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David Warner is beginning his climb back to the Australia Test team•Getty Images

“Yeah, it’s been tough, reading the stuff that you [Malcolm Conn, Daily Telegraph] have been writing about me, it’s been hard but the thing that happens – you make mistakes and you suffer the consequences. and you learn from those mistakes. I think I’m a bit more mature now. It’s about getting down to business and playing as good a cricket as I can and scoring runs for Australia.””As everyone we all had to prepare as if we were playing, and two days out you sort of know in your own mind if you’re going to play or not. And I felt I did everything that I could possibly do to prepare for that first Test and I probably had an inkling in the last training session that I wasn’t going to play just due to the fact you generally have that full amped session where everyone is ready to go. So we got notified the night before and I wasn’t playing and it was up to me to go back to my room and try and think about what I can do to get back into this team.””We’re all on the same time path anyway so I’m not going to lose much sleep. The ideal thing was that this Australia A tour was put on at this time for this very reason, so that we could go over there and play cricket if need be. I’m just happy I’m getting the opportunity to go there. You see some of these county wickets here, they’re nice and green and as you saw the wicket the other day, it was a bit dry. So if I was to play a country game here…but now I’ve got the opportunity to go and play for Australia A and get some runs on the board.””I’d like to think I’m definitely up there for a chance to be back. Hopefully we’re winning and all the guys are scoring runs and it’s going to be hard for me to get back in. I want that to happen and that’s how fickle this environment is. If you stuff up or you’re not scoring runs the next person is going to take that opportunity and as long as we’re winning I’m happy.””He is a guy who will call a spade a spade and will pull you up if you are out of line. The fortunate thing is that I have grown up playing grade cricket and State cricket and he has always pulled me into line when every I have been going a little bit wayward. Having him back here is like another father for me. It is exciting for me and exciting for the team.””That’s something I picked up from Mike Hussey and Ricky Ponting. You would be up in the changeroom about to have a shower and you would look out there and go why are they still out there? You actually start learning that to help your team-mates you have to do those extra things, whether it is waiting half an hour after training to do your stuff. A lot of the guys do that. I’ve caught on that you have to give this 100% not go at 60 or 70% and be content with that.”

ScorecardGraham Onions proved his skills in coloured clothes•Getty Images

Durham were given a late scare by Kabir Ali, making his Lancashire debut,before clinching a 39-run win in the Yorkshire Bank 40 match atChester-le-Street.The visitors were 162 for 8 in reply to 297 for 9 when Kabir went to thecrease to join Jordan Clark. They added 45 in four overs before Clark departedfor a career-best 72, then Stephen Parry shared a last-wicket stand of 51 in sixovers.Kabir thrashed five sixes, four of them off Chris Rushworth, in his 24-ballhalf-century before he was bowled for 59 by Ben Stokes with the total on 258. Lancashire were all out with 3.5 overs left and last year’s semi-finalists nowhave little chance of progressing after being outplayed by Durham for the secondtime in this season’s competition.Simon Katich invited Durham to bat in perfect conditions and acting captainMark Stoneman put on 126 in 14 overs with fellow opener Phil Mustard. After playing second fiddle in the first few overs, Mustard hit five fours inan over from Clark to reach 50 off 37 balls with ten boundaries.He holed out at long-on for 65 off Parry, but Stoneman went on to make 85,while Gordon Muchall followed his 30-ball half-century against Derbyshire onMonday by making 48 off 33 balls, and Ben Stokes weighed in with 40 off 33.Lancashire raced to 29 after four overs in reply, but in the next five oversthey lost four wickets, three of them to Graham Onions, who bowled straightthrough his eight overs to finish with 4 for 45.Ashwell Prince sped to 22 before failing to clear mid-on, then Stephen Mooredrove Onions to mid-off. Rushworth nipped one back to hit Karl Brown’s middle stump and when Onionsbowled Katich for a duck the game looked as good as over at 44 for 4, but22-year-old Clark kept Lancashire ticking over. With a top score of 32 in seven previous List A appearances, he started slowlybut hit ten fours and a six in scoring his runs off 62 balls.Gareth Cross aided the revival with 36 off 24 deliveries and Kabir’s blitz hadDurham rattled until a Stokes yorker took out his middle stump.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
A six down the ground, off the back foot•BCCI

Chennai Super Kings continued with their formula of going at roughly a run a ball for the first 10 overs, keeping wickets in hand, and then exploding to take 10 an over off the last 10. On a pitch on which the ball seamed and bounced variably, they reached 55 for 2 after 10 overs, but Suresh Raina, S Badrinath and MS Dhoni looted 109 in the rest of the innings to set up an easy 37-run, sixth consecutive win, which kept them at the top of the table and Pune Warriors at the bottom.With the ball seaming around, Super Kings lost their openers for 28 runs, that too thanks to generous umpiring. However, out came their crisis man Badrinath, and did his job without any fuss. He and Raina added 75 off 59, without taking risks, and picking the rate up progressively. Raina kept providing the odd boundary, and Badrinath found the gaps for ones and twos.It was in the 13th over that the real charge began. Badrinath drove consecutive deliveries from Rahul Sharma down the ground and through point for fours to take his strike past 100. Raina’s was already a healthier strike rate, but he accelerated by sending Kane Richardson over midwicket for a six in the next over.Badrinath fell in the 16th over, but he and Super Kings will know he fell at just the right time, after just the right innings of 34 off 31. Dhoni came out and took four and six off the first two balls he faced. The six was a demoralising – for the fielding side – punch off the back foot, over extra cover.Dhoni then took apart Ashok Dinda, a bowler he is often criticised for not giving enough chances. He took 25 off eight Dinda’s deliveries, two of them swept boundaries, and one a six off the last ball of the innings. Seamlessly Raina went from being the dominant partner in the earlier partnership to taking back seat and watching Dhoni subdue the bowlers. Along the way he brought up his second half-century of the season.The target was bigger than ever chased in Pune, which became more daunting because of the seam movement available. Mohit Sharma, the Haryana fast bowler who has been the find of the season for Super Kings, utilised it to end the chase for all intents and purposes with an unbroken four-over spell. With successive deliveries in his first over, he got rid of Aaron Finch and T Suman. He missed the hat-trick, but got Yuvraj Singh to edge behind, making it 43 for 4 in the fifth over. There was no way back from there.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Delhi Daredevils’ campaign is dead and buried•BCCI

A couple of years ago, the Hyderabad Cricket Association had performed several at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal seeking divine intervention to change the fortunes of the home side which seemed to invariably lose at the venue. Whether it was India, the local Ranji side or the now-defunct Deccan Chargers, the Hyderabad crowd turned up only to see their side defeated.Whether it is due to the or not, the home side’s fortunes have certainly changed at the Uppal stadium. India won two Tests there this season, and the new franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad have now won five in five after routing Delhi Daredevils with 37 balls remaining.The bedrock of Sunrisers’ surprisingly successful season so far has been the bowling. Dale Steyn has bowled with frightening pace, Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma have used their googlies to flummox the batsmen, Thisara Perera has had plenty of success with both bat and ball and Ishant Sharma, usually so profligate in the limited-overs format, has been effective with the new ball. All of that came together perfectly as they hounded out Daredevils for 80, the lowest total of the season.Daredevils’ campaign had been on life support over the past week, with a couple of victories just about keeping them alive in the competition. Their chances are now dead and buried after their faltering batting failed once again. There were only four fours and one six in the entire innings, less than what AB de Villiers managed in a single over against Ashok Dinda earlier this week.Their openers survived a couple of pacy, probing overs from Steyn at the start before Asad Rauf gave a rough lbw decision to Mahela Jayawardene. Virender Sehwag followed soon after as he missed an indipper from Darren Sammy and lost his offstump. That left only David Warner among the big names, and though he was put down on 6, he couldn’t make it to double-digits as he misread a Mishra googly and was stumped by yards.The Sunrisers quicks had a plan on a track that was slow and had some variable bounce – they didn’t bowl anything full, giving nothing that could be driven easily. The surface also offered turn for the spinners, which both Mishra and Karan exploited.Daredevils had lengthened their batting with the inclusion of two overseas allrounders, Johan Botha and Jeevan Mendis, but it was to little avail. Mendis holed out to long-on, Botha top-edged to the keeper, and Irfan Pathan dragged on a Steyn delivery to the stumps. Daredevils went from 70 for 5 to 80 all out.Sunrisers major weakness is their frail batting, and the pitch was not a batting beauty but the target was too small for Daredevils’ bowlers to stand a real chance of defending it. Shikhar Dhawan made it seem like a flat track early on with some sumptuous shots, and though there were a few hiccups, Sunrisers maintained their 100% home record without too much trouble.

ScorecardSteve Magoffin removed Phil Jaques for the second time in the match•PA Photos

Division One cricket is a hard school and that is precisely as it should be. Such a state of affairs is something which Yorkshiremen of the Close and Trueman generation would applaud. Jason Gillespie and Andrew Gale have also been full of praise for the top tier of English cricket and virtually every Yorkshire player has been keen to say how much they were looking forward to testing themselves against the best in the land once again.All of which will make their signal failure to live with a dynamic Sussex team over much of the first three days of this match all the more galling. Yorkshire’s batting on the first day was mediocre, their bowling on the second mostly anaemic and their batting on Friday, with the honourable exception of Phil Jaques, error-strewn until Gary Ballance and Ryan Sidebottom added 80 runs for the eighth wicket in 29 overs. When the umpires took the players off nine overs before the scheduled close the home side were 228 for 8 and will almost certainly suffer their first four-day defeat in 19 games at some stage on Saturday morning.Sussex’s cricket, by contrast, has been dynamic, purposeful and skilled. Jaques, whose 57 was largely responsible for his team’s showing, before Sidebottom and Ballance came together, admitted that Ed Joyce’s men had “come at Yorkshire hard” and that his team had been second-best for much of the contest.On the third day, that flinty approach was personified by Steve Magoffin, who removed Jaques with a fine delivery and then induced Azeem Rafiq to play on next ball. When the Australian bowled Liam Plunkett after tea – the entire morning session had been lost to rain – a three-day finish beckoned and, indeed, this would have been a two-day affair but for earlier interruptions.Other Sussex bowlers also enjoyed success; Joyce’s attack hunted as a ravenous pack. However, they found some Yorkshire batsmen only too ready to cooperate in their own demise. Adam Lyth was the first to go, essaying an airy waft down the leg side off James Anyon. The same bowler then dismissed the Gale three balls later, the captain’s tentative push being the limpest of efforts in a tough situation for his team.Jonny Bairstow added 39 with Jaques but a straight, good-length ball from Jordan defeated his expansive drive. This pitch may not have been the easiest to bat on over the course of the match and Jaques’ astute point that bowling a side out for 96 inevitably gives the opposition’s batsmen a measure of freedom is very valid, but it still remains true that the Yorkshire top order will need to sell their wickets far more dearly over the next five months if they are to cope with the best county attacks in the land.

Haseeb Ahsan, the former Pakistan offspinner, has died at the age of 73 in Karachi. Ahsan was staying with former Pakistan captain Hanif Mohammad and was on dialysis for the last two years.Ahsan played 12 Tests for Pakistan between 1958 and 1962. His last stint in cricket was in England, when he represented Pakistan Eaglets in 1963 against Scotland. Following his first-class career, which lasted almost eight years, he took up an executive role in American Express.He went on to become one of the most influential selectors in Pakistan cricket. As chief selector, he picked the teenager Wasim Akram for the national side in 1984. He was also the chairman of the 1987 World Cup technical committee and a member of the tournament’s organising committee.Akram paid tribute to Ahsan, telling : “Ahsan convinced everyone of my talent and selected me against New Zealand. He was very close to me and, as a powerful selector, spotted young talent and threw them into the bigger battles. I have lost a very close supporter.”In the official history of Pakistan cricket, he was recorded as a “prodigious spinner of cricket ball”. On debut in first-class cricket, he didn’t take a wicket against MCC in 1955 in his only match of 1955-56 season, but followed up that with a solid second season, finishing with 19 wickets at 12.68. In 1957-58, his tally was 26 wickets at 9.76, and he claimed his career best of 8 for 23 – that eventually brought him into contention for international cricket, and he was subsequently picked for a tour to the West Indies. Ahsan finished with 27 Test wickets at an average of 49.25. He took his best figures of 6 for 202 against India in Chennai in 1961.Later, Ahsan was a key figure in Karachi cricket and became the pivotal figure in the Sindh Cricket Association in 2003. In 2006, he was named in the panel that heard the appeals of fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif against doping bans.PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf praised Ahsan’s administrative skills: “Haseeb was not only a superb Test cricketer but also was a good administrator who intimately knew the game. His death is a loss to the cricketing fraternity.” Karachi City Cricket Association president Sirajul Islam Bukhari said: “Ahsan fought illness with courage.”

ScorecardOli Stone, the England Under-19 captain, took four wickets to earn his team a 119-run lead on the second day in Cape Town.Stone was not the original captain for the trip but replaced the injured Shiv Thakor last week. He did not bring himself into the attack until six other bowlers had been used, after suffering a dislocated finger in the warm-up match, but soon made an impact with two wickets in two balls removing South Africa’s top-scorer, Murray Coetzee (50), and Vassilli Orros as the home side slipped to 120 for 5.He claimed two further wickets to complete an efficient display by England who had earlier extended their first innings to 313. Ed Barnard, who scored a century on the opening day, was only able to add seven to his overnight score before being bowled sweeping.South Africa made a solid start in reply before Harry Finch, a 17-year-old from Sussex, had Andries Gous and Shaylin Pillay caught behind in quick succession. A partnership of 60 between Coetzee and Diego Rosier, the captain, followed to leave the game evenly balance but Miles Hammond had Rosier lbw to start the collapse.

Sri Lanka’s preparation for the Sydney Test has been thrown into further turmoil after Shaminda Eranga sprained an ankle during training on the eve of the match. A call on Eranga’s fitness will be made before the toss on Thursday. Sri Lanka have also ruled out both Prasanna Jayawardene and Nuwan Kulasekara from the match, as both have failed to recover sufficiently from hairline fractures to a thumb and rib respectively.Eranga was warming up for Sri Lanka’s training session in a game of football when he sprained his right ankle, and despite having several minutes on the field to recover, could only limp back to the dressing room with the help of physiotherapist Steve Mount. Sri Lanka’s team management has said they are unsure whether he will recover in time for the match.”You don’t anticipate three or four guys going down in one Test match,” Jayawardene said on the eve of the match. “But it happened, so we just need to sit down and see what other options we’ve got. We’ve got two guys flown in, and we’re back to having a full 16 in the squad now. These are unexpected things we need to get our head around and handle the situation in the best possible way.”Eranga is Sri Lanka’s fifth player and their third fast bowler to be injured on tour. In addition to Nuwan Kulasekara’s rib injury that ruled him out of the second and third Tests, Chanaka Welegedara also had his series ended by a hamstring tear, which he sustained on the second day in Melbourne. Eranga’s injury means all three fast bowlers who played in the Hobart Test could be unavailable in Sydney. Suranga Lakmal had been flown in from Sri Lanka as cover for Welegedara, and may take the field less than 48 hours after landing in Australia.Dhammika Prasad is almost guaranteed a place, and Nuwan Pradeep may also play, even if Eranga is fit. Offspinner Suraj Randiv may also make it into the XI, particularly as the SCG surface has traditionally been the most spin-friendly track in Australia.Elsewhere in the team, Dinesh Chandimal is set to play as the wicketkeeper-batsman in Prasanna Jayawardene’s absence, and will bat in the middle order. Lahiru Thirimanne has also been flown in from Sri Lanka as cover for Kumar Sangakkara, who is out with a fractured index finger. He may step into Sangakkara’s top-order spot, but opener Tharanga Paranavitana, who has been with the team throughout the tour is also vying for a place.Jayawardene also confirmed that opener Dimuth Karunaratne will be granted an extended run in his position.

While Australia’s men will be trying to regain the Ashes in England next summer, Australia’s women are faced with the opposite scenario as Women’s Test cricket returns to the schedule.The one-off Ashes Test is the sole-remaining five-day fixture in the Women’s calendar. England and Australia will meet at Wormsley on August 13 – coinciding with the conclusion of the 4th Ashes Test of the men’s series.Despite England’s dominance of the women’s game in recent years, Australia have taken two notable scalps. They beat England by four runs in the final of the Women’s World T20 in Colombo and in 2011 regained the Ashes with a seven wicket win in Sydney. England will look to take back the urn they had held since 2005.The Test precedes a three-match ODI series, beginning at Lord’s on August 20 before two matches at Hove on August 23 and 25. The tour concludes with thee T20s, the first of which takes places under floodlights at Chelmsford on August 27. The final two matches of the series serve as the hors d’orderves before men’s T20s at Southampton and Durham.”We are delighted to be hosting Australia during the much-anticipated Ashes summer,” Head of England Women’s Cricket, Clare Connor said. “From recent bi-lateral series and the encounter between the two teams in the final of the World T20, England and Australia are leading the way in the women’s game with consistently high quality performances. A summer comprising all three formats of the game will be certain to provide an entertaining and hard fought few weeks.”England Women v Australia Women 2013
August 13-16, Ashes Test, Wormsley
August 20, 1st ODI, Lord’s
August 23, 2nd ODI, Hove
August 25, 3rd ODI, Hove
August 27, 1st T20, Chelmsford
August 29, 2nd T20, Southampton
August 31, 3rd T20, Durham

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Alastair Cook scored his 23rd Test hundred, a record for England•BCCI

Last week, England trounced India on the sort of raging turner MS Dhoni has routinely demanded this season. This week, on the sort of flat track at Eden Gardens where India’s batsmen have thrived in the past few years, England delivered a lesson in old-fashioned Test-match batting. The vast opening stand built on the advantage provided by the immaculate bowling on the first day, and by stumps England were at 216 for 1, just 100 behind, and India were looking as flat as the pitch.The records continued to tumble for Alastair Cook. He now has the most Test centuries for an England batsman, became the youngest batsman to 7000 Test runs, and has five hundreds in five Tests as captain. He also has the most runs by an England captain on an India tour, breaking the 51-year record set by Ted Dexter, who was honoured by the Cricket Association of Bengal at the start of this Test.Cook was helped by a surface that offered little to the bowlers, a lightning outfield, and by what could prove one of the costliest mistakes of the series – Cheteshwar Pujara, fielding at first slip instead of his usual short leg, had a low chance from Cook but perhaps hindered by the shin pads he had on, couldn’t get down in time to clasp it. Cook was on 17 at that stage, and had survived a probing spell from India’s quick bowlers.After that, though, Cook was rarely under pressure. The effortless punches through cover made an appearance, the more powerful cuts were deployed against wide deliveries, and the spinners were attacked early on. In his 151st Test innings, Cook hit only his ninth six, launching R Ashwin, who was again unable to maintain a consistent line and length, over long-on. The sweep was used effectively against the spinners, quick singles were taken, and after a couple of hours of getting properly set, the scoring picked up in the last half hour before tea.Despite the volume of runs he has made, Cook hasn’t made a name as a quick run-getter in Tests, but he scored almost twice as much as his batting partner Nick Compton in their 165-run stand. The dawdling strike-rate didn’t bother Compton, who watchfully played out everything thrown at him by the India attack. It was only after he was well set that he brought out some of his strokes, including a down-the-track swipe over Pragyan Ojha’s head for six.With Cook seamlessly taking over the captaincy, and Compton already putting on two 100-plus partnerships for the first wicket, Andrew Strauss has not been missed. Compton brought up his maiden Test half-century with a controlled hook off Ishant Sharma, and with England in command, the only energetic Indians were the ones in the stands entertaining themselves with a series of Mexican waves.India had been tight with the new ball, hardly giving away anything loose. But as the ball lost its shine, the attack also began to fade. The spinners dropped it short or strayed on leg stump far too often, and the England batsmen regularly took a run after pushing the ball straight to a fielder who was supposed to cut off the single.Cook cruised to his 23rd Test century, with a paddle-sweep, and Compton also showed his confidence with a field-bisecting on-drive for four to move to 57. The next ball, though, he was adjudged lbw though he seemed to have gloved Ojha while attempting a paddle-sweep. There was no respite for India yet, as Cook continued to find the boundary regularly, and Jonathan Trott coolly moved to an unbeaten 21 as he searched for his first big score of the series.James Anderson had shown his reverse-swing mastery on the first day, and though India also got the old ball to swerve around a bit, the settled England batsmen weren’t troubled by it much. Zaheer Khan’s strike-rate for the year ballooned towards 100 (career strike-rate 59.2) and Ishant Sharma, playing his first Test since the Adelaide Test in January, was wicketless again, and his strike-rate this year is now an astonishing 208.The pair didn’t make too much of an impact with the bat either, in the morning. Zaheer, for a change, didn’t get out attempting a slog, falling lbw while playing down the wrong line while trying to defend Panesar. It was Ishant, generally seen as a sensible tailender, who was dismissed after failing to get the bat down in time following an uncharacteristically high backlift.It was left to No. 11 Prgayan Ojha to provide MS Dhoni company, as he added a half-century to his prolific run at Eden Gardens. India were bowled out for 316, at least 100 short of what was considered a good total on a flat track. With Cook still hungry for more, and England’s more aggressive batsmen yet to get their chance here, India face another tough day in the field on Friday.