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England will need to dig deep into their character reserves to stage anAshes fightback against Australia after crashing to an eight-wicket defeat at Lord’s today.The dropped catches on Saturday were followed by a dramatic batting collapse on Sunday with England’s remaining six wickets falling in 39 minutes and 48 balls, leaving Australia with just 14 runs to gather to claim their second Ashes win in two npower Test matches.When Mark Waugh came on first thing to bowl – a decision prompted by another look at some videos of Alec Stewart which exposed his vulnerability to right arm spin bowling – the omens were good with Stewart and Mark Butcher picking off quick and easy runs in the first five overs.Their efforts raised hopes among the capacity Lord’s crowd that a big second innings total was in the offing and finally, this match would become a more equal contest. But after Stewart and Butcher had put on 42 runs for the fifth wicket, Stewart received a ball from Glenn McGrath that came back and rapped him on the pads.His wicket marked the start of England’s downfall and from 188 for four, they crashed to 227 all out, with only Craig White showing any defiance in the final throes, with an unbeaten 27. Butcher was eventually caught behind for 83, after playing indiscriminately at Gillespie.The mighty Glenn McGrath and impressive Jason Gillespie, who bowled superbly throughout the match, shared the spoils with the South Australian finishing with 5-53 and McGrath picking up three wickets in the hour. Mark Waugh set a new world record for catches in Test cricket when England’s last batsman Darren Gough became his 158th victim.Having completely dominated since the Test series started, the task of making 14 should have gone smoothly without incident but both Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick picked up wickets – one each – when the Australian batsmen proved themselves to be nervous and possibly emotional.Michael Slater and Ricky Ponting were both back in the pavilion before the third over had been completed but Matthew Hayden took his side across the finishing line to complete another emphatic victory.It was a disappointing result, said England skipper Mike Atherton after the game.”We would like to have got a different result here but we didn’t deserve to. Australia played some fine cricket and fully deserve their success.”We had a couple of opportunities yesterday morning and we dropped a few chances so the opportunity went away. If we had taken those chances we could have reduced Australia’s lead to a manageable proportion and set them a total which would have made the game competitive but it was not to be.”We have to revive the memories of the way the team played last summer and during the winter. We have a settled squad and we are all good mates so we shall stick together through this thin time. There is no point getting too despondent and it does not matter what is going on, you still have to give it your all. You cannot fault our effort,” he commented.Graham Thorpe was taken to hospital for an X-ray today after being hit on the finger by Brett Lee on Saturday. The scans were inconclusive and Thorpe will see a specialist tomorrow.

1982-83
Sri Lanka’s first official tour of India in 1982-83 was a mixed bag; they lost all three one-day internationals, but achieved an honourable draw in the inaugural Test. Doubts over Sri Lanka’s stickability and class had persisted before the series, but their draw earned them respect in the cricketing world – as did their adventurous strokeplay, with which they have become synonymous.
India 0 Sri Lanka 0

1985-86
The series which broke Sri Lanka’s duck. The Sri Lankans’ energetic and well-organised pre-season training proved decisive – in stark contrast to India’s near total lack of preparation. They very nearly reached the milestone of their first victory in the first Test, but resolute and dogged batting from Vengsarkar – and typically tropical weather – denied them the opportunity. The second Test was the emotive moment for cricket’s then-newest Test nation. Despite a slow batting performance, their bowlers were on target and utilised the familiar conditions better than their Indian counterparts. A defiant 78 by Kapil Dev threatened to deny the home side, but Ratnayake took the catch off his own bowling to seal the victory, leading to a nationwide celebration and a public holiday the following day.If the second Test was for Sri Lanka’s bowlers, the third proved the resolution they had as a batting team. Set 377 to win, Sri Lanka stumbled to 34 for 3 before their two most accomplished batsmen – Roy Dias and Duleep Mendis – saved the innings (and the match) with a partnership worth 216. Bad light called off play when Sri Lanka’s tailenders were in; they won the series 1-0.
Sri Lanka 1 India 0

1986-87
Sri Lanka’s inability to come to terms with spin bowling proved their undoing when they toured India. Plenty of runs were made in the lead-up to the series but not against sufficiently testing bowlers of the quality they were to face in the three Tests. Wettimuny, in making 79, and Ravi Ratnayeke contributed Sri Lanka’s first three-figure opening partnership in Tests. Their first-innings total of 406, which was interrupted by rain and fog, was quickly and aggressively matched, and bettered, by the Indians, who racked-up 676 as the game petered out to a draw. The second Test resulted in India’s first Test win against Sri Lanka, thanks to India’s spinners and, in particular, Maninder Singh who took 7 for 51 with his slow-left-armers, to give him ten wickets in the match and seal a comprehensive innings-and-106-run victory. The third Test belonged to Kapil Dev who, on the third day, took his 300th Test wicket to achieve the “double” of 3000 runs and 300 wickets in Test cricket. This was India’s first series win at home since 1981 when they beat Keith Fletcher’s England side.
India 2 Sri Lanka 0

1990-91
A shortened and hastily arranged tour of India for Sri Lanka who were ill-prepared for it. They lost by an innings and eight runs, with the aptly-nicknamed “Muscles”, Venkatapathy Raju, utterly decimating Sri Lanka’s first innings in taking 6 for 12 in 17.5 overs. Despite a low, turgid pitch, Raju gained turn and bounce, which the visitors were completely unable to cope with. The Sri Lankans were a better match for the Indians in the one-day series which followed, despite losing 2-1.
India 1 Sri Lanka 0

1993
An acrimonious tour, with Peter Burge constantly fielding complaints from the Indians about the quality of the umpiring. It was India’s first overseas Test victory since 1986, when they beat England at Leeds, and ended their 27-Test drought. Only 49 minutes of play were possible in the first Test, but the Indians hit their straps in the second Test. It was Manoj Prabhakar’s impressive allround performance – 95 in the second innings, and eight wickets in the match – which proved the difference between the two sides. Set an improbable 472 for victory, only Aravinda de Silva could defy the Indians with a six-hour knock of 93. But he threw away his wicket and, with it, Sri Lanka’s chance of saving the Test. He continued his good form in the third Test, with a splendidly crafted 148, but Sri Lanka left themselves vulnerable in scoring just 351. The only threat of defeat for Sri Lanka lay in their second innings, but Mahanama compiled a classy 151 to steer the home team to safety.
Sri Lanka 0 India 1

1993-94
As was the case in India’s tour of Sri Lanka a few months earlier, the umpiring proved controversial and cast a shadow over the series. Wisden’s account of the series read: “Sri Lankan manager Bandula Warnapura claimed the batting failures of the first two Tests owed as much to the players’ nerves, waiting for the next bad decision, as to bad shots…” An uninspiring start by the Indians in the first Test was rectified by Tendulkar and Navjot Sidhu, both hitting hundreds in India’s 511. Sri Lanka then crumbled to Kumble in both innings who, on a turning pitch and despite injuring his spinning hand, demolished the visitors as India walked home by an innings and 119 runs. Sri Lanka were up against another total in excess of 500 in the second Test at Bangalore, with Mahanama seemingly the only batsman capable of batting for an extended period. Kapil Dev, adding two wickets to the three he picked up in the first innings, drew level with Richard Hadlee’s tally, and broke down with the emotion of the event. India again won by an innings to secure the series victory, and made it 3-0 with another innings victory in the third Test.
India 3 Sri Lanka 0

1997
A mini two-Test tour for India, who had been whitewashed in the one-dayers, with both sides rich in batting and sparse in bowling. Unfortunately, the pitches offered little chance of a result, and both matches ended in turgid draws. India’s 537 for 8 declared was quickly matched by the Sri Lankans. Their enormous 952 for 6 was, by 49 runs, the highest-ever innings total, and Sanath Jayasuriya broke a record, too: his 340 was the fourth-highest innings in Tests and the first triple-hundred by a Sri Lankan in first-class cricket. The second Test provided slightly more enjoyment for the bowlers, but Jayasuriya’s 199 again proved just how poor India’s bowlers had performed: in particular, their two senior bowlers, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble.
Sri Lanka 0 India 0

1997-98
The lack of penetrative bowling was again the main factor for both teams, a few months after India’s tour of Sri Lanka. With the pressure mounting on India’s captain, Sachin Tandulkar, his 148 at Mumbai in the third Test wasn’t enough to prevent his sacking as skipper. Of India’s bowlers, only Javagal Srinath showed his class. Each of the three Tests ended in draws, with Sourav Ganguly the undoubted star of the batsmen, with two hundreds and a 99.
India 0 Sri Lanka 0

2001
Sri Lanka had great reason to celebrate their series victory in 2001 – their first in four home series. They had earlier lost to Pakistan, drawn with South Africa and lost to England. India, playing without Tendulkar for the first time since April 1989, could muster just 187 in the first innings – their lowest total against Sri Lanka, until they fared even worse in the second innings. Muttiah Muralitharan ran through their batsmen, many of whom hadn’t faced him before, to guide Sri Lanka through to victory by ten wickets. Despite the convincing performance at Galle, they let slip the opportunity to go 2-0 up with a complacent performance at Kandy. Ganguly, who hadn’t made a half-century in his last 13 Test innings, returned to form with an unbeaten 98, including 15 fours, as India convincingly beat the hosts to level the series at 1-1. The third Test at Colombo belonged to Muralitharan who, with 8 for 87 from 34.1 overs, decimated India’s first innings. The home team returned to batting form in their reply, with four of their top-eight reaching hundreds in their 610 for 6 declared. Only Shiv Sunder Das (68) offered the necessary resistance, before two superb run-outs and three more wickets for Muralitharan brought Sri Lanka a series win.
Sri Lanka 2 India 1

2005-06
Sri Lanka played hard, intense cricket, but were outplayed by a team that beat them on talent and matched them in intensity. The best-of-three Test series started in wet, sorry Chennai thanks to cyclone-induced rain washing out the first three-and-a-half days of play, but Sri Lanka dominated, grabbing a bit of the psychological advantage for the rest of the series. A probing spell of left-arm seam from Chaminda Vaas engineered an Indian collapse on day five, for their lowest-ever total against Sri Lanka, before the batsmen, led by the classy Mahela Jayawardene, managed some useful practice ahead of the second Test at Delhi. Anil Kumble continued his romantic affair with the Feroz Shah Kotla, stretching his tally to a stunning 48 from five games, as India wrapped up an emphatic 188-run win to take a 1-0 lead. That was extended to a comprehensive 2-0 series win in Ahmedabad with Kumble and Harbhajan Singh wrapping a spell around the tourists. The powerful duo were the dominant figures of the match, scheming and plotting, spinning and bouncing, wicket-taking furiously. Stand-in captain Virender Sehwag decided to ask his spinners to open the bowling on the fifth morning and it paid off. Kumble and Harbhajan allowied Sri Lanka to add only 14 runs to their overnight score before they were all out for 249, losing by 259 runs.2008
The two main talking points of India’s tour were the new umpire review system – allowing each team three unsuccessful requests per innings – and Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner, though still a rookie at the Test level. India were outclassed by both. Sri Lanka batted them out of the contest in the first Test at the SSC, with four batsmen recording centuries in the first innings and India falling woefully short in their reply. There was no fightback in the second innings either and India eventually lost by an innings, Muttiah Muralitharan taking a ten-wicket haul, though they were clueless against Mendis as well – in particular his carrom ball. A blinder of a double-hundred by Virender Sehwag in Galle helped India draw level, despite Mendis’ ten-wicket haul. Sri Lanka fought back in the final Test at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo with an improved batting performance to win the series 2-1. The famed Indian middle-order came a cropper against quality spin and the team on the whole was criticised for not using the review system intelligently, unlike their opponents. Mendis laid out his path to superstardom with 26 wickets in his debut series. India claimed the one-day series 3-2, thanks to the return of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who opted out of the Tests. He negotiated the spinners well and finished the series as the leading run-scorer.Tests Sri Lanka 2 India 1
ODIs India 3 Sri Lanka 22009-10When India’s batsmen stuttered on the opening day of the first Test in Ahmedabad, it was not an accurate indicator of what was to follow in the three-match series: a 2-0 win in India’s favour, including two innings victories. There were several bits of trivia to come out of the series. In the drawn first Test on a lifeless track came in for much criticism, Tillakaratne Dilshan became the first Sri Lankan batsman to score a century in India since 1997 and Mahela Jayawardene recorded his sixth double-century. The second Test, in Kanpur, marked India’s 100th victory. India’s dominance in that game started at the top, with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir putting on a 233-run opening stand, the third-highest for India at the time. The greater show of authority, though, was yet to come. In the final Test in Mumbai: Sehwag scored 293 runs at a strike-rate of 115.35 to flatten Sri Lanka. In the one-day series that followed, it was the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch that made the most headlines. The dangerous, variable bounce on offer in the fifth match, which resulted in Dilshan being fiercely struck and the chairman of the BCCI’s grounds and pitches committee being sacked, caused officials to abandon the game after 23.3 overs. The series also marked Sanath Jayasuriya’s 20th year in cricket.Tests India 2, Sri Lanka 0
ODIs India 3, Sri Lanka 1
Twenty20s India 1, Sri Lanka 1

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Bangladesh were left to rue five catches and three run-out opportunities as they allowed Sri Lanka to recover from 61 for 4 to 196 and then squandered a manageable run chase to go down 3-0 in Colombo.Put in to bat on a sluggish pitch, overnight rain and early morning showers in Colombo delayed the start and reduced the game to 40-overs a side with Sri Lanka’s top order collapsing to an inspired attack. However, a generous dose of dropped catches all around the ground allowed Jehan Mubarak and Tillakaratne Dilshan to build a vital 78-run partnership. Mubarak stuck around for a career-best 72 before an inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling attack used the short deliveries to secure a 39-run win.Bangladesh began horribly chasing 197. The first 11 runs came from wides, but Farveez Maharoof’s double-strike did the damage. Javed Omar got a game but didn’t contribute, pushing the fourth ball of the innings to Mahela Jayawardene at second slip. Mushfiqur Rahim was promoted to No. 3 but, like Omar, failed to inspire any confidence. Fifth ball he faced, Rahim chased a good length delivery and edged into Kumar Sangakkara’s gloves.After a brief 42-run fightback, Mohammad Ashraful (20) could consider himself unlucky to be given out leg before to one from Nuwan Kulasekara that was missing leg stump. Shakib Al Hasan could offer no such excuse, fishing at a short-pitched delivery from Fernando and getting the faintest of nicks to Sangakkara. Aftab Ahmed didn’t last long either as he got glove on an attempted pull shot against Kulasekara.Faced with the somewhat unfamiliar role of Bangladesh’s last glimmer of hope, Tamim Iqbal mixed caution with lunacy and aggression during his 74-ball 55. He danced down the track wildly and missed completely in between some sweet back-foot punches and one delicate flick for six. Dilhara Fernando gave him a work over with the short stuff, and as wickets fell at one end, Tamim held back on the big shots and worked the singles instead. A hamstring injury forced him to resort to a runner before he crossed fifty.Having added 60 for the sixth-wicket with debutant Mahmudullah (35 from 53) Tamim tried to hit Sanath Jayasuriya out of the park but instead rewarded Jayawardene’s decision to introduce the veteran in the 31st over. In a jiffy Jayasuriya then plucked out three the remaining four wickets and Fernando returned to york the No. 10 batsman.After winning the toss, the first of Bangladesh’s blips in the field came in the second over when Shakib, at cover, failed to clutch an airy drive off Jayasuriya when he was yet to get off the mark. Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga fell cheaply to the impressive Shahadat and Syed Rasel but Chamara Kapugedera was dropped on 0 and 5. Though the first was too thick an edge for Rahim to take while standing up to the stumps the second was deplorable, Reza grassing a waist-high chance at second slip. You didn’t need a lip reader to make out what Shahadat said after seeing that catch go down.Bangladesh removed Kapugedera and Sangakkara in relative succession, but their butterfingered fielders allowed Mubarak and Dilshan to stitch together a match-winning partnership. At the 20-over mark, Bangladesh appeared in command amid a tight bowling display, but two alarming lapses in Ferhad’s sixth over ultimately made the difference between victory and defeat. Dilshan was let off by Rahim when on 11, as the wicketkeeper failed to hold onto an outside edge off a cramped cut shot. A boundary later, Mubarak’s mis-timed slog down the ground was misjudged by Abdur Razzak at mid-on, and landed safely between two converging fielders.The two batsmen didn’t need another invitation to lead the revival. While Mubarak was more watchful, having to graft against the spinners initially, Dilshan walked out in a situation tailor-made for his fidgety, ‘I’m-going-to-get-under-your-skin style’. In no time Bangladesh were on the back foot as Dilshan spread the field with his cheeky dabs and cuts. Mubarak grew in confidence, using his feet to the spinners, swept hard, and constantly looked for singles. While he crease ticked along to his third ODI fifty, Dilshan threaded the ball into the gaps before he finally failed to carry off a cheeky reverse pull and gave Mahmudullah his first wicket. Razzak finished with 3 for 47 as Bangladesh bowled Sri Lanka out for the first time all tour, but Mubarak’s presence until the last over proved the defining innings, something Tamim would have done well to emulate.

In a surprising development, considering the intense competetion that has characterised previous bids involving the Indian board (BCCI), only one company has bid for three tenders issued on August 2.The last date for submission of tenders – for formal wear for the Indian team (2006-2010), for producing and executing ratings and award ceremony (2006-2011); and for ground rights for the tri-series in Singapore and Malaysia – was August 11 but only one company, Percept, met the deadline. The bids will be opened on Monday at Chennai during the BCCI’s marketing sub-committee meeting in Chennai.However, Lalit Modi, the chairman of BCCI’s marketing sub-committee, wasn’t alarmed. “The base price [for all three tenders] was around US$1million and whoever could afford have submitted,” he was quoted as saying in .Canali, the Italian-based company, had shown interest in the formal wear category but backed out once the bidding process began. “Canali’s proposal was an exchange offer and we had almost finalised things with them,” Modi continued. “But when others too came forward and offered to do the same we decided to go in for a bidding process.”And what of the ground rights of the Singapore-Malaysia tri-series? “Maybe they [bidders] felt the tournament comes in between Sri Lanka [Tri-series] and Champions Trophy,” Modi reasoned for the lukewarm response. “Anyone who fulfils the minimum criteria of $1m will get it. Those who can’t won’t put it.”

Queensland 9 for 264 (Maher 92, Symonds 73) defeated South Australia 195 by 69 runs
ScorecardQueensland extended South Australia’s horror run at the Gabba with an emphatic 69-run ING Cup victory. Unbeaten in two matches, Queensland charged four points clear of Tasmania at the top of the competition table by bowling the Redbacks out for 195 and earning a bonus point.The captain Jimmy Maher (92 from 123 balls) and Andrew Symonds (73 from 72) laid the foundations with a 132-run second-wicket stand to push the side to its 22nd win from 27 limited-overs matches against South Australia, who have won only twice at the Gabba.South Australia never appeared in the hunt chasing 265 after Andy Bichel continued his early-season purple patch by removing Ben Cameron and Callum Ferguson inside the first 10 overs. The offspinner Chris Simpson chimed in late to finish off the tail.Maher was Man of the Match but Symonds could easily have earned his second award after guiding the Bulls to a two-wicket win over New South Wales a fortnight ago. Symonds made an extremely cautious start, taking 10 balls to get off the mark, but peeled off 12 fours as his last 70 came from 52 balls.His wicket sparked a middle-order stumble and they lost 8 for 92 in the last 20 overs. Maher, the competition’s all-time leading run-scorer, looked set for his eighth domestic one-day century before being painfully run out in the 37th over.

It was billed as the contest between India’s batsmen and Pakistan’s pace attack. In the end, it turned out to be a fairly one-sided contest, as – save Umar Gul’s magnificent display at Lahore – the Indian top and middle order had the answer to almost everything that Pakistan’s fast bowlers threw at them.The spotlight has mostly been on Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and co, but the surprise packets of the series were the raw and inexperienced Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji, who easily outshone their more famed counterparts from the Pakistan line-up. As the table below indicates, the Indian duo were runaway winners, taking ten more wickets at a considerably lower average and a far better strike rate.

Meanwhile, Anil Kumble took care of the spin department for India, but Danish Kaneria didn’t do too badly either, with seven wickets in two Tests at a reasonable average.

The key to the Indian batting was their ability to string together huge partnerships once they got starts. They had 12 stands of over 50, and on seven of those occasions they went to on convert those into century partnerships. Pakistan couldn’t even manage half that number. Interestingly, the third wicket stand was the most prolific for both teams, but there, as in partnerships for most other wickets, the Indians were a shade better.

One of the few contests where Pakistan did end up with the upper hand was the Shoaib v Tendulkar battle. Shoaib nailed his man twice in the one-dayers and once in the Test series, while Tendulkar only managed a total of 86 runs against him. That’s a stat which should give Shoaib license to gloat for the next couple of years.

Click here for the Test averages of both teams.S Rajesh is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

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Australia’s opening batsmen Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater both have injury worries ahead of Thursday’s Second Test against England at Lord’s.Neither player batted for the tourists on the third day of the Vodafone Challenge match against Somerset at Taunton today.Slater is nursing a wrist injury sustained while batting against Somersetguest player Shoaib Akhtar on Friday. However, both are said to be confident that they will be fit enough to play in the Lord’s Test.In a net session on the Taunton pitch this morning he batted one-handed with a strapping protecting his left wrist.Meanwhile, Hayden felt his right knee lock while fielding against Somerset yesterday and is not expected to bat or field in the remainder of the game.The pair opened the batting against England in the First Test at Edgbaston and put on 98 for the first wicket with Slater, in particular, looking in excellent form with a quickfire 77.In the first innings of the game against Somerset, Hayden managed only six runs and Slater 28. This morning Justin Langer and Simon Katich opened the batting for the Australians.

Fast bowler Tim Southee will lead New Zealand against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra on Friday. Captain Brendon McCullum’s preparation for the three-Test tour was interrupted by his having to travel to England last week to give testimony in the Chris Cairns trial, and while he has rejoined his team he will be rested from the first match of the tour.New Zealand coach Mike Hesson on Wednesday confirmed that BJ Watling would also sit out of the match and Kane Williamson would likely be rested as well, leaving Southee to step up as captain. The 50-over pink-ball match against the Prime Minister’s XI on Friday will be followed by a two-day match with a red ball against a Cricket Australia XI on Saturday and Sunday.”It will be a good opportunity for him, part of his role in the leadership group is to take a little bit more responsibility,” Hesson said of Southee. “I think he’s looking forward to it.”McCullum is likely to take some part in the match against the CA XI, and Hesson said he was confident the captain would be well prepared for the first Test starting at the Gabba on November 5.”He’ll play a part, but Brendon has been away from training for a little while,” Hesson said. “He’s looking forward to getting back into that. We’ll ease him back in, make sure he’s ready to go by Brisbane … We’ve known the timelines for a long time, so we’ve put plans in place and Brendon will be ready by Brisbane. He’s very much on track.”The matches in Canberra will also provide New Zealand with a look at potential Test opponents including Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja. The changing nature of Australia’s Test team after the retirements of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Chris Rogers, Ryan Harris and Brad Haddin give New Zealand hope of their first series win in Australia for 30 years.”There’s been some good New Zealand sides come over here in the past and I think it’s shown how formidable Australia are in their own backyard,” Hesson said. “1985 is a long time ago. A lot of us still remember that quite fondly. We’ve had the odd Test win, in 2011, but to win a series over here you know you have to play very well. We won’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”It cannot have escaped the attention of the New Zealanders that Australia struggled against the swinging ball on this year’s Ashes tour, as they had against Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Doug Bracewell in Hobart in 2011. Since then, Boult and Southee especially have continued to trouble batsmen with their ability to move the ball.”Anyone in the world struggles against the swinging ball,” Hesson said. “That’s shown over the last few years, and Tim and Trent are pretty good exponents. I think if those two get it right and it does swing, they can put any side under pressure. Australia is no exception to that.”However, Australia’s own swing weapon could be Mitchell Starc, who was Player of the Tournament in their successful World Cup campaign earlier in the year and has dominated the Matador Cup one-day series so far, with a remarkable 23 wickets at 7.47 from five games. Although the white ball has been his specialty in recent times, Starc has got the New Zealanders thinking ahead of the Tests.”We’ve asked for some big, tall left-arm bowlers to bowl to us in the nets,” Hesson said. “He’s a high quality bowler, especially in white ball. In Test cricket he’s obviously very good as well, but probably doesn’t have quite the record that he has got with the white ball. The key thing with any bowler is to take them a bit deeper, and if the ball stops swinging it’s a little bit easier. Plenty of hard work to go into that beforehand.”However, the third Test of the series will be played with neither the red ball nor the white ball, with the inaugural day-night Test to be contested in Adelaide with a pink ball. New Zealand will have a hit-out against the pink ball in the PM’s XI game, having already worked with pink balls at a two-day training camp in Hamilton earlier this month.”That removed an element of the unknown,” Hesson said. “I think the guys enjoyed that. A one-day game with white clothing and pink ball will be a little bit of a novelty in itself, a nice way to start the tour.”

Trevor Barsby, the former opening batsman, will begin coaching Queensland immediately following a restructure that pushed Terry Oliver into the new position of high performance manager. Oliver has looked after the Bulls for six years, but the team has struggled in the Pura Cup over the past two seasons, finishing fourth and last, and has lost some long-term players in Jimmy Maher and Michael Kasprowicz.Queensland Cricket completed a two-month review of its major teams before settling on the revamped structure. Oliver departs for the West Indies on Saturday as an assistant with the national team and when he returns he will oversee all of the state’s elite programmes.Barsby, a level three coach, played 111 first-class games for Queensland and will step up from his post at the Queensland Academy of Sport, where he has worked since 2005. “I’ll be looking to use the experience I had as a player with Queensland, through the good times and the bad, to work with the current group,” Barsby said. “This decision allows the Bulls to focus on playing and the coaches to focus on coaching.”After starting his state career in 1984-85, Barsby experienced some painful near-misses in the Sheffield Shield before scoring 151 in the breakthrough win in 1994-95. He retired after the 1996-97 success in Perth.Damien Mullins, the Queensland Cricket chairman, said Oliver’s role was the most significant appointment since John Buchanan was hired in 1994. “It comes after some intensive scrutiny of how we have managed our elite programmes in the past,” Mullins said. “Terry takes on this position after following a pathway through Queensland Cricket that has seen him progress through our system, first as a player and then as a coach, so that he has a deep understanding of all of our processes.”Oliver was in charge when the Bulls won the 2005-06 Pura Cup and the 2006-07 FR Cup. “I’m excited about taking Queensland in a new direction,” he said, “while also maintaining contact with the Bulls and working closely with Trevor.”