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Stuart Broad has hailed this summer’s victory over Australia as “the most special Ashes win I’ve been involved with”, but says that England know from bitter previous experience not to let their focus slip when they return to Test action against Pakistan in the UAE next month.Broad, whose career-best haul of 8 for 15 on the first morning at Trent Bridge was the defining moment of the summer, is one of four survivors from the England team that travelled to the Emirates in January 2012 as the No.1-ranked Test team in the world, but finished up on the wrong end of a 3-0 whitewash.Despite competing with the ball on that trip, with Broad himself topping the averages with 13 wickets at 20.46, England struggled with the bat in each of the three Tests, being dismissed for fewer than 200 in four of their six innings. In the second Test in Abu Dhabi, they were set 145 for a series-levelling victory but were shot out for 72 by Pakistan’s spinners, Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman.”[It’s a] really tough [challenge],” Broad told ESPNcricinfo. “But we have got guys of experience who have toured there before. Myself, Jimmy [Anderson], Belly, Cooky, we know the challenges we’ll face there, we know we’ll have to spend long times in the field to create pressure to take wickets and bat a long time.”In addition to winning the Ashes, England have won plaudits this summer for the approach they have taken to their cricket, with a new positive attitude reaping dividends across all three formats.Nevertheless, England’s Test record remains erratic, with four defeats in their last nine outings against West Indies, New Zealand and Australia. In particular, the nature of their two crushing defeats in the Ashes – on the slower, less seam-friendly surfaces at Lord’s and The Oval – doesn’t bode well for the challenges to come.”The biggest skill as an international cricketer is adapting to conditions,” said Broad. “Not every wicket you can go out and play hugely positively on.”I’ve not played at Sharjah [the venue for the third Test], but the wickets in Dubai and [Abu Dhabi] offered a tiny bit of seam but very slowly so we just bowled really straight.”But as a batting unit I remember we just got bowled and lbw a huge amount, which is not what you’d expect from world-class players. So that’s something we’ll have to learn from as a batting unit, to make sure we are playing straight, and look to get big runs because that’s what will determine the UAE trip, big runs on the board.”Broad is mindful of England’s tendency in recent years of following notable series wins with disappointing follow-ups – a pattern that was set in motion with a 2-0 defeat against Pakistan in 2005 following the euphoria of that summer’s Ashes, and continued two winters ago with the 5-0 whitewash that followed straight on from England’s successful home campaign against Australia in 2013.However, he believes that the current England team is at a different stage of its development to previous outfits, and credits Andrew Strauss, the team director, with instilling a new ethic that will help them to retain their focus throughout a tough winter that also includes a Test series against South Africa in December and January.”I think when Straussy came into the job, he had a long-term vision,” said Broad. “Obviously we had a huge goal to win the Ashes this summer but it’s further than that. We want to be a team that the fans enjoy watching, our style of cricket has changed, we are playing a style that people will want to tune in and watch and come to the ground and see.”We want a style of play that will take us a long way with the fans but also get us to the top of the world, and I think we are developing that. Obviously our inconsistencies have been well documented – win, lose, win, lose – but that keeps you on your toes and makes you want to improve when you are training.””There’s a huge goal this winter,” he added. “I’ve not been involved in a Test series win against South Africa, and we got beaten heavily in the UAE last time. There are a lot of goals and a lot of motivation for a lot of success this winter, and when you have a young squad and guys who are desperate to succeed, you can take the team a long way.”Broad, who was not involved in the one-day series against Australia, has been enjoying a rare period of down-time since the Ashes, with a chance to reflect on a remarkable summer in which England’s success was closely linked to his personal achievement. His 21 wickets at 20.90 enabled him to become only the fifth England bowler to claim 300 in Tests.”It was extra special because we weren’t expected to win,” said Broad. “Australia came into the series with such form and dominated the World Cup. If you read all the newspapers and saw all the predictions before it started it was Australia, Australia, Australia.”It was a whole team effort, a group of guys who threw themselves in the series. That’s why it felt so special. We have an end goal to be the best in the world in Test match cricket. That might be a few years away but we know we have the talent in changing room to reach that.”

They have had a tough time on this tour but Kenya has finally won agame. In an all- African clash they defeated Namibia by 54 runs at theBOI ground in Negombo. It wasn’t all plain sailing though for theKenyans, who had let the Namibians back into the game after reducingthem to 74-6.Kenya who batted first after their captain, Muhamad Sheikh, won thetoss for only the second time in this tournament, were all out for 220and then bowled out the Namibian’s for 166.Despite scoring their highest score of the tournament, the Kenyanswill have still been disappointed with the score. A good battingpitch, a fast outfield and some pretty ordinary bowling by theNamibians should have resulted n a final total in excess of250. However, as they have throughout the tournament, some of the mainbatsmen were guilty of throwing their wickets away cheaply.Anitkumar Bhudia (30) started the innings well for the Kenyans and inpartnership with Shiekh (26) had taken the score to 64-1. When Sheikhthen threw his prized wicket away with a lazy drive at a wide ballfrom Ludick Kenya began a now familiar collapse.Reduced to 106-5 it looked as if the Kenyan’s were in for anotherdepressing day. However Collins Omondi (42) and the young MauriceOuma (44) rescued the innings with some sensible batting. Althoughguilty of not putting all the bad balls away they both milked thespinners well in a stand of 91. When they were dismissed the Kenyaninnings went into a spectacular free-fall and were bowled out for 220.In reply the Namibians started confidently and appeared to berelatively untroubled by the Kenyan bowlers. However the replacementof Vijay Kalyan with the medium pace of Bhudia in the seventh over gotKenya the breakthrough, albeit in a rather unexpected way with totalconfusion breaking down into a victorious sprint by Bhudia to thevacant batsmen’s end. Swanepoel (12) immediately followed hisopening partner when he was caught behind off the same bowler.In direct contrast to the indifferent body language that the Kenyansthat have displayed throughout most of this tournament, they were nowbuzzing. Sensing victory, they vocally goaded one another on. Everygood delivery was greeted with excited clapping and shouts ofencouragement as Namibia collapsed to 74-6.However the Kenyans relaxed and expected the Namibians to give inmeekly. They had underestimated the talents of Pieter Burger (69). Atall batsman, who strokes the ball in a relaxed fashion and with goodbalance, played himself in and then started to attack the Kenyanbowling.The fielders became very quiet as Burger carried his team to within 60runs of the Kenyan total. A good piece of fielding on the third manboundary by Halai dismissed his partner, Tobie Verwey (14).The dismissal marked the end for the Namibian’s as the final fourwickets fell for just five runs.

KwaZulu-Natal woke up with a jolt after a painstaking first session atKingsmead, having been put in to bat by visitors Border on Friday, to end the first day in sight of a third batting bonus point on 231 for seven.They had reached that mark when bad light forced an early close after 92 overs, 12 short of the day’s complement, which means the Dolphins, who must take at least 15 points from the match to overhaul Eastern Province and secure a spot in the Super Eight phase of the competition, have another eight overs to add the extra 19 for a third point. Anything less than victory, though, means they’d be set to join last season’s champions, the Highveld Strikers, in the ranks of the also-rans.Mark Bruyns and Doug Watson opened the home side’s innings with a tortuous display, putting on just 31 runs off 29 overs before rain mercifully ended the morning session 20 minutes early. After lunch, left-armer Liam Graham snapped both up quickly, Bruyns having made 12 from 97 balls and Watson 14 from 98, before the Dolphins upped the tempo.Jon Kent lasted just five balls before Vasbert Drakes bowled him for a duck, but Ashraf Mall finally got the boundaries flowing – none were hit before lunch – with four fours in his 36 and, once he was out, captain Dale Benkenstein, who top-scored with 86, and wicketkeeper Errol Stewart (29) fashioned a stand of 107 in 93 minutes for the fifth wicket. The partnership took only 181 deliveries.With Wade Wingfield finishing unbeaten on 25 – Eldine Baptiste is hispartner on a single – the Dolphins had just about got themselves out of the hole by the end of the day, but there is plenty of work ahead against a formidable Border side.

ScorecardA day after he was included in the Test squad for the tour of Australia as a replacement for the injured Corey Anderson, allrounder Mitchell Santner blitzed an unbeaten 70 off 43 balls to set up a match-winning total for New Zealand A against Sri Lanka A at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval. After Santner led his team to 299, the New Zealand A attack routed the visitors in 25.4 overs to sweep the series 4-0 with a 172-run victory.New Zealand A made a rapid start after choosing to bat, their openers adding 76 in ten overs, when Michael Pollard was out for 32 off 30 balls. They then lost wickets before they could get a sizeable partnership going and their position had eroded to 168 for 4 in the 32nd over. That was when Santner began his game-changing innings, smashing five fours and four sixes. He added 98 with Henry Nicholls, and then put on 33 off 11 balls with Tom Blundell, who made 18 off 9.Sri Lanka A were never in the chase. Danushka Gunathilaka was the top-scorer with 39, and Ashan Priyanjan was the only other batsman to make it past 20. Neil Wagner, Matthew Quinn and Jacob Duffy took two wickets each to dismiss the visitors for 127.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
1:02

‘Ashwin was willing to pitch it up fuller’

Sri Lanka is not a place where you want to lose the toss as an opposition captain. Over the last 14 years, only two visiting captains have managed to win despite losing the toss. Virat Kohli raised the possibility of becoming the third after R Ashwin registered the best figures for an India bowler in the first innings of an away Test to bundle the hosts out for 183. India stumbled in response initially, but Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli steadied them with an unbroken 100-run partnership.On a pitch that offered turn and bounce as early as the first session, this toss was all the more important to win, which is what will rankle the home captain Angelo Mathews the most. Not only did he win the toss, he also showed the others with his 64 that it was possible to bat on this pitch. There was little resistance from the other end – Dinesh Chandimal’s half-century was a charmed innings and included a drop on 5 – as Ashwin ran away to his fastest five-for in Tests, also his second in two Tests and the best figures by an Indian in Sri Lanka. Had India taken all their catches – to go with two excellent ones by KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma – Sri Lanka would have been bundled out for much less.It took Ashwin only 63 balls to reach his fifth wicket, and left-hand batsmen in particular were easy pickings for him. He took out four of them, including Kumar Sangakkara for 5 in his penultimate Test, in 30 balls. As well as Ashwin bowled, a six-wicket haul in 82 balls for a visiting spinner on day one should worry the batting side. Ashwin, who has been through tough times in away series in the last two years, will gladly take it. He will also be glad that by the time he came on to bowl in the 12th over, India’s quick bowlers had already softened Sri Lanka up.It did not start all that well for India, though, as ordinary slip catching reared its head again, with Dhawan dropping Kaushal Silva at first slip in the fourth over. Kohli will be glad his quick bowlers responded with pace, bounce and hostility to send back the openers. Dimuth Karunaratne edged while fending a bouncer from Ishant Sharma, and Silva was given out caught off the arm guard as he went to hook Varun Aaron. Dhawan redeemed himself with a diving catch, but DRS would have made for an interesting decision.R Ashwin collected 6 for 46, the best figures by an Indian in Sri Lanka•AFP

That brought in Sangakkara in the eight over. At the end of the first hour, Kohli went to Ashwin, and the procession continued. In his first over, Ashwin beat Sangakkara in the flight before a freak dismissal sent the celebrated veteran back. The third ball that Ashwin bowled was short of a length, and drew a defensive shot from Sangakkara, which went fast towards Rahul at silly point. Rahul stayed low, pushed his hands in the general direction of the path of the ball, and it stuck in his fingertips. This was no edge, and nor did it come off the pad to soften the impact.Lahiru Thirimanne looked to block, and captain Mathews – playing his 50th Test – looked to hit a few shots to get the close-in fielders out of his face. Having come together at 27 for 3, they doubled the score before Thirimanne fell to an Ashwin beauty. Until then Thirimanne had faced only four balls from the offspinner, and had looked really comfortable facing only one of them. The fifth one, though, was perfect: nicely flighted, dipping short of Thirimanne’s reach, and then turning away to take the edge on a tame push. Poor Mubarak got to face only Ashwin, and the seventh such delivery did not turn, bounced and resulted in a bat-pad catch. Mubarak’s duck made it 60 for 5, and the only consolation for the hosts going into lunch was that their last recognised pair were both right-hand batsmen: Mathews and Chandimal.Soon after lunch, the consolation ended. Ishant bowled beautifully and drew Chandimal’s edge with one that held its line, but Wriddhiman Saha dropped an absolute sitter. What is more disturbing for India is that Saha is showing a bit of a tendency to drop the easier ones. That was not the only time India took the eye off the game. Ashwin, 6-1-15-3 now, was taken out of the attack for the other offspinner Harbhajan Singh. It would have been okay to give the fifth bowler a chance had Kohli not persisted with Harbhajan for too long. While Harbhajan showed no patience, often bowling round the wicket, often too straight, Kohli showed remarkable patience as Mathews and Chandimal added 79.While Chandimal’s effort was charmed, Mathews played a calculated and clever innings. He attacked only to get the fielders out, and then picked the ones and twos easily. Finally Kohli gave in, and gave Ashwin the end he had taken the three earlier wickets from. The pay-off was immediate, but it needed an exceptional catch from Rohit. In his second over back, Ashwin got one to dip on Mathews, but the bat-pad looked destined to loop over forward short leg’s head. Rohit, though, sprung up, got a hand to it, and ended up deflecting it back towards the wicket. He then dived back against his momentum, and took it one-handed.The floodgates now opened. Only a breezy 24-run stand between Chandimal and the adventurous Rangana Herath – who scored 23 off 24 – resisted India’s march. The innings ended when Herath had had one slog too many, but his real job was only about to begin.Before Herath and Tharindu Kaushal were asked to do their job, though, Dhammika Prasad and Mathews got rid of Rahul and Rohit. The rest of the bowling, though, failed to test Dhawan and Kohli for long enough. Dhawan and Kohli were prepared to defend and wait for loose balls, which Kaushal in particular provided readily. Dhawan, who scored a hundred in his last Test, went past 50 by stumps, and Kohli looked set to do so. More importantly, India could entertain thoughts of batting only once.

Virat Kohli, the captain of India’s Under-19 squad for the World Cup, may still be in his teens but he’s already aware of the kind of spotlight an Indian cricketer faces when playing on the international stage. As the team prepared to depart for Malaysia, Kohli said India were “expected to be favourites” and hoped to fulfill those expectations – backed by a strong batting line-up and a bolstered attack – during the 15-day tournament.The squad spent the last week at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, fine-tuning their preparations under the guidance of Dav Whatmore, who will be their coach for the tournament. Kohli said the team had worked hard on their fielding skills, which he felt needed to be improved, during the camp and the time spent together had helped build team-spirit.India have had a successful run in the lead-up to Malaysia. They won a Youth Test series in South Africa 1-0 as well as a triangular limited-overs tournament involving South Africa, who are grouped with India in the World Cup, and Bangladesh. The batsmen performed impressively in the tri-series, with Kohli, Saurav Tiwary, Tanmay Srivatsava and Manish Pandey all averaging above 50.”We have a deep batting line-up and most often our No.7 and No.8 batsmen have not had a chance to bat on the last two or three tours. So batting is a big strength,” Kohli said. “The fast bowling was lacking on the last tour so we’ve got more fast bowlers to strengthen that area.”India’s group also includes West Indies and Papua New Guinea and their practice-matches before the main tournament kicks off will be against two teams Kohli considered among the toughest in the competition – New Zealand and England.”We know most of the England team and the New Zealand team, which are the difficult teams. We don’t know much about Pakistan because I think the team has changed. But we’ve seen South Africa, England and New Zealand which are the strongest teams, so we know about them.”For most of the team, the World Cup will be their first experience of playing in front of a television audience. Kohli, however, said that thinking about factors such as television would only add to the pressure. “You don’t have to think about it much,” Kohli said. “We just have to play like we have been playing on the last four or five tours. We’ve been winning all the tours so we would like to keep up the winning streak.”While Kohli and his team-mates are thinking of the immediate future, and how it could be the launching pad for future international careers, their coach is able to look at the larger picture. The challenge, Whatmore said, was to “create the right pathways and competitions for the youngsters to come through.”

Michael Clarke may have escaped with his unbeaten captaincy record intact following Australia’s last-gasp victory in the fourth ODI on Friday while he was deputising for the injured Ricky Ponting, but he couldn’t avoid a fine for a slow over-rate.He lost ten per cent of his match fee in his first ODI as captain, the third time he has skippered Australia having led them in two Twenty20s. His team-mates were each docked five per cent after Australia were ruled to be one over short of their target when time allowances were taken into consideration.The offence is contrary to Section J of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to slow over-rates. For such offences, the decision of the ICC match referee is final and binding.Australia won the match by one run to take a 4-0 lead in the five-match series. The final game between the two sides is also in St Kitts, on Sunday.

The Faithwear Cup was thrown wide open after the second round produced wins for Southerns and Northerns, who had both lost in the opening matches. The results leave Westerns as the only one of the five sides without a loss to their name.Defending champions Northerns bounced back from their defeat by Westerns to record a three-wicket win over Centrals at Harare Sports Club. Boosted by the return of Ray Price, who took 3 for 24, they restricted Centrals to 172, and even that represented a recovery as at one stage they had been teetering on 13 for 4. At 75 for 6, Northerns appeared to be heading for defeat but Price (38) and Graeme Cremer (54*) put on 83 for the seventh wicket to steer them to the brink of victory.Tendai Machiri’s 53 was the platform in Southerns’ 25-run defeat of Easterns at Harare Country Club. Southerns made 164 in a laboured innings, but even that modest score proved too much for a weak opposition who had Forster Mutizwa’s career-best 49 to thank for preventing a complete rout.

The uncertainty at Glamorgan following the departure of Mike Fatkin as chief executive last week continues with the news that Len Smith, the Sophia Gardens groundsman, has left.The news is a surprise given that the ground is about to undergo major drainage work costing £600,000 ahead of next year’s Ashes Test. Smith, who had been in the job since 1980, was named Groundsman of the Year in 2006.Fatkin’s departure is shrouded in mystery with all questions to the county being stonewalled. Smith’s exit is equally strange. The county said that he advised them he wished to take early retirement on Monday and left on Tuesday, in what was described in a press release as an “amicable” agreement.”Len has had a long and loyal association with Glamorgan cricket,” read the release. “His skills are universally recognised and acknowledged. He has won a number of awards including, last year, the prestigious Groundsman of the Year Award. The clear expertise he displayed in our presentation to the Inspection Group appointed by the ECB was one of the major factors which led to the award of an Ashes Test.”At the end of the season, and in conjunction with the ECB, we shall be conducting the search for a new head groundsman. In the meantime our deputy head groundsman will assume the role of acting head groundsman.”There is speculation that the two departures are in some way connected with the ODI at Cardiff earlier this month which was abandoned after three overs because of heavy rain. Last week’s Championship game against Worcestershire was completely washed out.

Sir Allen Stanford, who declared earlier this year that Test cricket was “boring”, now says he believes that the oldest form of the game can peacefully co-exist alongside the newest. Speaking to BBC Radio ahead of the US$20 million winner-takes-all match between England and the Superstars in Antigua, Stanford also rubbished notions that he had been in complete control of the tournament negotiations with the England & Wales Cricket Board.”The foundation of the sport is Test cricket, the future of the game is Twenty20,” said Stanford. “Both can co-exist. Maybe one is more for the purist, maybe one is more for the younger, the ‘want to see it now, be entertained now’ crowd.”Like Lord’s is the foundation of cricket, it’s the beginning, it’s the holy grail of cricket,” he said. “You can no more do away with that which is Test cricket and replace it with Twenty20 than you can say that Test cricket is the only thing out there. [That] would be foolish because professional sport, unfortunately, is about money and Twenty20 is what is going to drive, commercially, the dollars in the door.”Stanford’s millions have brought about a revival of interest in cricket in the Caribbean, and have provided a counterpoint to the financial dominance that India has enjoyed since the onset of the IPL. After extensive talks with the ECB, the 20/20 for 20 format was unveiled at a glitzy ceremony at Lord’s in June, but Stanford was at pains to deny that David Collier and Giles Clarke had been “dancing to his tune” during the negotiations.”I think that is a ludicrous statement,” said Stanford. “The ECB had the best management structure in my estimation – you’ve got over two million involved in cricket in the UK all being managed under the ECB and they are not dancing to any tune I have laid out. I have a lot of respect for both Giles and David. We simply came to business terms and like most things in life it’s chemistry and how well you work with people and I have worked extremely well with them.Stanford added that Saturday’s big match represented an investment for the future. “Twenty million dollars is a lot of money but it’s not an enormous amount of money,” he said. “It is the single biggest pay day in the history of team sports but in relative terms for what we have envisioned in this multi-billion sport it is really just an investment in the future.”It’s part of the bigger plan and that plan is to get this game into a commercially viable foothold. For it will be successful and make money and allow the West Indies to regain their rightful spot as the best in the world. You have to make investments, that makes sense today and tomorrow, this puts us on the world stage. We’ll have at least 700million people watching this event globally on Saturday on live television, and the US$20million is what got us there.”