All posts by csb10.top

Having come in at the fall of an early wicket, Cheteshwar Pujara had done most of the hard things right in the Antigua Test. He had seen off the new ball, achieved a 100% control rate against the opposition’s most dangerous bowler, Shannon Gabriel, and gone to lunch unbeaten. Shortly after the break, though, he got himself out, top-edging a pull off legspinner Devendra Bishoo.With that, his last five scores in Test cricket were 21, 31, 14, 28, and 16. It’s the kind of sequence that, on paper, suggests a batsman isn’t converting his starts, or is losing his concentration too often, and a not-too-dissimilar sequence – though longer – briefly cost Pujara his Test spot in early 2015. Pujara, though, says he isn’t worried about his form. Speaking to the media on Thursday, he pointed out that some of his recent in-between scores were important contributions in a low-scoring home series against South Africa.”Overall I have been batting well and even in the South Africa series there have been good scores and good batting on challenging wickets,” he said. “So at times you have to be realistic and see the contribution without seeing whether I am getting hundreds or big double-hundreds. It’s always about contributing to the team’s success.”I feel I am batting well without worrying too much about it and at the same time I realise I played a bad shot in the last Test match when I was looking good. I did the hard work in the first session when the ball was moving. Obviously I played a bad shot and there are things to learn from that particular game. Overall the team did well and I am really happy with the way things are going.”Pujara was one of only four Indian players – the others were Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who turned up for an optional practice session two days before the second Test against West Indies in Jamaica. He said he wasn’t working on anything specific, and that he just liked to take every opportunity to bat at the nets.”I think I just want to practice a little more since I didn’t score runs in the first Test match so I can get some extra hits,” he said. “Whenever there is an option to practice, I prefer to practice. It is always about the individual, [whether he] wants to take a break or practice. I am the kind of player who prefers to practice even on an optional day.”There was a healthy covering of grass on the Sabina Park pitch on Thursday, but Pujara said it wouldn’t affect the team’s plans, or change their preparation, all that much.”I don’t think so,” he said “If we see the first Test, there was good pace and bounce from the wicket, and we did well. We just need to continue doing what we have been doing well and there have been many partnerships from the last game. In particular, [R] Ashwin batted well and [Amit] Mishra did well; the top order is doing well and there are contributions from the lower order which is a positive sign from the team.”Pujara said his role in the side remained just the same under new head coach Anil Kumble.”Things remain very simple,” he said. “I always have to contribute and play with responsibility. And I have been doing that and keep working hard on my game as I have been. And I don’t think I need to really worry much about the kind of performances I have put on or what everyone is saying.”I have spoken to [Kumble], he told me about a few things which obviously I cannot disclose here. He has been very positive with the way I have batted in the past and contributions I have made. And he is very happy with the way I have been batting.”

Vernon Philander, who is eyeing a Test return for South Africa, expressed concern about the pink ball after using it for the first time against Australia A in Brisbane. South Africa A are on a recce trip down under, ahead of a Test tour in November, which will include a day-night Test in Adelaide and, so far, their bowlers have found the going tough, even during the day.Australia A racked up 302 for 5 in the 88 overs bowled on the first day, and Philander explained that most of those were bowled with a soft ball. “The pink ball is a bit similar to the Duke, except that when we got past 30 overs, the ball got extremely soft. That’s the only negative about it,” he said, though he did not go so far as to suggest that he will be anti-day-night Test, which some of his team-mates were when the fixtures were being decided. “We are all excited about the pink-ball game, and as long as we can improve the ball, we will have a good future with the pink ball.”Before South Africa agreed to play the Test under lights, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Philander himself had all stressed that they did not want to play a Test with the pink ball because of their inexperience with it. A compromise was reached when Cricket Australia offered South Africa two practice matches during the series and an A-side match on this trip. Since then, South African players have said they are looking forward to the match.Whether Philander will feature in the fixture remains to be seen. He missed seven of South Africa’s eight Tests last summer after tearing ankle ligaments in the warm-ups of the Bangalore Test, and did not recover until the end of the season when he made a comeback in franchise cricket. He has since been on a tour of Zimbabwe with the A team and is part of the current A series in Australia. Philander is hopeful of being picked for South Africa’s Tests against New Zealand in August, but will be competing for a spot against Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada and Dale Steyn, who also missed a significant part of the previous season with injury but has not been included in the A tour.Philander has already shown signs that he could be back to his best. He took four wickets in the Zimbabwe series, conceded less than two runs to the over, and was similarly miserly on the opening day against Australia A. Philander delivered 17 overs and took 1 for 32 – an economy rate of 1.88. “The ball came out well in patches for me. I bowled really in the morning and this afternoon and let it slip a little towards the back end, but all in all, I am happy with my performance,” he said.Also impressive was 20-year old seamer Andile Phehlukwayo, who took 1 for 44, and Philander expects the attack to get better as the series goes on. “The boys bowled well in patches. There was a lack of preparation coming over here with us having two days of practice and having to turn around,” he said. “Australia played out of their socks, but our focus will be on getting the other five wickets and then letting the batsmen do their thing.”

ScorecardJordan Clark is better known for his white-ball exploits•PA Photos

Lancashire’s former players met for their annual reunion on the second day of this match and over thirty of the old boys turned up for the bash. No doubt tales were told and mayhap some had grown in the telling. “An’ you know what they said / Well some of it was true!” sang Joe Strummer, although probably not too many of the ex-cricketers meeting in the Emirates Old Trafford pavilion this warm Sunday will be familiar with The Clash’s rich oeuvre.But however outrageous the stories of white on green might have been as the late-morning claret slipped down they would have been tall indeed to eclipse events taking place in the middle. For as if to heighten the strangeness of Lancashire’s rapid subsidence on Saturday evening, the home side’s last three wickets added 195 runs in 37.2 overs during an extended session in which both Jordan Clark and Kyle Jarvis made career-best scores and the pair broke the county’s tenth-wicket record for Roses matches.That mark was established in 1991 when Peter Martin and Ian Austin added a very rapid 82 at Scarborough, partly, so another tale goes, to expedite a rapid return home in a game Lancashire were going to lose. As it turned out, the visitors went down by a mere 48 runs.Clark and Jarvis’s stand was worth 107 when the latter was leg before to Adil Rashid for 57 and the partnership was thus a single run shy of the tenth-wicket record in all Roses matches, which was set at Old Trafford by Lord Hawke and Lees Whitehead in 1903. Yet as the historians remembered long-dead cricketers and the former players recalled their own days of glory, the crowd – well, most of them, anyway – enjoyed the excitement offered by a morning which had begun when Clark and Arron Lilley rattled off a series of boundaries against an attack which pitched the ball up without employing, or maybe perfecting, the yorker.Lancashire’s eighth-wicket pair put on 87 in a mere 13 overs and they established a completely fresh tempo for their side’s innings. Instead of calling on Rashid – “Henry the Hoover” is just one of the leg spinner’s domestic appliance nicknames – to clean up Steven Croft’s later batsmen, Yorkshire bowlers had to cope with two perfectly capable stroke-makers who employed the old tailender’s maxim, “if it’s up, it’s off” to very good effect.And even after Lilley had been caught behind off Patterson for 45 when attempting an uppercut to third man and Buck had been leg before to a full length delivery from Bresnan five balls later, Yorkshire had to deal with the galling frustration that always comes when an attack believes its work is done, only to discover that an hour’s irritiation lies ahead.One man’s irritation is another’s joy, of course, and so it was at Old Trafford late on the second morning of this game when Jarvis hit Rashid for a couple of big sixes over long on during an innings in which he took an equal share of that last-wicket stand with Clark.Yet the exuberant hitting and the uninhibited sense of fiesta during the morning session threw the rest of the day into sharp relief as Yorkshire’s batsmen made their way carefully to a 136 for two off 62 overs against an accurate attack and in a typically lively Roses match atmosphere. The only successes enjoyed by Lancashire bowlers were the dismissals of Adam Lyth, who was leg before to Jarvis for 25 and Jack Leaning, who was caught at slip by Liam Livingstone off Tom Smith for seven two balls after being dropped by Lilley, also in the slip cordon. Lyth walked across his wicket and hardly waited for the umpire’s decision while Leaning was discomfited by a little extra bounce.For the rest of the day Alex Lees and Andrew Gale accumulated runs in a fashion and tempo much more recognisable to those watching from the pavilion and, indeed, to Lord Hawke as well. A morning session that had seen 195 runs scored at 5.22 runs an over was followed a few hours later by an evening in which Lees and Gale, perfectly understandably, managed 61 in 35 overs, a rate of 1.74.Yorkshire have their eyes on the follow on target which lies a distant 209 runs away; Gale may also be relieved to score what would be only his second fifty of the Championship season, although it is probably three figures that he craves rather more and the return of the famous pennant most of all. Lancashire know that the new ball is only 18 overs away and are still nursing fond hopes of what would be their first victory in a four-day Roses match at Old Trafford since 2000.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsPragyan Ojha suffered a blow to the head and had to be stretchered off the field•PTI

The match between India Blue and India Green laboured to a predictable draw in Greater Noida, as India Blue, who began the fourth and final day with a lead of 555, chose not to declare and batted on until they were bowled out an hour from the dinner break. India Green, left with a target of 769, raced to 179 for 4 courtesy half-centuries from M Vijay (73) and Robin Uthappa (66) before the players shook hands as the match entered its final hour.India Blue collected three points, by virtue of their 470-run first-innings lead, and set up a final date with India Red. India Green ended their campaign with a solitary point, having lost outright to India Red in the tournament opener.Outplayed from the time they were asked to bowl first, India Green’s day was made worse by a freak head injury to Pragyan Ojha. Ojha, fielding at mid-on, got down to stop Pankaj Singh’s thwack, but the ball bounced unexpectedly and struck him on the side of his head. Ojha lay motionless, clutching his head, before being stretchered off. He was taken to a nearby multispeciality hospital and a neurosurgeon was consulted. Later in the day, the BCCI revealed that Ojha was safe, tweeting a picture of him on his hospital bed, flashing a smile and a thumbs-up.At the time of Ojha’s injury, India Blue were nine down. The day had begun with overnight batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal completing half-centuries, while Cheteshwar Pujara struck a brisk 31. Sheldon Jackson and Dinesh Karthik then came together for a fifth-wicket stand of 46. After Karthik’s dismissal for 57, Jackson took centrestage, and the first-innings centurion once again gave India Green a hard time, tonking six fours and five sixes. When Pankaj Singh was cleaned up by Shreyas Gopal, Jackson was unbeaten 79 off 77 balls. Shreyas ended with figures of 4 for 53.India Green’s batsmen decided to have some fun and their innings made for entertaining viewing. M Vijay set the tone with an edged boundary over gully off the very first ball of the innings, and the batsmen frequently stepped out and hit over the top. Jalaj Saxena did not last long with that approach, however, flashing at one outside off to be caught at point. Thereafter, Uthappa and Vijay added 116 for the second wicket off just 134 balls.The two took a liking to legspinner Karn Sharma, who offered them generous flight. They stepped down the track and heaved him either side of the wicket, frequently targeting long-on and long-off.Green’s batsmen had their share of luck, too. Karn put down a tough chance when Vijay hammered one straight back at him on 31. He was offered another life when Jackson misjudged a catch at extra-cover off the same bowler with Vijay on 46. The reprieves did not alter the second-wicket pair’s approach, however. Uthappa raised his half-century by creaming Abhimanyu Mithun through extra cover in the 21st over, and Vijay joined him less than three overs later, lofting Karn for a boundary through the same region.Karn, however, continued flighting the ball. He began finding turn too, and had Uthappa holing out to cover point, while Vijay picked out long-off.Parthiv Patel’s brief stay was ended by Parvez Rasool who got one to drift in and trap him lbw. Shortly thereafter, Gambhir decided he had had enough, and the players shook hands with Saurabh Tiwary unbeaten on 20, and Shreyas giving him company on 3.

ScorecardPeter Siddle picked up 1 for 19 in his first match since February•Getty Images

Cameron White’s second century of the tournament delivered victory and a bonus point to Victoria in their Matador Cup match against Tasmania at North Sydney Oval. White finished unbeaten on 117 as the Bushrangers chased down the target of 211 with eight wickets in hand, inside 35 overs, to continue their strong one-day form.Earlier, Peter Siddle had made an encouraging return from long-term injury in his first competitive match since February, collecting 1 for 19 from eight overs as the Tigers were restricted to 7 for 210. Siddle bowled opener Tim Paine in the third over of the match as Paine offered no shot to a ball that moved back in, and Glenn Maxwell picked up two early wickets to have Tasmania 3 for 17.Alex Doolan rebuilt the innings with an unbeaten 87 from 82 deliveries, with assistance from allrounder Simon Milenko (44), and a late 34 not out from Xavier Doherty. However, the target was always going to be difficult for the Tasmania bowlers to defend, and a 122-run opening stand between White and Marcus Harris made it even more so.Harris fell for 64 and Maxwell for 22, but they were the only two wickets to fall in the Victorian innings as White directed the chase perfectly. He struck five sixes and 12 fours and jumped ahead of Moises Henriques to lead the overall tournament run tally.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsZimbabwe took early wickets to pull off a five-run victory and seal their berth in the final•AFP

Zimbabwe fought back from the brink to beat West Indies by five runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method in Bulawayo. The spirited victory gave Zimbabwe a berth in the tri-series final, where they will play Sri Lanka on November 27.The cornerstone of Zimbabwe’s comeback was the unbroken 91-run partnership – their highest for the ninth wicket in ODIs – between Sikandar Raza and Tendai Chisoro, which lifted the home side to 218. That stand came on the back of a 38-run eighth-wicket stand between Raza and Donald Tiripano, after Zimbabwe had slipped to 89 for 7. West Indies were set a target of 219 after a rain break during Zimbabwe’s innings had reduced the match to 49 overs a side.Having rescued Zimbabwe with the bat, Raza and Chisoro began proceedings with the ball – only the third time in ODIs that Zimbabwe opened with spin at both ends. Chisoro had Johnson Charles caught and bowled off the fourth ball of the innings, and trapped Evin Lewis lbw in his next over. Sean Williams came in as first change, and Graeme Cremer, second change, as Zimbabwe squeezed West Indies with spin.It was Williams who got the next wicket when Shai Hope, driving with hard hands, could only edge the ball to Hamilton Masakadza at first slip. Just as West Indies seemed to be recovering, Kraigg Brathwaite was run out by a direct hit after the batsmen attempted a tight single. Williams got his second wicket when Rovman Powell holed out to Craig Ervine at long-off. West Indies were 93 for 5 in the 23rd over at that stage, well behind the D/L par score, even as play went on under a steady drizzle.Jonathan Carter batted on for an unbeaten 56-ball 43 and Jason Holder hit 22 off 17 to add quick runs, but West Indies were still five short of the D/L par score when rain intervened in the 28th over, with the score at 124 for 5. That proved to be the end, and West Indies were left to rue another match that had slipped from their grasp.Earlier, after a rain break had interrupted Zimbabwe’s innings at 48 for 1, Devendra Bishoo and Ashley Nurse tore through the middle order, engineering a collapse of 6 for 41. In the third ball after the resumption, Bishoo bowled a full ball into the blockhole that beat Hamilton Masakadza’s defence. Thereafter, batsman after batsman demonstrated poor technique against spin to send the innings into a downward spiral. Brian Chari, Peter Moor and Cremer all rocked back and played cross-batted shots to deliveries that should have had them playing forward. They were all bowled. Ervine and Williams both played forward, but the former was beaten by the turn and trapped in front, while the latter could only manage a fine edge through to the keeper.Between them, Bishoo and Nurse took 6 for 57 in 20 overs. But, just when it seemed that Zimbabwe would slump to a double-figure total, Raza and Tiripano started a counterattack against the seamers. Holder bounced Tiripano out to end a pesky eighth-wicket stand, but that only paved the way for an even thornier partnership that frustrated West Indies.Raza and Chisoro built their partnership on ones and twos, minimising risk as they looked to bat out the overs. With two overs to go, though, they both cut loose – Raza creamed two fours through the cover region, while Chisoro unleashed two mighty pulls for six. The pair plundered 29 runs off the last two overs to send Zimbabwe into the interval on a high. That high extended into their bowling and fielding, before the intervention of the elements sealed a well-deserved win for the hosts.

Ben Stokes has received his second ICC reprimand in the last month, giving him two demerit points under the new code of conduct – halfway to being banned for a Test match. Stokes admitted a Level One offence after being dismissed on the first day of the Mohali Test against India.Stokes was found to have used “language or a gesture that is obscene, offensive or insulting”, in breach of Article 2.1.4 of the ICC Code of Conduct. Having been stumped for 29 during the afternoon session, he reacted to the India players celebrating – exchanging words with Virat Kohli – and his comments were heard by the on-field umpires.In Dhaka last month, Stokes was fined 15% of his match fee and given a demerit point for “verbally engaging” with Bangladesh batsman Sabbir Rahman. If he reaches four demerit points within a two-year period, he faces suspension for one Test or two limited-overs internationals.The charge in Mohali was laid by the umpiring team of Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney and Kumar Dharmasena. Because Stokes accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Ranjan Madugalle, there was no need for a formal hearing.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details1:44

‘We can be more clinical’ – Owais Shah

Namibia made for overly generous guests, dropping three chances and giving away plenty more runs in misfields to allow tournament hosts UAE to escape with a last-ball win by six wickets. The match was fairly sloppy from beginning to end but Namibia were determined to show they could match, if not surpass, any errors UAE made in the field.One of the few blemish free individual performances came from fast bowler Mohammad Naveed, who reeled in the three biggest fish in the Namibia batting order. Man of the Match Naveed clean bowled openers Louis van der Westhuizen and Stephan Baard with a pair of full and straight deliveries inside the first three overs before coming back late to dismiss Gerrie Snyman with a bit of good fortune – caught at midwicket off a meaty waist-high full toss – denying Namibia their finishing trump card.Despite the last-ball nature of the finish, UAE held wickets in hand throughout the chase and generally looked in control. Rohan Mustafa steered the first leg with a half-century before Shaiman Anwar took the baton and carried the chase into the last over with a fifty of his own until he was run out off the penultimate ball. Muhammad Usman then skipped down the track off the final ball and scooped Jan Frylinck back over his head with everyone in the circle to seal victory.Lefty batting duelJP Kotze starred in Namibia’s innings with an impressively clean power-hitting display. Kotze had three fours and two sixes – one each slog swept over midwicket against left-arm spinner Ahmed Raza and legspinner Imran Haider – in his 50 off 42 balls. However, he perished at a crucial time to Zahoor Farooqi as the medium pacer landed one in the blockhole at the start of the 18th, the first of three wickets in seven balls that also accounted for fellow set batsman Sarel Burger for 32 and was bookended by the wicket of Snyman.Mustafa looked in decent touch for UAE opening the chase and ended with the game’s top score of 56 off 34 balls. When he middled anything full it usually went screeching to the mid-off rope. Even the ones he didn’t connect cleanly with found ways to evade stumps and fielders to on the way to the fine leg and third man boundaries.Scholtz neutralizedNamibia’s best hope of containing Mustafa and Shaiman came in the form of left-arm spinner Bernard Scholtz. He was brought on by Burger after the Powerplay and bowled a tidy three-run eighth over, but Mustafa triggered an assault in the 10th to hit him out of the attack. The second ball of the over pitched full on his legs and was slog-swept over Burger at deep midwicket for Mustafa’s lone six.Next ball, Mustafa hit him a bit straighter toward wide long on for what should have been a single but a poor misfield by Frylinck resulted in four. A single put Shaiman back on strike and he brought out the sweep to find the gap behind square for four more as part of a 17-run over. Scholtz wasn’t used again.Dew you want another chance? Namibia dropped three chances and missed out on at least two run outs in the field. The last ball of the 10th by Scholtz was hit by Shaiman to deep midwicket for one but Namibia failed to make Mustafa pay for seeking a greedy second run when the relay to wicketkeeper Kotze pulled him high and away from the stumps, despite Mustafa being well short of his ground after being sent back by Shaiman.The most grievous errors came in the 15th over, though, when Shaiman was dropped twice in the space of four balls by Craig Williams on 25 and 26. The first came off a good length ball flicked loosely to Williams at head height standing at midwicket in the circle, which he juggled before spilling. After getting back on strike, Shaiman got a waist-high full toss and in an overexcited state swung off balance to produce a top-edge. The ball swirled toward Williams again at midwicket, who shuffled to his left before spilling Shaiman once more. Shaiman rubbed salt into the wound in the following over by driving Snyman’s offspin twice over long-on for six.In the final over with three needed off three balls, Shaiman pushed for a suicidal two to long-on. Gerhard Erasmus fielded quickly and fired an accurate throw on one bounce to Kotze, who fluffed the take with Shaiman three yards short coming back for the second run to draw scores level. When asked after the game what was the cause for all the fielding lapses, Burger attributed it to trouble gripping the ball due to the dew factor at night.Shaiman’s charmed innings ended next ball when he took on Erasmus again from mid-on but this time a direct hit at the non-striker’s end delayed the winning run until the final delivery struck by Usman. It was the type of quality fielding moment that was too little, too late for Namibia.

Ross Taylor hopes for more clarity on his future in New Zealand’s T20 set-up at the end of the season after he was again left out of the squad, for the one-off T20 international against South Africa at Eden Park on Friday.Taylor, who has scored 1256 runs in 73 T20Is, was dropped for the three-match T20 series against Bangladesh in January, which New Zealand won 3-0, and in his absence there was success for Colin Munro (101), Tom Bruce (59) and Corey Anderson (94) which meant the selectors were not inclined to change.Taylor also had a somewhat underwhelming World T20 in India last year, making 91 runs in five innings, and his highest score in his last 14 innings is 36 not out.In an interview with , Taylor said he had not been given any specific indication from coach Mike Hesson or selector Gavin Larsen of what he needed to do to reclaim his spot.”He [Hesson] just said I’m not in the team…all he said was that this was the best team for Bangladesh and said I wasn’t selected for South Africa.”I asked the question when I got dropped for Bangladesh. You have to respect the decision. You have a review at the end of the season and we’ll see what Hess has in store for me and my future in the team I guess.”Taylor added that he hoped to play international cricket until at least the 2019 World Cup but with the next World T20 currently scheduled for 2020 he may find the selectors remain keen to cast their net wider in that format.Hesson, speaking to reporters in Auckland on Tuesday as the squad gathered ahead of the start of the South Africa series, insisted there had been open communication with Taylor and that his omission stemmed from the form of the incumbents.”That’s the nutshell. There’s not a role there at the moment because guys there have done so well,” Hesson said. “It’s very difficult for Ross because there aren’t going to be many opportunities. We have those issues all the time. We know Ross is a quality player, we know he’s keen to play T20 cricket but at the moment we have a side playing pretty well.Ross Taylor has not played T20 cricket for New Zealand since the World T20 last year•IDI/Getty Images

“Following the Bangladesh selection Gavin Larsen and I talked to him at length. There’s certainly been some communication. We communicate every day. Like every player they want to know how to get back in. That’s quite natural.”Taylor was denied the chance to make a point to the selectors when the T20 warm-up match between a New Zealand XI and the South Africans was washed out without a ball bowled in Auckland.However, since his return from surgery in December, to remove a pterygium in his left eye, Taylor’s form has been impressive across all three formats and earlier this month he scored a series-clinching 107 as New Zealand retained the Chappell-Hadlee trophy.”It’s the best I’ve seen ball for a long time,” he said. “I think I underestimated how bad my eye was beforehand and how much it has improved over a small period.”Taylor will be in the IPL auction later this month – he has not played the tournament in the last two seasons – and will be rejoining Sussex for the NatWest T20 Blast following a productive 2016 season in which he scored 394 runs, at an average of 56.28 and strike-rate of 133.10.

As New Zealand enter their final fixture of a summer that began nine months ago in August, wicketkeeper BJ Watling has cautioned against an over-reaction to their three-day defeat to South Africa in Wellington, but admitted the last match of the series could define this season.”It’s not a calamity. There’s a lot of talk about the collapse and these things happen and we are obviously very disappointed but we’re not going to dwell on that,” Watling said. “This is a very important game coming up for us. I don’t think we will judge our season on that last game. But we might on this one.”It has become something of a team mantra to talk of the Wellington woes as “one bad day,” as Kane Williamson described it. They may even be able to distill it down to one bad hour.New Zealand were 139 for 5 at tea on third day and added 16 runs to that score before losing 5 for 16 in less than six overs to set South Africa a modest 81. That four of the five wickets fell to Keshav Maharaj on the most seamer-friendly deck of the series, was of particular annoyance to selector Gavin Larsen and Watling confirmed the squad has been addressing that issue.”It was a pretty good wicket to bat on against spin and we were probably not quite as disciplined as we would like to be,” he said. “We’ve got to take better options and make better decisions than what we did in that last innings.”The Seddon Park surface is expected to take more turn than either University Oval – which was low and slow but not raging – or the Basin Reserve, which only offered a little something out of the rough, so New Zealand need to be even more alert. Watling, a Hamilton local, is also predicting some seam and swing.The former will bring Vernon Philander, who took a series-winning 10 for 114 including 6 for 44 in the second innings, the last time South Africa were in Hamilton, into the game. Philander only has two wickets in the series so far and the statistics might suggest New Zealand have not had to deal with the full might of him yet, but they know that is not entirely correct.The pressure Philander and Morne Morkel created in Wellington was key to Maharaj’s success and Watling wants his team-mates to ride out the quicks better in Hamilton while not letting their guard down at the other end. “They bowled very well and put us under pressure and there were some testing spells,” Watling said. We’ve got to get through those spells and make sure we are not slacking at the other end.”For that, New Zealand need their top six to build on starts and will want to see runs from Tom Latham and Neil Broom, who have yet to contribute, because they feel that is the only way to properly challenge a strong South African attack. “There’s been some glimpses of good batting and we’ve talked about those starts and we need to turn them to bigger scores to really put South Africa under pressure,” Watling said. “We’ve got to be better as a unit, all the way down to 11. We’ve got to build partnerships and take these guys really deep. We saw in Dunedin, that we took them deep and they felt the pressure. We had them in positions we were pretty happy with.”Watling has been one of the key men in counter-attacking in this series. His fifty in Dunedin came alongside Kane Williamson, with whom he shared an 84-run stand to help put New Zealand in a position to take a first-innings lead. Then, Watling spent almost three hours at the crease in scoring 34 in the first innings in Wellington, off 132, balls and he shared in the biggest partnership of the innings, 116 with Henry Nicholls. In the second dig, Watling partnered Jeet Raval in a sixth-wicket stand of 65, New Zealand’s only stand over fifty in that innings.His appetite for a fight may result in calls for him to bat higher up, especially as New Zealand are without Ross Taylor, who is recovering from a low-grade calf tear, but the man himself says there has been no discussion about being promoted mostly because it may affect his wicket-keeping duties. “My role has always been No.7, for the majority of my keeping days,” he said. “Keeping can be quite tough and a mental drain sometimes, focusing on every ball in the field and with batting at No.7, you get a bit of a break.”South Africa use the same argument for not using Quinton de Kock higher up despite his ability to accelerate the scoring rate almost single-handedly. It’s the “almost” that’s important though, because de Kock can’t operate without a partner and he has found a promising one in patient Temba Bavuma. Watling needs someone like that at the other end, otherwise New Zealand may find him trying to do both jobs and that could end in calamity.”I love batting and I hate getting out. You respect each delivery as well and the South Africans bowl a lot of good balls that you’ve got to respect and you’ve got to wait a bit longer to get the balls to put away,” he said. “Some days its about being aggressive and take a lot more positive options and other days you might have to soak it up a bit more.”