22 overs before lunch, they were in orderly mood throughout an attritional afternoon. That both have the temperament to bat long was not a matter for debate, but while Cook's Test record has few equals at this stage of his career, Compton was intent on proving that he has the required talent to succeed at this level.

It was all an abrupt change of tempo from New Zealand's enterprising start to the day as they added a further 58 in less than nine overs before declaring with nine down. McCullum, 44 not out from 42 balls overnight, flogged England to distraction, thrashing another 30 from 17 balls as he took toll of an increasingly disenchanted England attack.

McCullum swung Stuart Broad over deep square leg to reach his fifty, the ball sailing over two Union Jacks at the back of a temporary stand and a bus as it flew out of the ground. He then pulled and drove James Anderson for further sixes. To compound Anderson's misery, McCullum escaped potential catches by Cook, at first slip, and Compton, at deep cover, by inches before he skied Broad high to mid on where Anderson held an awkward catch.

As Broad and Anderson persisted in bowling short, McCullum's mood also rubbed off on the debutant left-arm spinner, Bruce Martin, who pulled with gusto until he was caught at the wicket for 41 off Steven Finn attempting another leg-side hit. It was an enterprising start to the day, but it was about to be replaced by a much more serious mood.

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South Africa abandon one-day experiments

Like a scientist who has decided his analysis has run its course, Gary Kirsten declared the exploratory phase for South Africa's one-day squad over as they begin preparations for their series against Pakistan.

The five-match rubber is the last outing the team will have before they travel to England for the Champions Trophy in June. From the outside it seems South Africa have much work to do if they hope to bring back ICC silverware but Kirsten is convinced they have the base from which to build and the time for trials is over.

"The players that are in this squad are the best players in the country. That's why they're selected. We're not experimenting. We're playing the best players," he said in Bloemfontein, ahead of the first ODI. "We're looking at the best 17 or 18 players knowing that we need to be able to shift and move around a bit."

The squad has three changes from the one that lost to New Zealand in January with Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar out and Kyle Abbott in. While that hints at settling, what underlines it is the substantial difference from the Twenty20 squad that lost to Pakistan last week.

Crucially, South Africa have senior players back in the group with Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn bringing their 320 caps with them. That proved to be the biggest difference between the teams at Centurion, where Pakistan's seasoned bowling attack outclassed South Africa.

Getting the balance between old and new, especially in an era where cricket schedules are more cluttered than said scientist's work bench, is tricky. But with no Tests to think about before October, South Africa have an opportunity to do it properly.

Their selections will be questioned as selections always are but at least they have settled on something. Some will argue they should have included Richard Levi, Stephen Cook or Henry Davids, the top-three leading run-scorers in this season's one-day competition, but an opening partnership of Smith and Amla is more formidable.

Likewise, Andrew Birch, Roelof van der Merwe and Hardus Viljoen - the domestic tournament's leading wicket-takers - have had to miss out to an attack that will include Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Ryan McLaren, Robin Peterson and Aaron Phangiso. Morkel remains an injury concern having not recovered fully from the left hamstring strain that kept him out of the third Test. Kirsten envisages that he will play "at some point" but, in keeping with the way he has been managed in previous one-day games, he may be rotated.

Where question marks remain is around the middle-order but a quick scan of the statistics hint that the selectors could not have done that much better. Vaughn van Jaarsveld scored 28 more runs than Farhaan Behardien in the Momentum Cup but no-one put up their hand up high enough.

	"It's nice to have a focus on ODI cricket so we can upgrade our skills and make sure we spend as much time as we can knowing what we need to do to close games out in tight moments" Gary Kirsten

What the likes of Berhardien, David Miller and Colin Ingram need to do is harden up - particularly mentally - before players such as Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and Yaseen Vallie and Cody Chetty start challenging for their places. That could be as early as next season. For now, the incumbents have to do the job and Kirsten has accepted that, knowing they failed in that regard two months ago.

Against New Zealand, South Africa's middle order was its usual wobbly marshmallow, incapable of toasting no matter how much it was held over the fire. It melted in the face of pressure, where aspects such as the death bowling also struggled. "All our preparation and our debriefing has been on the New Zealand series," Kirsten said, confining the retrospection to the shelf. "We've spoken about what went wrong there and what we could have done better. We try not cross pollinate too much. That keeps us all sane. We're spending a huge amount of focus over the next three days on making sure we get our game in order. Then we know we can put opposition teams under pressure.

"We've played a lot of Test cricket over the last while, so it's nice to have a focus on ODI cricket so we can upgrade our skills and make sure we spend as much time as we can knowing what we need to do in that version of the game to close games out in tight moments. We know we can create some momentum, and we know that with the players we've got we are able to win games in difficult situations."

That is exactly where South Africa have fallen short. They have not put the opposition under pressure often enough and they have not closed out squeaky-bum situations, never mind done so with conviction. They have floated somewhere between uncertain and unable, mostly mirroring their tactics.

Now Kirsten has said that should change. Stability will return to South Africa's one-day squad. AB de Villiers has been reinstalled as wicketkeeper and will have to find a way to manage that, his captaincy and his role in the batting line-up without feeling rushed, as he once claimed to. He will have plenty to lean on with Faf du Plessis having emerged as a competent leader himself.

The batting and bowling roles of individual players will not yo-yo from game to game and the focus has supposedly been defined and lies centrally in everyone's minds. South Africa only have five matches to show whether all those things have actually happened.

Although Kirsten remarked that they have 15-20 ODIs before their next Test (five against Pakistan; one against Holland; potentially five at the Champions Trophy if they go all the way; five against Sri Lanka; plus a few more against Pakistan in the UAE), it is not as simple as those numbers. There is an ICC tournament in between and a demanding public will want to see how far South Africa have reallyprogressed.

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Parnell, Rahul Sharma charged in recreational drugs case

South Africa allrounder Wayne Parnell's participation in IPL 2013 is in no doubt, according to his franchise Pune Warriors, despite him being one of 35 "wanted" foreign nationals for allegedly testing positive for recreational drugs following a police raid on a party in Mumbai last year. Parnell's IPL team-mate, Punjabi legspinner Rahul Sharma, who had also reportedly consumed drugs at the party, is also "supposed to join the squad as per schedule", a franchise official told ESPNcricinfo.

Parnell and Sharma were among 90 people detained following the party at a hotel in the Juhu suburb of Mumbai on May 20 last year, a day after Pune Warriors' IPL 2012 campaign ended. According to reports, drugs including cocaine, MDMA and cannabis were consumed at the party.

Of the 90 people, 86 apparently tested positive - 35 foreign nationals, who have been "shown as wanted" as per a police official, and 51 Indians. These 86 people had a 1200-page charge sheet drawn up against them last month, according to PTI.

Apart from the players' franchise, Tony Irish, the chief executive of the South Africa Cricketers' Association, also played down the issue. "Wayne has an individual agent who will deal the matter but we, as the players' association, will assist him in any way we can," Irish said. "From what we know of the facts, there is little substance to them."

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