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Scorecard2:41

Highlights – New South Wales v Western Australia, 1st day, Lincoln

The New South Wales top order put together a quartet of solid innings without anyone going on to a hundred in the ground-breaking Sheffield Shield match at Lincoln, near Christchurch.It was the first time in the history of the Shield that a match had been played beyond Australia’s borders, and on an evenly-grassed pitch at Bert Sutcliffe Oval the Western Australia captain Adam Voges elected to send the NSW in to bat.Ed Cowan (57) and Daniel Hughes (65) responded with a partnership that was at first considered then increasingly fluent, blunting the new ball and then adding some attractive strokes to the equation. They had added 116 and looked good for more when Cowan perished to the offbreaks of Ashton Turner.Hughes was to fall soon after, edging David Moody, who bowls seam up like his uncle Tom, through to Sam Whiteman, who was fit again after missing the Big Bash League through injury. Kurtis Patterson (75) and the captain Nic Maddinson (65) then played contrasting innings, the former’s more deliberate style offering a sound counterpoint to the latter’s aggression.They prospered for 104 runs in 24 overs, until Moody chimed in again to defeat Maddinson. The remainder of the day swung towards WA’s bowlers, as Ben Rohrer and Trent Copeland fell cheaply either side of Patterson’s exit. The Test gloveman Peter Nevill was left to hold the fort with Sean Abbott against the second new ball, with hope of building on the second morning.

The former Glamorgan captain, Hugh Morris, has been unveiled as the new managing director of the England cricket team, while Mike Gatting and the former England women’s captain, Clare Connor, have been handed major new roles at the England & Wales Cricket Board, as part of the wide-ranging managerial restructure as recommended in the recent Schofield Report.In the wake of England’s 5-0 Ashes humiliation in January and their subsequent early exit from the World Cup in the Caribbean, Ken Schofield, the former chief of the European PGA Tour, was commissioned to chair an inquest into the state of English cricket.He drew up a list of 19 recommendations, chief among which was: “The establishment of a new management structure within the ECB with full accountability and responsibility for the selection and performance of the England cricket team.”Morris, who played in two Tests for England in 1991, has been the ECB’s deputy chief executive since December 2005. He was also a member of the seven-man Schofield committee, having retired from playing in 1995 to take up a role of technical coaching director with the ECB. His new role gives him responsibility for all aspects of England team affairs – including the thorny issue of discipline, which was addressed last week by the incoming ECB chairman, Giles Clarke.The selection of players with injury problems would also come into Morris’s remit – a problem that has become especially acute in recent months given Andrew Flintoff’s ongoing struggle with his ankle. By acting as a liaison between the players and the head coach, the intention is that players would be better placed to admit to injuries without jeopardising future selection.Gatting, who played in 79 Tests and captained England on their last victorious Ashes tour in 1986-87, has been handed the role of Managing Director Cricket Partnerships, which will cover first-class as well as recreational cricket, with a view to enhancing communications between the various levels of the game.Connor, who retired in 2006, succeeds Gill McConway as the Head of Women’s Cricket and will represent ECB on the ICC Women’s Committee. It promises to be a tough act to follow. McConway is responsible for such innovations as the Super Fours – which were credited with assisting in boosting England to No. 2 in the world – as well as finding the team a permanent home at Taunton and bringing about the deal for the team buses to be England-branded – an innovation which was taken on board by England men and the England boys Under-19s.ECB chief executive, David Collier, said: ‘I am delighted that Hugh, Mike and Clare have accepted these positions. Their experience as captain of their counties and England together with their knowledge of the Cricket Foundation, Chance to Shine, Club cricket and the Lord’s and Lady Taverners will greatly strengthen the Cricket Department within ECB. These appointments were recommended within the England Review and approved by the Board this summer.”

Michael Clarke was desperately unlucky to miss out on a place in Australia’s side for the first Test, according to Darren Lehmann. Clarke lost the battle with the allrounder Shane Watson for the No. 6 spot when the 13-man squad was announced on Thursday.Lehmann, who offered to give his Test place to Clarke in India in 2004, said the selectors needed to show faith in Clarke. “Michael Clarke is the one I still like. I think he has a great future in Australian cricket,” Lehmann told the . “I think Michael Clarke can play for ten years. I would like to see him play and give him an opportunity. He has all the shots, plays the right brand of game and could be a future leader.”Clarke said he was not surprised that Watson had got the nod. “I probably always think the worst so it doesn’t hurt so much,” he said. “Deep down I did think they would go with Watto. I guess I knew I didn’t do too much batting at the ICC Champions Trophy, simply because all the guys were doing so well above me, and that was terrific. I am obviously disappointed to miss out, I’d like to play for Australia in every Test but I guess my focus now is to just get back to New South Wales and make as many runs as I can in one- and four-day cricket.”Clarke has had limited opportunities to play for his state since being dropped from the Test team last summer. “That’s the hardest thing,” he said. “I think in my last three games for New South Wales I’ve scored 170, 200 and then 50 and 70 [against England] early this week. That comes with playing a lot of one-day cricket, and where I’m batting you don’t always spend a lot of time in the middle. And you know what, I wouldn’t swap being part of Australia’s one-day team, and playing every game I can. I love it.”

Jason Gillespie’s fightback into Australian contention suffered another setback when he was ruled out of South Australia’s Pura Cup match with a bruised lung. Gillespie was hit in the chest by a stinging Brett Lee delivery while batting in yesterday’s ING Cup game against New South Wales, and showed courage to bowl ten solid overs for 39 in the three-wicket loss.After visiting a respiratory specialist in Sydney today Gillespie was withdrawn from the squad for Tuesday’s New South Wales fixture and missed his chance to make a national claim following a disappointing Ashes tour. A South Australia spokeswoman said Gillespie, who scans showed had deep bruising to his right lung, should be fit for the one-day match against Queensland in Adelaide on November 4, a day after the first Test against West Indies begins.Gillespie was not the Redbacks only injury worry and Greg Blewett, the former Australia batsman, was given until tomorrow to prove his fitness after sustaining a back injury in making 31 against the Blues. Gary Putland and Nathan Adcock stayed with the squad in Sydney as the selectors delayed naming the starting XI until before the toss at the SCG.

Cricket equipment worth around £60,000 has been destroyed after a rabbit, caught in a bonfire, ran out with its tail on fire and set light to a storage shed in Devizes in Wiltshire.Two groundsmen had just lit a pile of leaves and branches when the rabbit shot out, tail ablaze, and bolted into a shed containing mowers, wheelbarrows and other pitch-care equipment belonging to the 150-year-old Devizes CC. John Bedbrook, their chairman, told Reuters: “After it had been going five minutes, the rabbit shot out of the bonfire on fire and went into the hut which is our equipment store.”The fire brigade was called, but two fire engines – and 11 firemen – could not save the shed or its contents. There was no sign of the rabbit, either, which is presumed to have gone up in flames too. The Devizes fire-station commander, Philip Flowers, said that in 22 years he had never fought a fire caused by a burning animal before. “We’re 99% confident it was the rabbit that caused the fire,” he said. “It was either burnt to a cinder or it escaped through a small hole in the corner of the shed – but I imagine it perished and went to bunny heaven.”The BBC website blamed a “Hot cross bunny” for the blaze.

The Glamorgan squad for the four day Frizzell County Championship match against Derbyshire starting at St. Helen’s, Swansea on Wednesday, 4th June is as follows:

A DaleJ HughesDL HempMJ PowellMP MaynardMA Wallace +RDB Croft *DS HarrisonMS KasprowiczAG WharfDA CoskerAP Davies

The 1st One-Day International in the Spurs ODI Series will be played at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo and the following squad has been selected:

Philip Amm, who played 118 first-class matches and 138 List-A games between 1982 and 1998, died in Grahamstown, aged 51.A Cricket South Africa release noted that Amm was “one of the outstanding opening batsmen of the 1980s and early 1990s.” He had his finest hour when he struck 214 against Clive Rice’s “Mean Machine” attack, helping Eastern Province seal their first Currie Cup title in the 1988-89 season.Amm represented SA Schools and SA Universities besides plying his trade for Eastern Province and Border. He scored 6860 first-class runs, including 12 centuries and 39 fifties, to add to 4117 List-A runs.His elder brother, Peter, also played for SA Schools and turned out for Eastern Province B in first-class cricket.”On behalf of the CSA Family I extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and his cricketing colleagues”, CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

On the eve of India’s first ODI in the bilateral series against Australia, MS Dhoni expressed concern that none of his batsmen might be able to offer any overs should any of his specialist bowlers have a day off. As it turned out, India failed to defend 309 on a flat Perth pitch, and India missed that extra bowler dearly.In fact Dhoni tried to sneak in a cheap over or two from Rohit Sharma when Australia had lost two early wickets, but the hosts went after Rohit, and also the specialist spin bowling of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. The fact that the two spinners went for 129 runs in 18 overs rattled India’s captain. “You have to realise, yesterday when I spoke [about the lack of part-time bowlers] I was talking more about the fast bowlers,” Dhoni said. “If they don’t have a very good day, I will have to use the spinner. I never thought the spinners will have a very bad day and the others will have to share the responsibility.”If you see the bowling department the fast bowlers did a very good job. The spinners could have bowled a little better, in the sense that if they would have just avoided the easy boundary deliveries… If the batsman hits you over long-on and long-off, fair enough, it is always a good shot, and with a bit of risk involved. You have to make sure with the field restrictions that you don’t get hit in an area where you don’t have a fielder. That is something we will have to avoid.”You can empathise with a bit of Dhoni’s helplessness. The spinners have been his pride. He has won the Champions Trophy in England through spin. Through spin he took India to the World T20 final in Bangladesh. Through spin he won a bilateral ODI series in England in 2014. Now that the fast bowlers gave his defence of 309 a good start, Dhoni found himself unable to set fields for his spinners. What do you do when your most trusted weapons let you down?”They [Australia] played a few big shots, but other than that was the time when they rotated [the strike] really well. They were still getting six, even more than six, an over. That was an area where there was a lot of pressure on us because the spinners also went for quite a few boundaries. I felt that was a phase where we could have bowled slightly differently. Other than that the fast bowlers bowled really well.”Given India’s bowling – they conceded 438 in the last match they played – and given how much the Australian batsmen have plundered them of late, you did wonder if India were urgent enough in putting the runs on the board once they got off to a good start. The four overs immediately after the 40th brought India just 26 runs, and the fifth resulted in Virat Kohli’s wicket, only the second India had lost until then. Dhoni was asked about that period of play. He didn’t find much wrong in India’s approach, but also conceded his bowlers might have taught him a tough lesson in that regard.”You have to look at what could have been a good score,” Dhoni said. “As I said 310 was a very good score. They batted really well, still they reached it in the last over. Which means I feel if we had bowled slightly better we could have put more pressure on them. Maybe induce a few big shots early in the innings.”Always you can debate you could have played a bit more aggressive cricket at that point of time. Also you have to realise once the platform is set at that time what happens if you lose a couple of wickets? What we saw was, it was easier for the set batsmen to hit. Even for the Australian batsmen the set batsmen were hitting the big shots. More difficult for the newcomers. That is a catch-22. Yes we had wickets in hand, and could have pushed for 15-20 more runs, but also you have to look at the other side, what if we didn’t reach 310? Overall if you see maybe if we are in the same situation we may bat slightly differently. Still on this wicket, I felt 310 was a very good score.”

Contests between England and South Africa are building up a tasty rivalry and their first meeting in Twenty20 is a vital match for both teams. Everyone is back at square one now, with no points going forward from the first round, so whoever starts with a win will have ahead start on chasing a semi-finals slot. The home side have hit formearly on in the tournament, especially with the bat, and will alsobring with them passionate support. England, though, won’t be withouttheir fans at Newlands and need to quickly move on from their drubbingagainst Australia. South Africa’s recently memories are good too,after thrashing England during the World Cup.Bat play: Do England stick or twist, especially with the toporder? Darren Maddy has only had a couple of games, but Vikram Solankiis waiting in the wings and Luke Wright’s last three scores have been0, 0, 3. Against teams without a specialist spinner, Owais Shah seemswasted at No. 7.South Africa have a selection issue after JP Duminy’s useful displayagainst Bangladesh. Herschelle Gibbs is expected to come back into theteam, so it may be a quick return to the bench for Duminy. They showeda degree of flexibility by promoting Albie Morkel to No. 3, withsuccess, so a few more of their allrounders could also performfloating roles.Wrecking ball: South Africa’s bowling attack continues to be atouch one-dimensional, but they at least showed more variety againstBangladesh. Makhaya Ntini is proving hittable with the new ball, hisnatural length allowing the batsmen to get underneath the ball. MorneMorkel has shown he has pace and Vernon Philander continues the strongearly impression he has made in South African colours.England have already tinkered with their fast-bowling line-up, butJames Kirtley’s return to international cricket amounted to one overfor 17 against Australia and he was very nervous. Stuart Broadcontinues to bowl too short, while Andrew Flintoff isn’t doing much toease fears over his injury problems. Chris Schofield has held his own,but the attack certainly doesn’t appear as threatening as it didagainst India only a few weeks ago.Keep your eye on: He’s a common theme, but Kevin Pietersenagainst his former countrymen is never a contest to miss. The lasttime he played in South Africa he went away with three centuries andturned the crowd in his favour. But there is plenty of feeling betweenhim and Graeme Smith.Shop talk: Coach Peter Moores will emphasise to his team the need toplay with controlled aggression. “You have to be brave but you alsohave to be selective as well – that’s the fine balance of Twenty20cricket,” he said. “When things become shortened your decision-makingbecomes a key issue all the time on who you attack and when you attackand you look for opportunities to go.””We’ve had some success in the one-day game against them [England] inrecent times,” said a confident Smith. “Hopefully we can carry thatinto the match. They have some world class players and how we controlthat will be important. Our ability to put their bowlers underpressure will be a key part of the game.” Smith also confirmed thatGibbs’s rehabilitation is coming along well and he should play.Pitching it right: “It didn’t quite play as we expected,” saidSmith after victory over Bangladesh, which hints there was a touchmore bounce in the surface. South Africa found that banging the ballbrought more rewards, so hit-the-deck bowlers could be the key.Teams:South Africa (probable) Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs,AB de Villiers, Justin Kemp, Mark Boucher (wk), Vernon Philander,Shaun Pollock, Johan van der Wath, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, MakhayaNtiniEngland (probable) Darren Maddy, Matt Prior (wk), KevinPietersen, Paul Collingwood (capt), Owais Shah, Andrew Flintoff, LukeWright, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Chris Schofield, Stuart Broad, JamesAnderson