Many questions for Pakistan's batting

Following yet another Pakistan batting collapse, it's time to take a good long look at team composition and strategy

The tale of the Pakistani batting slump is nothing new. A combination of poor shot selection, insecurity, lack of confidence and a fear of Rangana Herath led to a familiar story repeating itself at the SSC. Pakistan was given a target of 271 to chase down in four sessions but it took only one session for their batting to unravel to an extent where victory was only a remote possibility.

The famous victory in Sharjah this January is a one-off in recent years as Pakistan have rarely been strong chasers. It isn't a lack of ability, but more about losing it within their mind.

On day three, Grant Flower tried to make sense of Pakistan's problem, but Herath dominated his answers; several times he applauded Herath and put Pakistan's first-innings collapse down to his skills. Perhaps his responses reflect the sense prevailing in the dressing room, that the opposition can dictate their fate.

Flower was also confident Pakistan could do well the second time around. That did not happen; their top order did not look comfortable at all. Sarfraz Ahmed is the only positive Pakistan can take forward. The average opening partnership in their previous 13 Tests is 26.15, and the experiment with Ahmed Shehzad and Khurram Manzoor does not seem to be working. Both have been guilty of throwing their wickets away with poor shot selection. While Shehzad will be persisted with, Manzoor is not likely to get too many more chances.

Azhar Ali suffered a dip in form in 2013 and was replaced by Mohammad Hafeez, but his impactful hundred in Sharjah pushed him up the pecking order once again. Expectations of him grew as well, but he hasn't been able to meet them. He resisted hard while scoring 32 in the first innings, before falling to an inadvisable shot to Herath in the second.

Younis Khan, apart from his 177 in Galle, has scored just 34 in three innings. Being a senior player, the attempted sweep which led to his dismissal today, with the side already reeling, could be termed erratic. Captain Misbah-ul-Haq has scored 67 at 16.75. He is having a hard time as captain, too, with Pakistan not having won a Test series since beating England in the UAE in early 2012. A 2-0 defeat here could be decisive for him.

While the defeats must hurt, what could hurt Pakistan more is if they do not learn from them. It is vital that the team management gets the team selection right. The likes of Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq seem to be the future for Pakistan, but Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam could probably work well too. The captain and coaches have also rarely been critical of the batting in public.

Minutes after the stumps today, the team had packed up its stuff and left the ground. The media had requested that coach Waqar Younis attend the press conference, but they were told none of the Pakistan contingent would be taking questions. Even if they do not do so for the media, one hopes that Pakistan is answering the many questions that persist over their batting for themselves.

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Hales 'like nobody else we have' - Morgan

Eoin Morgan believes Alex Hales is a unique talent within the English game and has the potential to flourish in all three formats having witnessed at first hand one of his most destructive innings.

Hales, who has England's lone T20 international hundred, is expected to be named in England's one-day squad to face India on Monday, and is in line to make his ODI debut at Bristol on August 25, as they search for a top-order combination that can provide the firepower to challenge at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. He had previously been set to come into the one-day side in West Indies earlier this year but picked up an injury and was then called in as cover against Sri Lanka but remained behind Michael Carberry in the pecking order.

He has been in prolific form of late, in the last month hitting two Royal London Cup hundreds, including a ferocious 141 off 96 balls against Middlesex at Lord's, and a century for England Lions against Sri Lanka A, a marked contrast to his fortunes earlier in the season when he was forced to briefly go on loan to Worcestershire having lost his place in Nottinghamshire's Championship side

It was the innings at Lord's that Morgan, Middlesex's limited-overs captain, was able to witness from close range having previously watched as Hales made 96 and 94 in the Championship clash between the two teams, and it reinforced his belief that he can have a successful international career in more than Twenty20.

"He's unbelievably destructive and stakes a huge claim to be selected in all three formats," Morgan told ESPNcricinfo. "His form at county level has been phenomenal and he's like nobody else we have around, with the combination of how hard he strikes the ball and the ability to take the game away from opposition.

"I've witnessed Championship form against him and he was very impressive. It was the first time I'd seen him in Championship cricket and to see where he has come from since the start of the season when he had to go to Worcestershire on loan is a huge credit to him. He has ridden the wave in recent weeks."

The make-up of England's top order is an often debated subject and the selectors have been reluctant to move away from the Alastair Cook-Ian Bell pairing which has become established over the last few years, believing they have the ability to move through the gears as needed even though the middle order, of which Morgan is part, are often left needing to up the ante whether chasing or setting a target.

If Morgan's comments are any judge, England are not about to rip up their play book - Hales splitting the Cook-Bell alliance could be as radical as it gets - although he did add that valuable lessons were learned during the one-day series in Australia at the start of this year which England lost 4-1.

"We are building for a World Cup in Australia and New Zealand were a par score will be 300-320 on the majority of grounds but before that we have the series against India, in English conditions, where going hell for leather up front just would not be helpful at all. You take a lot of risks with the conditions [in England] and two new balls.

"We've had a formula that has worked in England and now we need to find a balance between having success here and also winning in Australia."

Morgan also believes that the way England's calendar has been structured to allow them to focus solely on one-day cricket from now right through to the World Cup gives them an excellent chance of correcting a dire record in the tournament going back to 1992 - the last time it was held in Australia and New Zealand.

"It's fantastic, really. An ideal lead into the World Cup. It puts great emphasis onto one-day cricket and it gives a great opportunity to build a squad that is good enough to win a World Cup

"It's an opportunity we haven't had in quite a long time. With that, though, comes a lot of expectation and rightly so. We've a fantastic squad of players and the one-day series in Australia during the winter was a great learning curve and gave us a chance what we need squad-wise and attributes-wise for a side to be successful in those conditions.

"I think conditions will suit us. The batting wickets are some of the best in the world and I don't think the bounce is alien to us at all. During that one-day series we had chances to win but there were just areas of the game, and moments within them, that we lost at crucial moments. The fact we made the mistakes then gives us the chance to correct them."

It appears unlikely that England will perform a complete cull of the one-day squad that lost to Sri Lanka earlier this season. Moeen Ali's success with the ball may earn him a spot while Steven Finn, who has been in the squad for the last two Tests, is favoured for a recall.

Possible squad Alastair Cook, Alex Hales, Ian Bell, Gary Ballance, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, James Tredwell, James Anderson, Steven Finn

Eoin Morgan was speaking at an ECB Club open day event at Maidenhead & Bray CC in partnership with Waitrose

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England emerge from the darkness

Having been in chaos three Tests ago, England can take credit, pride and encouragement from this result

#politeenquiries: Do India need more Test cricket?

Perhaps the darkest hour really is right before dawn. Exactly a month since England succumbed to one of the more depressing Test defeats of recent years at Lord's, they clinched the Investec series with a crushing victory at The Oval. It is their first series victory in a year.

Any celebration must be tempered by the knowledge that India offered painfully weak opposition. We knew before they arrived that their away record was poor, but to succumb to a second successive innings defeat - this victory was the fifth biggest, in terms of innings margins, England have achieved - to be bowled out within a session's worth of cricket, to fail to reach 200 in any of their last five innings, tells a sorry tale of a side ill-prepared for a Test series in these conditions and chronically lacking in confidence. England will face far tougher challenges.

Until they alter their priorities, until they start to value Test cricket more than the revenue they make from other formats, India are unlikely to provide healthy competition.

Such an impression is confirmed by the rankings. England are likely to be placed third when the new list is announced, a long way behind South Africa and Australia and only just ahead of Pakistan. They face all three teams in 2015, with the series against Pakistan and South Africa to be played away from home. By the end of next year, we will have a far clearer indication of England place in the new world order.

Nobody thinks this is the end of the journey. Nobody think England have arrived. Nobody think Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson are quaking in their boots.

But there is sometimes a temptation to downplay England's successes. To explain them away. To suggest that they are hopeless when they lose, but that their victories only come against hopeless teams.

That is a little unfair. This victory has come against an India team that played beautifully at Lord's; that harnessed English conditions better than England. An Indian team that is the best financed in world cricket; that represents the most populous cricket-playing nation. A team that contains several highly talented batsmen - the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli - who most expect to go on and enjoy wonderful careers. A team that contains two other technically excellent batsmen - Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane - and a seam attack - Varun Aaron, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma, in particular - who performed admirably without support from their awful slip fielders.

So, from where they were, at the end of the Lord's Test, England can take credit, pride and encouragement in this performance. After Lord's, England had lost seven of their previous nine Tests. They had won none of their last 10. There were doubts about the position of the captain, the wicketkeeper, the spinner and a couple of the seamers. There was growing clamour for the resignation of Alastair Cook and the recall of Kevin Pietersen. They were in chaos.

They have learned a great deal since then. They learned that their young batsmen - Joe Root, Gary Ballance and Jos Buttler - have what it takes to flourish at Test level. While they will face sterner tests, it would be no surprise if that trio spent a decade in this side. Their slip catching may also win a few games.

They were reminded of the value of continuity of selection. They found that Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan and Chris Woakes all began to perform more consistently once they felt a little more established within the side. They learned that Moeen has the skill and character to prosper, that Woakes and Jordan, excellent on the final day, can offer the support James Anderson and Stuart Broad require.

They were reminded, too, of the value of using home conditions. After the first three Tests of the summer were played on slow, low, lifeless surfaces, England squandered more benevolent conditions at Lord's. But from then they dominated in conditions offering movement and just enough bounce to test the opposition batsmen's technique and temperament.

While there may be a temptation to prepare more lifeless surfaces ahead of the Ashes next year - the sort of surfaces designed to negate Mitchell Johnson et al - it must be resisted. For their morale, if nothing else, England need to feel they can hurt opposition with the ball. If the ball swings or the pitches offer seam, they have a chance next summer.

And they learned, if there was any doubt, that their captain is a man of rare determination.

Some questions remain. Not least, the form of the opening batsmen. Cook has not made a Test century in 31 innings and, even after three half-centuries in four innings, the sense remains that it is his luck that has turned rather than his form. He and Sam Robson will have to contribute far more if England are to continue to climb back up the Test rankings.

There will be some bleak days in 2015. There will be days when Buttler drops chances that Matt Prior, at his best, might have caught. There will be days when Moeen struggles to retain control, when Woakes struggles for potency and when the middle order show their relative inexperience.

But England have shown in the last month that they are heading in the right direction. If they hold their course, if they stick to their plans and retain faith in one another, this need not be the high point on their journey.

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Spirit departs sorry India

The details of India's capitulation at The Oval did not bear repeating as even their Man of the Series, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, gave up the fight

'We never really competed' - Dhoni

Capital punishment is all but abolished in India. Since 1995 there have been only four official executions. It has, rightly, stopped being a spectacle. Yet, if you still want to see what people walking to the gallows look like, look no further than India's last day of the series. The Oval is infamous for its pigeons. On the first day, MS Dhoni tried to shoo them away with his bat, from close range, but they would not budge. Even they didn't come to watch on Sunday. They must have been bored by the mismatch. They wouldn't have had the heart to watch the final execution of India's spirit in all its gore.

On the final day, they conceded 101 runs in 11.3 overs and then got bowled out in 29.2 overs. There were players trying to prove their performances earlier in the series were no fluke. There were players fighting for their places in the side. There were players who had to prove their reputations had been well-earned. Yet, confusion, meekness and poor cricket reigned.

How they got out was merely details, but even the incredibly generous appraisers in the India team and the board will be aghast at Gautam Gambhir's dismissal. To get him back in the squad was a regressive move in the first place. To play him in the XI more so. To play him again was the sign of a side who couldn't be bothered to care. Gambhir was never the most talented batsman India have had, but it was his fight and gumption that made everyone root for him. He made a Test career out of punching above his weight. Here he got out trying to run away from the strike. With rain in the air. With lunch seven minutes away.

In fact the players didn't even wait for the third umpire to watch the replay. They went off immediately. Gambhir was the only man who waited. Last time he came to England he was accused of hiding behind an injury. He was now walking off with an average of 6.25 in the series, having lasted 19 excruciating deliveries, having tried a single that never was, and having not dived to make his ground. It is out of line to question anyone's courage when it comes to sport but it will be fair to say the attempt at the single showed he didn't fancy facing any more of James Anderson.

That brought together Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli to bat out of their station once again. One final time. With scrambled minds, exposed techniques and questionable support staff behind them. They are millionaires. They are in their mid-20s. They have scored centuries in South Africa and New Zealand. Kohli has won ODIs off their own bat. They have done nothing of note on this tour. They aren't even slip fielders. They will be hurting. Schedules created by their board give them no time to work on their techniques. It is out of the question to expect them to make time. Surely, even if they wanted to, they can't opt out of the BCCI's marquee events because they want to become better Test batsmen?

Pujara got out to a ball that he would normally have left alone even if it had a cake on it. Kohli tried to whip through midwicket an outswinger from off. This was resignation if ever there was any. It was him saying, "Nothing is working, what the hell, let me try my one-day game." There will be time for it, Virat. And it won't be easy. India haven't won an ODI on their last two overseas tours.

	Ramesh Mane stuck pictures of gods and religious chants on the dressing-room wall. He might as well have removed them after the first session of the Test. There is no god who could have helped this team

ODIs are what their captain was born for. Dhoni has gone from good to ordinary as a captain in this Test series. He has been awful as a wicketkeeper. Yet, as a batsman he has been brave and selfless. Having moved up to No. 6, he has played the game he knows, and let the balls hit his body when he has had no idea. The ball that got him in India's final innings might have cracked a rib but wouldn't have got him out last week.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has bowled 172.5 overs in this series. His pace has dropped. He has looked tired. Yet the accuracy hasn't left him. Over after over he has been nibbling away. He has been one of India's four best batsmen too. No matter how tired he has been, no matter how dispirited, he has fought hard for every single run because it is him who has had to defend them. He has made England earn his wicket almost every time. He has been India's spirit of this tour. He has been their conscience. He was named India's Man of the Series by England coach Peter Moores.

India should have got a picture of Bhuvneshwar and stuck it up in the dressing room. When they didn't feel like putting up a fight - and how much can you blame them given their techniques and the state of mind they were in? - they should have looked at Bhuvneshwar's picture and reminded themselves they have to fight for him. He is human, too. He can be forgiven a stray thought, "Who am I doing this for?" He can be forgiven the stray wild drive that signals the leaving of the last bit of spirit.

The day before this Test, Ramesh Mane, the team masseur and the general good old man, stuck pictures of gods and religious chants on the dressing-room wall. He might as well have removed them after the first session of the Test. There is no god who could have helped this team.

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USACA T20 title split after final rained out

New York and South East were announced as co-champions of the USACA T20 National Championship after the final was stopped due to rain after six overs with South East 34 for 3. After waiting more than three hours during heavy rain showers, play was finally called off with both teams sharing the tournament title.

Adil Bhatti of the Atlantic Region was named Best Batsman of the tournament while Camilus Alexander of the South East Region was named the tournament's Best Bowler. Nisarg Patel of South West was named Tournament MVP.

The tournament was scheduled to have 19 games over three days. However only three games were able to be played to the full 20 overs. Six more matches were rescheduled as 10-over games and were completed on Saturday morning. Four others, including the final, ended up with no result. Four other matches were unable to be played due to rain while the tournament runner-up matches never got underway after a player walkout which took place after the semi-finals were scrapped to accommodate an earlier start to the final.

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Ishant front foot highlights big problem

Umpires are simply not watching for the no-ball closely enough and it is creating trouble for bowlers. When an umpire fails to call your foot faults, he is basically omitting to tell you all is not right

'India's bowlers stuck to their task'

In the tour game in Derby - it seems like an age ago for the hobbling Indian team now - Ishant Sharma bowled nine no-balls. Those sitting in the press box - dead square from where Ishant was delivering - spotted about as many no-balls not called.

In the 64th over today, he got a tickle down leg from Ian Bell, which MS Dhoni failed to catch. Had he caught this, it still wouldn't have brought Ishant a wicket, because he had overstepped marginally. A ball later, he produced the outside edge, which Dhoni accepted, but the umpire momentarily cut short his joy by asking for replays to check if this was a no-ball. It wasn't. By a long margin. As was the case with another wicket earlier.

Later in the day, Stuart Binny bowled a big no-ball, got an edge down the leg side, but the umpire missed it. Had this edge gone straight to Dhoni as opposed to the boundary, the umpires would have surely checked it with the third umpire.

All this sounds right on the surface, but hasn't Ishant been led into believing he is doing all right by an umpire who was only half alert to his no-balls? Had Binny taken a wicket next ball with a similar no-ball, wouldn't he have reason to feel aggrieved that he wasn't warned at his first indiscretion? When an umpire fails to call your foot faults, just because that ball has not produced a wicket, he is basically omitting to tell you all is not right. And he surely will go upstairs should you take a wicket. He will go upstairs even if you are not even close to overstepping.

On his debut, in Adelaide last December, Ben Stokes was denied his first wicket when the third umpire called it a no-ball but he had landed in the exact same spot a few times before without the umpire calling him. Had he been called earlier, he would have delivered from six inches further back.

The umpires have a big problem almost all over the world; hence there might be no point in naming Kumar Dharmasena as the main culprit here. Umpires are simply not watching the front foot closely enough. It can't be the case that they operated similarly earlier, and it is just now that the technology has exposed them. The technology has been around for years, but the umpires didn't miss the number of no-balls they do now. It just becomes all the more jarring when they go upstairs for wicket-taking deliveries even though half the foot might be behind the line.

There is a general trend of falling umpiring standards, which the ICC masks by releasing misleading stats on the percentage of decisions the umpires have been getting right. For the purposes of these calculation, moving your hand parallel to the ground and around waist high for a straightforward four is also counted as a correct decision.

Ishant, Varun Aaron and Binny - the three men involved in the no-ball dramas today - were not available for comment, but R Ashwin - a spinner, who is going to be involved in much fewer similar cases - took this quite sportingly. He basically said that while it might be unfair on the bowler who is going through this, you can't have the umpires check every ball. But this state of affairs has all the makings of becoming ugly when in a tight match a bowler lands in the same spot with two consecutive deliveries, and is called only for the second just because he got a wicket.

"This is one thing I have been conscious of," Ashwin said. "It is very nervous moment when the umpire checks the no-ball. It has taken away the real quick happiness of taking a wicket. Once you have celebrated and all that, it is like a pinch on your backside. But it's good, to use the technology to correct the errors. If we keep checking every tight one, we won't get 90 overs in in a day."

There is no external solution to this problem. Checking no-balls is a welcome addition, which has an offshoot that is not quite desirable. There is no way someone can sit outside and check no-balls before a spinner has collected a forward defensive and bowled the next ball. The umpires will have to get their act together. There is no reason for them to not look at the front foot as closely as they used to.

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Dainty says USA too busy to have domestic events

Gladstone Dainty, president of the USA Cricket Association, has said the reason USA was unable to hold a domestic national tournament for the last three years was because the organisation has "been busy participating in ICC events".

Prior to this weekend's USACA T20 National Championship, there had not been a national domestic championship at the men's level since June 2011 in New Jersey. USACA has also not been able to organise a women's national event since July 2011 while junior tournaments also experienced a three-year gap until an under-15 National Championship was held in California in June. An under-17 national tournament which was due to be held at the AAU Junior Olympics last month in Iowa was canceled by the Amateur Athletic Union after no players or teams registered.

Speaking at the final presentation of the USACA T20 National Championship, Dainty also commented on the rain that affected play over the course of the weekend, that allowed for only three full games. He said the tournament couldn't be held in Indianapolis because "a lot of things conspired against us". The City of Indianapolis sent USACA a termination letter in May to end their three-year hosting agreement for the national championship, claiming the board's failure to communicate with the city after the resignation by Darren Beazley as USACA chief executive.

The USACA president also commended the players for paying out of their pockets to attend the rain-marred tournament and stated that USACA was able to raise $35,000 to stage the tournament thanks to a pair of sponsors, including title sponsor FutureTech. The presentation was attended by ICC Americas Regional Development Manager Ben Kavanagh as well as West Indies Cricket Board vice-president Emmanuel Nathan and former West Indies Test player Lawrence Rowe.

The only teams present at the awards presentation were the two participants in the tournament final, South East and New York. The other six teams who traveled to the tournament were not present for the awards ceremony after half the teams left the ground in a player walkout following USACA's decision to wipe out the semi-finals over the threat of rain.

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USACA runner-up games scrapped after player walkout

'Very disappointing we didn't get a semi-final' - Dave

A pair of consolation matches between the second and third place teams from each group at the USACA T20 National Championship were cancelled after players from all four teams decided they did not want to play the games.

Originally the tournament schedule called for quarter-finals and semi-finals on the final day, but persistent rain in south Florida had caused a series of interruptions at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill. USACA tournament officials decided to remove those games from the schedule and instead play a final immediately after group play due to the threat of imminent rain on the final day of the tournament.

"Based on what we have seen for the past two days, this scenario was discussed at the team managers meeting yesterday and all the managers agreed to it," Owen Grey, USACA T20 National Championship director, told ESPNcricinfo. "We were hoping to get in semi-finals and the teams would like to do it but, at the same time, we had an agreement that, based on the weather projection, we might only play a final."

The two consolation games would have featured South West against Atlantic and North West against North East. However, all four teams decided to opt out of the matches and instead sat to watch the tournament final or drove back to the team hotel. In particular, players from the two second place teams in each group, South West Region in Group A and North West Region in Group B, felt aggrieved that they were denied a chance to play in semi-finals for a chance to make the tournament final.

"In yesterday's meeting after most of the round-robin games were washed out, they wanted to look at the weather today and then after the first round decide if they want to have the semi-finals or not," said South West captain Mehul Dave. "It was pretty disappointing because personally I still thought it was a possibility to have semi-finals and then have finals. That way the top two teams in both the groups have a fair chance for the title again."

"We came a long way spending our own money to participate in this tournament and win the title. Of course there is a lot of talent in the South West Region which they wanted an opportunity to show. But with rain and 10-over games, we didn't get an opportunity to show. It's very disappointing that we didn't get a semi-final to play for."

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Worcestershire stumble after Miles four

Gloucestershire 181 for 2 (Roderick 88*, Gidman 57*) trail Worcestershire 194 (Oliver 52, Miles 5-54) by 13 runs
Scorecard

Promotion favourites Worcestershire endured one of their worst days of the summer in the Championship when dismissed for 194 by Gloucestershire on a seaming surface at New Road. Having come into the match with a game in hand and 43 points ahead of second-placed Surrey, they are already looking at a sizeable deficit after the visitors' smooth progress to 181 for 2.

Gloucestershire briefly wobbled at the start, slipping to 43 for 2 when Will Tavare was caught in the slips off Charlie Morris' second delivery, but Gareth Roderick seized the initiative, adding a fluent and substantial half-century to five catches behind the wicket.

The South African cruised to 88 not out with 15 fours off 107 balls and so far he has put on 138 with Alex Gidman, unbeaten on 57, in cutting the gap to a mere 13 after a day when most things went right for their side.

Gloucestershire became the first county to dismiss the Division Two leaders for under 200 in a first innings this season, despite the absence of Will Gidman through injury in advance of confirmation that he will be with Nottinghamshire in 2015.

One look at a grassy first-day pitch made it a straightforward decision for Alex Gidman to field first, after taking over the captaincy when Michael Klinger rested a neck injury prior to a make-or-break fixture in the Royal London Cup. With a quarter-final spot secured this week, Gloucestershire are looking to book a home tie by winning their final Group A game against Derbyshire at Derby next Thursday.

Another objective is to improve their form in the Championship. Injuries have been a major factor and apart from the absence of the younger Gidman, the attack here is probably as strong it has been following the last-minute registration of New Zealand offspinner Mark Craig.

With the ball consistently moving about off the seam, Craig Miles led the assault on Worcestershire with 4 for 54 and the other wickets were equally shared by Liam Norwell and Benny Howell.

The batsmen could quickly see trouble ahead, when Daryl Mitchell, the leading batsman in Championship cricket, registered his first duck in a season of 1,222 runs. He was stranded in front when a delivery from Miles kept low and ducked into his pads. Miles also removed Tom Fell with the first of Roderick's dismissals, but there was hope for Worcestershire as Richard Oliver collected a dozen fours from only 46 balls in maintaining his record of a half-century in each of his four Championship appearances.

Howell finally stemmed the flow when Oliver, on 52, was added to Roderick's haul and Worcestershire quickly slipped to 112 for 5, with Alexei Kervezee lbw to Norwell for 31. The only other higher-order contribution came from Ben Cox with 25 before he, too, was caught behind the wicket.

The ninth wicket went down at 149, but infuriatingly for Gloucestershire the last pair put on 46, the biggest stand in the innings. A missed chance in the slips allowed Shaaiq Choudhry to reach 27 not out and the No. 11 Morris made his highest Championship score before falling for 24, another victim for the Roderick-Norwell combination.

Matt Mason, Worcestershire's assistant coach, said: "It was probably our most disappointing day of the season so far. We were put in and it was tough to bat early on. Richard Oliver acquitted himself well but everyone else struggled. With the ball, we were disappointing as well, if for once I can criticise the bowlers."

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Ervine, Wood revive Hampshire

Hampshire 343 for 7 (Ervine 75*, Wood 61, Smith 56) v Kent
Scorecard

Sean Ervine made the best of a placid Canterbury pitch to ease Hampshire into the driving seat on the opening day of their Championship Division Two clash with Kent.

The 31-year-old Zimbabwean scored an unbeaten 75 from 110 balls to resurrect a Hampshire innings that, at 187 for 5, had threatened to seriously underachieve. With Chris Wood adding 61 from No. 8, the visitors recovered to reach 343 for 7 at the close.

Kent marked the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I by using a 1914 half crown for the toss, which Hampshire won and chose to bat first. On a docile wicket the visiting opening pair of Jimmy Adams and Michael Carberry suffered little or no consternation in posting 71 for the first wicket.

Carberry steered a couple of his seven boundaries down through third man off thick edges, but otherwise looked untroubled until the introduction of offspinner Adam Riley, who struck with his fourth ball. Looking to whip a length delivery through midwicket, Carberry missed and was sent packing lbw for 39 but, despite a short break for rain, Hampshire were still sitting pretty at lunch on 90 for 1.

Kent regrouped in the interval and, with the first ball after the break, Mitch Claydon found the inside edge of Adams to dismiss the left-hander to an athletic take by wicketkeeper Sam Billings - the first of his four catches.

Kent made further mid-session progress when Doug Bollinger had James Vince caught at the wicket when attempting a back-foot force then Will Smith, having reached a 108-ball 50 with eight fours, played around one from Riley to go leg-before. Without addition to the total Liam Dawson nicked another catch to Billings to make it 187 for 5 but Ervine, resolute and punishing when anything short was on offer, stroked six boundaries on his way to a 59-ball 50.

Soon after posting their first batting bonus point Adam Wheater feathered one off Bollinger to give Billings another top catch and leave Kent believing they might polish the innings off in good time. Ervine had other ideas however, and he dug in together with Wood to add a workmanlike 124 for the seventh wicket inside 28.3 overs.

Wood hit six fours in his 74-ball half-century in a responsible stay in tandem with Ervine that left Kent wondering where their next wicket may come from.

It was veteran Darren Stevens who finally proved to be Kent's partnership breaker having Wood snaffled at slip by Ben Harmison to bring in Matt Coles - the former Kent allrounder - to face the handful of nervy deliveries before the close. Though Coles failed to get off the mark, he survived through to stumps with Ervine to send their side into day two of the 163rd Canterbury Cricket Week fixture with power to add.

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