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Offspinner Dane Piedt has been called up to South Africa’s Test squad as an additional spin option. Piedt is awaiting approval of his visa and is expected to join the group this weekend, with a view to be considered for the third Test in Hamilton starting March 25.Piedt has been preferred to Tabraiz Shamsi, who was taken on South Africa’s Test tour to Australia and played in the day-night Test in Adelaide, and Imran Tahir, who has not played a Test since 2015.Piedt’s last Test was also against New Zealand in August 2016, after which he was dropped for Keshav Maharaj, the lone specialist spinner in the squad currently. Maharaj was preferred for his ability to control the run-rate and took his maiden five-for in Dunedin, but is expected to need assistance on slower, turning surfaces.Piedt’s inclusion will take the number in South Africa’s touring party to 17, after they included six pace options in anticipation of seamer-friendly conditions. Faf du Plessis admitted they have been surprised to find that is not the case, but have quickly adjusted to assuming New Zealand will look to play two specialist spinners as much as possible. As a result, South Africa are considering doing the same at Seddon Park in Hamilton, the venue that offered considerable turn during the ODIs.For Piedt, the chance to play again comes at the end of a challenging season, during which he considered seeking out a Kolpak deal in the midst of drama at his domestic franchise, the Cobras. The franchise changed coaches mid-season following a long-running battle between the players and Paul Adams, who had been in charge for five seasons.Adams was offered contract renewal despite facing a mutiny after a majority of contracted players launched a formal grievance against him. The players took their case to the country’s highest dispute resolution body, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and won the right to strike but never followed through on the threats. Instead, several senior players were sent on loan to other teams. Piedt was among them, and went to the Titans for the domestic twenty-over campaign, but only played two matches.However, when Ashwell Prince was appointed coach after Adams stood down at the end of 2016, Piedt was asked to captain the side, a role he accepted. He shelved his ambitions to seek opportunities elsewhere and committed himself to turning the franchise’s fortunes around.Remarkably, they rose from the bottom of the first-class points’ table to be in contention for the title on the final weekend. Although they did not lift the trophy, they had redeemed themselves. Piedt took 28 wickets in the campaign to finish eighth overall and of those, 17 came in the second half of the season.

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File photo – George Bailey was 93 not out at stumps•Getty Images

George Bailey was within sight of a century at stumps on the second day against New South Wales in Wollongong, where Tasmania had taken a first-innings lead. In reply to the Blues’ 253, the Tigers closed the day with an advantage of 41 runs, at 6 for 294, with Bailey on 93 and Simon Milenko on 18.Bailey already has one hundred this Shield campaign and is the competition’s leading scorer, and he was the anchor for Tasmania on a day when everyone made a start. No Tasmanian failed to reach double figures, but Bailey was the only one able to turn that into a half-century.Doug Bollinger picked up three wickets, including those of openers Alex Doolan for 37 and Jake Hancock for 28. Ben McDermott was second on the run list with 45, while Beau Webster managed 37 before he was caught behind off the bowling of Moises Henriques.

Mohammed Mudhasir took the first hat-trick for Jammu & Kashmir in List A cricket, but the medium pacer’s spectacular work was in vain as Chhattisgarh held on to a narrow four-run victory in Kolkata.J&K had won the toss, chose to bowl and Mudhasir’s 6 for 33 – the best figures for his state in 50-over history – restricted Chhattisgarh to 239 for 9. He took the hat-trick off the first three balls of the 48th over, bowling the set batsman Ashutosh Singh for 31 off 42 balls and then pinning Shubham Agarwal and Rohit Dhruw lbw. Chhattisgarh at that point were 219 for 7 but they still had Abhimanyu Chauhan. The 30-year old playing only his sixth List A game struck a career-best 90 off 89 balls with nine fours and a six and managed to push the total just high enough despite being one of only four men to make a double-digit score.J&K’s reply began terribly with new-ball bowler Pankaj Rao dismissing three of the top four. Parvez Rasool and Puneet Bisht steadied the innings with a couple of half-centuries and at 203 for 6 they seemed favourites again. The equation – 33 runs off 51 balls – was quite manageable but three wickets in the next 15 balls including that of Bisht for 68 off 80 shifted the balance decisively in Chhatisgarh’s favour. They used eight bowlers to pull off the heist, with Rao claiming 4 for 35, Sumit Ruikar 2 for 33 and Agarwal, Amandeep Khare, Ashutosh and Sahil Gupta chipping in with a wicket each.Boundary-laden centuries from Saurabh Tiwary and Ishank Jaggi helped Jharkhand coast to a target of 277 and beat Services by seven wickets and 22 balls to spare. The match highlighted the importance of set batsmen making a big score for Services had four batsmen crossing 40 but none of them went past 54. Shamsher Yadav, the 22-year old, and Gaurav Kochar, the 24-year old, on debut struck the two fifties in the innings.Jharkhand’s bowlers deserve credit for their miserly display in a high-scoring match with left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem picking up 3 for 52 and fast bowler Rahul Shukla chipping in with 2 for 58. In the chase, though Services had dismissed the top three Jharkhand batsmen without sustaining too much damage, Tiwary and Jaggi came together and hammered 214 runs off only 179 balls to seal the game. Tiwary struck six sixes and four fours while Jaggi four sixes and 10 fours.Mayank Agarwal made 89 out of Karnataka‘s total of 201 at Eden Gardens and the innings was put in perspective later in the day when Saurashtra‘s entire batting line-up could only manage 128. Agarwal spent 44.3 overs at the crease. Normally a hard-hitting batsman, his count of five fours and a six indicated he did well adapting to the match situation. Karnataka had gone from from 68 for 4 to 136 for 7 and they needed a set batsman to guide them to a total the bowlers could defend. Saurashtra were reduced to 27 for 5 in the chase and their tail was wiped out by medium pacer Ronit More, who took 4 for 20. Robin Uthappa, who was dismissed for a duck, had a much better time in the field, taking five catches as wicketkeeper.

Pakistan’s stand-in captain Azhar Ali has said his team had been 30 to 35 runs short of where they would have liked to have been at tea, suggesting that perhaps the subsequent collapse was sparked by a high required rate. Pakistan had needed 211 runs at the break, with 34 overs remaining in the match – meaning they effectively needed 6.2 runs an over to achieve the unlikely target. The three batsmen who fell soon after tea all perished playing attacking strokes.”When we came out after lunch we thought that this pitch is still good enough – the ball is not doing a lot now,” Azhar said. “We thought we can push the run rate up a bit. When the amount of overs is small and the target gets nearer, it’s easier to push things harder. At tea we really wanted to get around 170-180, but we left 30-35 runs too much to get at the last session. We didn’t get going. That 30-35 runs would have been helpful.”Though Azhar and Sami Aslam had batted sedately in their partnership – scoring at around two runs an over during the first 49 of 98 overs scheduled – Azhar said the plan had always been to attempt the target.”Above 300 in the last innings is tough in any condition, but with the time lost to rain, this was probably only the fourth day of the Test match,” Azhar said. “We thought 350-plus in a day is always difficult, but once you’re 1-0 down, you want to make a result out of it. As a team we thought it’d be possible for us to chase. Even yesterday the wicket looked good. When we batted three overs it wasn’t doing a lot. In the first innings also, the new ball did the damage. After that it was good. We just planned to go through the new ball and assess the situation as it comes to us.”Pakistan had been aggressive either side of tea, with top-order batsmen all attempting big shots, though not many boundaries were scored. They had even promoted Sarfraz Ahmed to No. 4 in the hopes he would spur the run rate, but he ultimately ran himself out for 19 off 21 balls. Azhar said that was the point at which Pakistan decided to abandon hopes of a win.”Of course after we lost four wickets, and when we lost Sarfraz, we thought that it’s over. The new ball was around the corner, so we didn’t want our lower order to be exposed to that. In the end that did happen. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a say. A draw wouldn’t have been the result we wanted, but it would have been a little better than this – a loss.”Credit to the New Zealand bowlers also, they kept bowling it in good areas. It was hard to get runs. Our minds were clear as to what to do, but unfortunately things didn’t really work to plan.”

Baroda‘s seamers delivered a thrilling 21-run win by bowling out Bengal out for 133 in their chase of 155 in a low-scoring contest in Lahli that finished inside two days. After a 23-wicket first day, 17 fell on the second. Baroda’s win was their first of the season; it took them to nine points from six matches.Baroda resumed the day 63 for 3 in their second innings, 84 in front, but were quickly reduced to 71 for 6 inside the first seven overs of the morning. Swapnil Singh and Akshay Brahmbhatt contributed 30 and 21 respectively before Mukesh Kumar polished off the innings to finish with 5 for 45, his maiden five-wicket haul. Baroda were bowled out for 133.Atit Sheth took three more wickets in Bengal’s second innings to finish with 10 in the match. Babashafi Pathan and Irfan Pathan took five wickets between them in a Bengal innings that lasted just 46 overs. Manoj Tiwary top-scored with a 48-ball 39, while four other batsmen got into double figures without managing to reach 30.Priyank Kirit Panchal struck his maiden first-class double-century to hand Gujarat the advantage at stumps on the second day against Mumbai in Hubbali. Panchal resumed the second day on 122, and seemed in danger of running out of partners as the day wore on. However, stands of 47 and 42 with No. 9 Karan Patel (14) and No. 10 Hardik Patel (5) pushed Gujarat past 400.Panchal was eventually dismissed for 232 off 434 balls, an innings that featured 28 fours and two sixes. Gujarat were bowled out for 437. Vishal Dabholkar returned figures of 6 for 118 in an innings in which Mumbai used 10 bowlers. In reply, Mumbai were 58 for 3 at stumps, with Jasprit Bumrah picking up two wickets.Left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma’s 6 for 108 helped Madhya Pradesh restrict Railways to 371 in their Group A game in Delhi. Railways began the day placed well, at 249 for 2, but lost a heap of wickets to slip to 269 for 7. Captain Karn Sharma (44) and No. 10 Anureet Singh (40) resurrected a faltering day and helped Railways post 371. Madhya Pradesh began slowly in their reply, posting 71 for 3 in 40 overs. Left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav claimed two of those wickets.Fifties from Kaushik Gandhi and Dinesh Karthik put Tamil Nadu in a commanding position against Punjab at the end of the second day in Nagpur. Gandhi remained unbeaten on a 209-ball 75, while Karthik was out for a 93-ball 54. Tamil Nadu went to stumps trailing Punjab’s first-innings score of 284 by just 66 runs with six wickets in hand.Punjab’s last four wickets only managed to add 43 to their overnight score of 241 for 6, with wicketkeeper Gitansh Khera running out of partners to be left stranded on 40. K Vignesh finished with figures of 4 for 104, and his fellow seamer Aswin Crist with 3 for 73.

Jammu & Kashmir set Goa a mammoth target of 412 runs in their second-round Group C match in Surat. Goa were 22 for 0 after 10 overs at stumps on the second day.Goa began the second day from an overnight score of 43 for 5 and were bundled out for 77, giving J&K a first-innings lead of 150. Seamer Ram Dayal finished with figures 4 for 15 from 11.5 overs, while Umar Nazir picked up three wickets. J&K then struck 261 runs in their second innings at a rate of 4.24 runs per over to establish a sound advantage. Ian Dev Singh (64) and wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht (87) struck fifties, the latter hitting 12 fours and a six in his 106-ball innings.A top-order slump saw Himachal Pradesh squander a good start and finish the second day at 198 for 8, 50 runs adrift of Kerala‘s first-innings total of 248 in Kolkata.Himachal openers Ankush Bains and Prashant Chopra (60) had added 74 for the first wicket but the side stumbled to 100 for 4 in a span of eight overs. Jalaj Saxena’s offspin accounted for three of the top four Himachal batsmen, and he eventually finished the day with 5 for 53. Earlier, Kerala’s last six wickets could add only 85 runs, after resuming from an overnight score of 163 for 4. The overnight pair of Sachin Baby (61) and VA Jagadeesh (35) were both dismissed by Mayank Dagar, before Rishi Dhawan wrapped up the lower order to finish with 4 for 66.Half-centuries from openers Nitin Saini and Shubham Rohilla eased Haryana to a 45-run first-innings lead over Hyderabad at stumps in Jamshedpur. Haryana’s score of 236 for 4 was set up by a 126-run first-wicket partnership between Saini and Rohilla before No. 3 batsman Chaitanya Bishnoi anchored the innings, ending on 47 not out.Andhra finished the second day of their Group C match against Chhattisgarh at a shaky 151 for 5, trailing by 243 runs in Kalyani. Earlier, Chhattisgarh’s first innings had ended at 394 with overnight batsman Abhimanyu Chauhan (123) completing his fourth first-class century.Andhra were propped up by opener Prasanth Kumar’s boundary-filled 62 even as the rest of the line-up struggled against Chhattisgarh. Prasanth contributed 62 to the team total of 93 before he was run out by Kant Singh. The score soon turned to 104 for 5 before Dwaraka Ravi Teja steadied the innings until stumps, finishing on 30 not out.Earlier, Chauhan, who began the second day on 73, took the team’s score past 350 after Amandeep Khare and Ajay Mandal fell early in the first session. He added 79 with wicketkeeper Vivek Naidu before both batsmen fell in successive overs. Fast bowler Duvvarapu Siva Kumar finished with 4 for 61.Tripura bowlers will look to wrap up the Services innings early on the third day and bag a first-innings lead after they limited the opposition to 202 for 9 on the second day in Guwahati.Services finished the day with a deficit of 73 runs, with Shamsher Yadav unbeaten on 71. Yadav’s half-century was the only substantial effort in Services’ first innings helping them recover from 49 for 4. Tripura, who began the day on 228 for 7 pushed the score to 275 with key contributions from Rajat Dey (34) and Gurinder Singh (35).

Kent head coach Jimmy Adams is leaving the county to return to Jamaica.Adams, 48, has been one of several coaches listed as a potential candidate for the West Indies role. He missed the final game of the Championship season against Essex after he was granted permission to return to Jamaica for personal reasons.Adams departs after five years and said: “I’ve enjoyed my time at Kent which has been a great learning experience for me. I wanted to be involved in a club that was seeking to grow and I am fortunate to have found that here at Kent over the past five seasons.”It’s been a delight being involved with all our players as they have developed during the period and especially watching the younger players who have made the step up to first-class level. Working with the club to develop a stronger support team to back up our players has also been a highlight for me.”Adams has supervised a period in which Kent have often faced stiff financial constraints but have successfully developed a new wave of homegrown talent – with batsmen to the fore – such as Sam Billings, Daniel Bell-Drummond and captain Sam Northeast.Although showing signs of improvement, they have failed to break into the First Division of the Championship. They finished runners-up in 2016 and have called up legal support to question why they did not win an additional promotion place, alongside Essex, this season when Durham were demoted following an ECB financial bail-out.They also failed to make an antiicipated strong showing in the NatWest Blast and Adams received some criticism behind the scenes for his handling of Matt Coles’ disciplinary issues.Chairman George Kennedy said: “We thank Jimmy for his fine service of the club and wish him all the best for the future. His commitment to developing Kentish cricket talent is shown by the core of homegrown players now at the heart of our professional squad.”

India Women’s opener Smriti Mandhana has signed a one-year deal with Brisbane Heat for the second edition of the Women’s Big Bash League, the franchise announced on Tuesday. Mandhana became the second India Women’s player to sign for the BBL, after Harmanpreet Kaur, the vice-captain, signed a contract with defending champions Sydney Thunder. Mandhana will join Deandra Dottin, the West Indies vice-captain, as Heat’s second international recruit for the season.ESPNcricinfo understands the signing had been in the works for over a month now, with the formal announcement coming following BCCI’s no-objection certificate.”I am looking forward very much to working with the Australian girls in the Heat squad after playing against them last season,” Mandhana told Cricket Australia. “That was a good series, and I noticed there was a definite difference between their preparation and our preparation so I am keen to learn from the differences.”Things like fitness and how they train for a series like the WBBL and the way they work on their fielding are areas I am interested in. It will be exciting to live in a different city and meet new people as well as travel around Australia again.”Heat coach Andy Richards said Mandhana was high on their wish list following strong words of recommendation from a number of Australia Women players, who featured in the ODI in Hobart earlier this year where Mandhana struck her maiden international century. She followed that up with scores of 55, 55 and 46 in her next three ODIs.”When the opportunity came about that some of the Indian players were going to be available for the WBBL, the Brisbane girls were onto us straight away about Smriti,” Richards said. “It’s going to be an enjoyable experience for all of us as a squad, with her and Deandra joining us. I think it’s going to make the second season of the WBBL even more exciting.”Mandhana came to international limelight in 2014 when she made a half-century in India’s historic Test win over England in Wormsley. She also played a key role in India’s maiden series triumph against Australia earlier this year, when she struck 29 and 22 not out in the team’s T20I series win.

Jason Holder, the West Indies captain, has said he is focused on performing the role assigned to him in the side with bowling as his “first priority”, but has admitted he would prefer batting higher up the order. Holder has taken 22 wickets in 15 Tests at an average of 44.27 and scored 675 runs at 29.34, with a century and four fifties. So far, he has played all his Tests as a bowling allrounder, and has never batted higher than No. 7.In his most recent Test, against India in Kingston, Holder bowled 34.2 overs, conceding only 72 runs but picking up only one wicket, and scored an unbeaten 64 to help West Indies save the match on the last day.”For me, I just try to do whatever the team requires,” Holder said on the eve of the third Test against India in St Lucia. “Currently, I’m playing as a bowling allrounder, I think my first priority is to bowl. I was very pleased with the way I bowled in the last Test, particularly. I didn’t think I got enough wickets, the wickets column wasn’t as fruitful as I wanted it to be.”Having said that, the beauty about my spell, for me, was remaining patient. I think on another day, you may get two or three more wickets. For me, [it’s important] just contributing to the team’s cause, just make sure every time I bat I score some runs, at least steady the ship. Most of the times, when I’ve batted in recent times, I’ve been under a bit of pressure, I think that brings out the best in me. I like those situations when I am being heavily relied on. You just knuckle down and play a memorable innings.”Ideally, I would love to move up the order and bat higher up for the West Indies in the future. I guess I have to just keep doing my job and when I get the opportunity, make the most of it.”Expecting the pitch in St Lucia to provide pace and bounce, Holder said West Indies were likely to play an extra seam bowler.”If you look at the pitch here, there seems to be a little bit of grass,” Holder said. “There’s a strong possibility that we may have a change in terms of our bowling department, we may think about the extra seamer. That’s pretty much it.”This wicket here, over the years, has played quicker than most pitches in the Caribbean. For me, I think it’s the best cricket pitch in the Caribbean in terms of carry and assistance for the quicker bowlers. So, there’s a strong possibility that you may see an extra seamer.”In West Indies’ second innings in Jamaica, each of the batsmen occupying the four slots from No. 5 to No. 8 went past 50, with Roston Chase scoring an unbeaten hundred. The top order, though, failed – and not for the first time in the series – leaving West Indies 48 for 4 at one stage.”For me, if I look back at the first two Test matches, the difference is that the top order hasn’t really been getting in,” Holder said. “I think they need to work a little harder in getting in. Once they get in, the likes of [Darren] Bravo and [Kraigg] Brathwaite and [Marlon] Samuels, we all know what they can do once they get a start. It’s just about just getting a start, and get themselves going and carry it on from there.”

You can watch the ongoing Test series between Zimbabwe and New Zealand on television in New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka, and maybe several other places, but not in host country Zimbabwe. A source told ESPNcricinfo that public broadcaster ZBC has been offered the feed for free but is experiencing a technical fault, which has prevented it from broadcasting the ongoing first Test. Pay-television network SuperSport, which is South Africa-based and works throughout the continent, did not obtain the rights for this series.Instead, Ten Sports is providing the world feed, which explains why the broadcast is available in the subcontinent. SuperSport was negotiating for the rights until a few weeks ago but failed to come to an agreement, which means the matches are also not being aired in neighbouring South Africa. SuperSport went through similar discussions ahead of India’s limited-overs tour to Zimbabwe in June, and reached an agreement at the eleventh hour to broadcast the matches.Zimbabwean fans expressed their frustration on Twitter, even though they did not turn out in big numbers at Queens. Midway through the first day, there were only a few hundred people at the stadium. With school holidays beginning at the end of this week, better crowds are expected as the series goes on.