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Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, complimented Kevin Pietersen’s approach to batting following his two centuries in the Tests against Sri Lanka. Fletcher described him as a thinking cricketer with a solid gameplan for every bowler, and not a slogger trying to destroy attacks without any strategy.Pietersen was the star performer in the second Test at Edgbaston, with his 142 in the first innings constituting nearly 50% of his team’s total. He had an enthralling duel with Muttiah Muralitharan, stepping down the track regularly while the rest of the batsmen failed to get past 30. Pietersen braved a painful blow to the stomach by Lasith Malinga, the fast bowler, but continued batting in the same vein, which won the praise of his captain, Andrew Flintoff.”He doesn’t go out there and just play by instinct,” Fletcher told reporters. “Some shots maybe, but generally he’s got a good plan of how he’s going to play every bowler. He really thinks his game out and added to that he’s got some real talent.”Pietersen, originally considered a one-day specialist, announced his arrival with a bang in England’s tour of South Africa in 2005, scoring three centuries in the ODI series. Opinions were divided about his place in the Test side, but all doubts were put to rest in first Test of the 2005 Ashes series at Lord’s, as Pietersen scored two half-centuries and took on Shane Warne while the rest succumbed. His 158 at The Oval helped England save the Test and win the Ashes. In 13 Tests so far, his average stands at 50.12, with a healthy strike rate of nearly 71. He scored 158 against Sri Lanka at Lord’s in the first Test recently, making it three successive tons on England soil, and a century in the third at Trent Bridge will make him the first England player in history to achieve the feat of scoring four centuries in successive home Tests.”He’s new to Test cricket and he’s done very, very well,” Fletcher added. “He is exciting and I find him a very clever cricketer. People think he just goes out there and just plays the game, but he really thinks what he’s going to do. I just think he’s a very exciting player”.

Spin me once, shame on you. Spin me twice, shame on me. South Africa went through the Test series calmly picking apart the myth that they wilt in the face of spin. On turning wickets, they rarely looked in any kind of trouble. But suddenly, twice in succession, an inability to prosper against spin has cost them matches.Spin over five days and spin over 50 overs are different prospects entirely. Against Danish Kaneria and Abdur Rehman in the Tests, the objective was to not get out to them, one they achieved so well they eventually scored runs comfortably against them. Against Shahid Afridi and Rehman in the ODIs, where swift runs are a must, South Africa have stuttered.The pair have seven wickets between them and have gone for under 4.5 an over; in these numbers have the games essentially been lost by South Africa. Pakistan’s plan has been simple: prepare a slow pitch and choke the middle overs.”We have seen the conditions after the first game,” said Graeme Smith. “They believe they can beat us on these wickets and their spinners have bowled well. Afridi and Rehman in the middle overs made it difficult for us and that is something we have to look at now and plan against that.”Spin at both ends began from the 30th over onwards, when South Africa were a not unreasonable 111 for 3. But in the subsequent, vital 16 overs, until pace offered relief at one end, they squeezed out only 71 runs and lost four key wickets doing so. Each time, it seemed, they started, they immediately stopped and no real partnerships were forged.The pitch fooled many. Yesterday the general consensus was that it had runs, and plenty of them, in it. Smith had little hesitation in batting when he won his fourth toss out of five on this tour. But after a confident start, when ball zipped off pitch and bat, matters slowed down.”Ten overs into the innings we realised the wicket was getting slow and stopping,” Smith admitted. “I think both teams struggled to bat on this wicket. Pakistan bowled well up front. Their spinners were very good because they got the ball to turn away. We got ourselves back in game but we lost too many wickets at crucial times. Mohammad Yousuf held their innings together and we needed that.”Indeed he might praise Yousuf’s innings for South Africa made every one of those 197 runs count. Smith’s assertion that another 20-30 runs to the total would’ve been very defendable has substance in light of the way they bowled, particularly Albie Morkel. Had one or two throws hit the stumps and one catch been held, even the target they set might have been defended.

“We bowled very well. I just think we needed one or two bigger partnerships in the middle. If we can set 220-250 it will be very difficult to chase on these wickets. We had run-out opportunities and we dropped Misbah-ul-Haq first ball. There are too many ‘ifs’ at the moment that we are not controlling. We are making little mistakes that are costing us. We need to be little more precise with our chances,” said Smith.All well and good and true, but you also wonder whether sending their star of the Test series, Paul Harris, back before the ODIs was such a clever move after all. He took 12 wickets in the two Tests and as much as his bounce and turn, it was his consistency in hitting the right areas and restricting runs that impressed.Johan Botha has done well in spurts, but Harris would’ve offered a different threat. Was Smith just a little rueful when answering the question? “I think Botha has done a good job. It might have been nice to have two spinners but the selectors have given us a team, we have backed it and we have to give the guys their opportunities.”

Needing a win to secure a spot in the Nagico Super50 semi-final round, Barbados knocked off previously undefeated Trinidad & Tobago by three wickets on Sunday at Queen’s Park Oval. Barbados sent the hosts in and held them to 226 thanks in large part to captain Jason Holder’s 4 for 35.Only three batsmen reached double digits for T&T, but each made an important contribution. Foremost among them was Darren Bravo who top scored with 82 after coming back into the lineup for the first time in the tournament since returning from the Test tour of Australia. He received quality support from Kjorn Ottley, who made 38, but more significantly Denesh Ramdin, whose 57 was part of an 89-run fifth-wicket stand with Bravo.Though no one reached 50 for Barbados in reply, every member of the top seven contributed a double-figure score. Kraigg Brathwaite was the best of the lot with 48 off 87 balls as he teamed with Shai Hope for a methodical 62-run second-wicket stand to get the chase going in the right direction.Holder and Shane Dowrich added another 54 for the sixth wicket before Rayad Emrit intervened with wickets off back-to-back balls to nab Holder for 26 and Carlos Brathwaite for a golden duck to set up a hat-trick ball with Barbados still 28 short of victory. Dowrich managed to see off the threat though and carried Barbados across the line with an unbeaten 29 off 50. Emrit took 3 for 45 in defeat, though T&T still finished atop Group A. As a result, they will face Windward Islands, who finished second in Group B in one semi-final next week while Barbados will play Guyana in the other knockout contest.Jamaica survived an upset scare from ICC Americas, scratching out a one-wicket win earlier in the day, a result which meant Barbados had to beat T&T in order to avoid a net run rate tiebreaker coming into play to decide the last semi-final spot. ICC Americas won the toss and elected to bat first, posting their best score of the event and third-highest for any team at this year’s tournament in making 253 for 8.Ruvindu Gunasekera blasted 87 at the top order to underpin the innings. Gunasekera added 99 for the third wicket with Nitish Kumar, who made 43. Though Gunasekera fell in the 42nd over just 13 short of a ton, the strong platform he laid allowed the middle order to play aggressively in adding 95 over the final 10 overs. Srimantha Wijeratne led the surge with 45 off 28 balls while Hamza Tariq cracked a rapid 35 off 14. Sheldon Cottrell had a mixed day, getting hit hard by Gunasekera before claiming three wickets at the death, including Wijeratne and Tariq, to end with 3 for 57 in seven overs.Jamaica started the chase in aggressive fashion in pursuit of a bonus point which would have put added pressure on Barbados, but their eagerness backfired in the face of a disciplined ICC Americas attack. Hammad Shahid struck in the first over to remove Jermaine Harrison before Ali Khan trapped Trevon Griffith at 23 for 4. Captain John Campbell made 82 off 74 balls, including fifty-plus stands for the third and fourth wickets with Andre McCarthy and Jermaine Blackwood, but when he fell at 148 for 4 in the 25th over, the chase for the bonus point came undone.Kumar’s part-time offspin caused major problems for Jamaica in claiming not just Campbell but also Jermaine Blackwood and Devon Thomas to put Jamaica in strife at 218 for 7 in the 35th. Four balls later, Kumar was responsible for a frantic run-out of Brandon King – chasing a legbye after an unsuccessful leg before shout by Khan – by charging in with an underhanded strike from midwicket. Khan yorked Damion Jacobs for a duck in the same over to complete a stretch of three wickets in seven balls for no runs to make it 218 for 9 with Jamaica still 36 runs adrift of the target.Though the pursuit for the 40-over bonus point had to be ditched, the last man to the crease Marquino Mindley came to Jamaica’s rescue with an unbeaten 24 off 37 as the ICC Americas unit spent the next 10 overs unable to dislodge Mindley or his partner Aldane Thomas. With scores level, a boundary to start the 46th ended the match, sending the ICC Americas squad home empty-handed.Windward Islands held on by five runs to defeat Leeward Islands in St Kitts, in a match reduced to 49 overs following early morning rain. Sunil Ambris continued his fine tournament with 74 off 84 balls in the Windwards total of 243 for 6. Ambris followed a 75-run stand with Tyrone Theophile for the fourth wicket by adding another 82 with Andre Fletcher and eventually fell to Daron Cruickshank at the start of the 45th. Cruickshank also claimed Fletcher to finish with 2 for 47, while Quinton Boatswain took 2 for 31, for Leewards.In reply, Orlando Peters made 77 at the top of the Leewards chase, but no one came close to following his lead. Nkrumah Bonner made 35 and added 65 for the fourth wicket with Peters but by the 42nd over, both men had left with Leewards needing 56 off the final 7.1 overs with five wickets in hand.It was not an unwieldy equation and by the start of the final over, 13 were still needed to win. After a single and a four off the first two balls, Jeremiah Louis was run out attempting a second run, leaving seven needed off the last three. A dot and a leg by followed to put the No. 11 Boatswain on strike for his only delivery with six needed to win but another dot followed to end the match. Delorn Johnson took 3 for 36 for Windwards.Guyana completed the highest successful chase of the tournament in tracking down a Combined Campuses and Colleges total of 254 for 7 to win by five wickets at Warner Park. Rovman Powell and Anthony Alleyne both made fifties for CCC to set Guyana a stiff target but it ultimately was not enough.Assad Fudadin struck the tournament’s third century and carried his bat in making 103 not out off 136 balls for Guyana. The opener added 90 for the second wicket with Leon Johnson, whose 56 was the other major score in the chase. After Royston Crandon retired hurt on 29 off 27 balls, Steven Jacobs came in to hit 15 not out as he and Fudadin helped Guyana to victory with three balls to spare.

Scotland Yard detectives have told Jamaican police that Bob Woolmer, the former Pakistan coach, was not murdered, according to a report in the UK’s Daily Mail. “Mr Woolmer was not a well man,” a source close to the inquiry told the Daily Mail. “It is now accepted that he died of natural causes.”Police have been treating the case as murder shortly after Woolmer’s body was discovered in a Kingston hotel on March 18. But the change of tack came after an investigation by a UK Home Office pathologist who flew to Jamaica to help.It is claimed the authorities will announce Woolmer died of a heart failure caused by chronic ill health and possibly diabetes at a press conference next week. However, Karl Angell, the Jamaica police’s director of communications, told The Gleaner he did not know of any planned news conference for next week.The BBC has also apparently reached similar conclusions as the after an investigation of its own and backed the latter’s claim that Scotland Yard had told Jamaican police officials Woolmer’s death was not murder.The ‘s report added, however, that Gill Woolmer had heard nothing about her husband dying of natural causes.

Match facts

November 17, 2015
Start time 1500 local (1100 GMT)

Big Picture

As in the first Test, so too in the one-dayers. After an inauspicious start in Abu Dhabi, England’s bouncebackability has ensured that this contest will now go down to the wire. If Eoin Morgan blamed his batsmen for their shortcomings in the six-wicket defeat in Wednesday’s opening fixture, then the voracity of their response was a delight for the skipper to behold. A maiden ODI hundred for Alex Hales that included a century stand with his opening partner, Jason Roy; a serene example of mid-innings run-harvesting from Joe Root, and another probing display from a young seam attack who shared eight wickets between them were plenty reasons to believe in the continuing development of an upwardly mobile squad.A change of venue beckons for Tuesday’s third ODI, however, and if the lessons of the Test series are anything to go by, then the surface in Sharjah is likely to favour the slower bowlers on both teams, which in turn should play comprehensively into the hands of Pakistan. That said, England’s neutering of the legspinner, Yasir Shah, was a major factor in Friday’s 95-run win – his nine overs were milked for 70 runs – and there is some concern about his fitness for this match. However, with Shoaib Malik still displaying the confidence with the ball that led to seven series-sealing wickets in the third Test earlier this month, the onus will surely be on England’s spin twins, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, to at the very least match the control and penetration of their Pakistani counterparts.Nevertheless, England do appear to be the more settled of the two teams at present. The reverberations of Younis Khan’s surprise retirement are still being felt by Pakistan’s squad. Their coach, Waqar Younis, echoed the sentiments of the PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan in criticising the timing of Younis’s departure, and the plugging of that sizeable hole in the middle order has led to all manner of upheaval elsewhere in their line-up. Neither Bilal Asif nor Babar Azam, who played a vital role from No.6 in the opening victory, has looked comfortable as a makeshift opener, while Azhar Ali, the captain, has seemed devoid of intent at the top of the order. Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan’s in-form Test opener, was bagged for a duck by David Willey from No.3, arguably the decisive moment in England’s victory push on Friday.If there was an area of concern for England in the second match, it centred around the failure of their own middle-order to build on the start provided by Hales and Co. At 165 for 1 in the 30th over, conventional wisdom suggested that a score well in excess of 300 was on the cards. However, thanks in no small part to another supreme spell from Wahab Riaz, England were forced to settle for 283. It proved, on this occasion, to be more than enough, but with Jos Buttler in particular still struggling for the form that he had been displaying at the start of the English summer, England’s line-up is still some way short of full efficiency.

Form guide

Pakistan: LWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England: WLLWW

Players to watch …

His twin failures in the Sharjah Test match undermined his status as the world’s No.1 batsman, but Joe Root’s ability to translate his talents across formats is currently unrivalled among England cricketers. If Hales’ hundred rightly took the plaudits on Friday, then Root’s fuss-free strike rotation was every bit as vital to England’s finished article – no fewer than 46 of his 77 deliveries were nurdled away for singles, a skill that his compatriots have so often lacked against spin bowling on slow, low Asian pitches.His stated aim, in the aftermath of his Test retirement, is to play in the 2019 World Cup, and Shoaib Malik is so far making a tidy case to be selected as a front-line spinning option. England’s early-summer wickets may not be quite as conducive to his angular offspin but, right now, it is the second string to Shoaib’s bow that is justifying his presence in Pakistan’s line-up. Nevertheless, he was averaging exactly 100 in ODI cricket since his recall after the World Cup, and his Test-best 245 is not yet a distant memory. In light of Younis’ absence, Shoaib’s experience with the bat takes on an extra significance.Alex Hales celebrates with Joe Root after his maiden ODI hundred•Getty Images

Team news

No qualms about Pakistan’s pace attack – Wahab’s class allied to Mohammad Irfan’s cloud-scraping angle of attack, plus Anwar Ali’s consistency with the new ball – means that their seam options are plentiful. There is, however, a concern over Yasir’s fitness. He sustained a knee injury during practice on the eve of the match and may be forced to sit this one out. Bilal would be the obvious stand-in. At the top of the batting order, Ahmed Shehzad could become Azhar’s third opening partner in as many matches.Pakistan (probable) 1 Azhar Ali (capt), 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Iftikhar Ahmed, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Anwar Ali, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Yasir Shah, 11 Mohammad Irfan.No reason for significant tinkering to England’s balance or line-up. The top five looks as solid as anything that the selectors have conjured up since the pre-World Cup panic that unseated Alastair Cook, while Buttler’s struggle for form is no reflection on his obvious class. Not for the first time this tour, the role of Moeen is raising some eyebrows – he is arguably under-utilised in the lower middle-order – while the temptation to play an extra paceman in Liam Plunkett must be strong. But if Rashid’s legspin is to develop as a one-day threat, with next year’s tour of India an obvious staging post, then these are the fixtures in which he needs to play.England (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 James Taylor, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Reece Topley.

Pitch and conditions

England fielded three spinners at Sharjah during the Test series and there’s a strong likelihood that this surface will be conducive to slow bowling as well. It is the same surface that was used for the third Test in Sharjah a fortnioght ago and still has significant scarring.

Stats and trivia

• Sharjah is set to host its 219th ODI, already a world record for any ground in the format. However, this will be England’s first one-day fixture at the venue since April 1999.
• Root requires three more runs to pass 2,000 runs in all formats for the calendar year.
• After going wicketless in the second match, Malik still needs one more wicket to reach 150 in ODIs.

Quotes

“”England bounced back and bounced back well. We probably were not thinking that they are going to play that well and now we have to play out of our skins to make it 2-1.”
“I have to maintain a positive mindset. If I don’t, things go wrong and it’s not the way I play.”

Essex beat the PCA Masters by four wickets at Chelmsford on Thursday to win the Twenty20 Floodlit Cup.Having already won their first three matches in the round-robin competition, also featuring Derbyshire, Essex went into their final match with the knowledge that another win would secure the Cup for the second year in a row.Their opponents pushed them hard and it was only a late flurry from James Foster (65*) that ensured Essex reached their target of 157 with one ball to spare.The Masters produced an innings that gathered momentum, after winning the toss, with four batsmen reaching 20. Azhar Mahmood top-scored with 36 off 23 balls, including a savage pull through midwicket off Ryan ten Doeschate for six to bring up the 100.Essex’s reply began disastrously when Mark Pettini was caught by Phil Simmons at second slip off Mahmood’s first ball. Grant Flower went the same way in the third over as Essex lurched to 15-2.James Middlebrook (25) and Ryan ten Doeschate (39) then upped the tempo in a stand of 43 with the latter hitting three leg-side sixes in Martin Bicknell’s third over to bring the 50 up in the sixth over.After Middlebrook was run out attempting a second run to midwicket the stage was set for Foster to see his team home. The Essex wicketkeeper lost partners at regular intervals but he kept his head to reach his 50 with a straight six and four off Dean Headley.Graham Napier played a useful supporting role in an unbeaten stand of 40 for the seventh-wicket as the six runs needed off the final over from Chris Lewis were duly reached off the penultimate ball when Foster straight-drove to the boundary.Friday’s last match in the competition between Derbyshire and the PCA Masters at Derby will now decide the minor placings with the hosts looking to register their first victory in the competition at the fourth attempt.

Much is at stake when an RCA President’s XI takes on a buoyed English side in Jaipur on Saturday in what will be the only practice game before the seven-match ODI series starts on Tuesday.England, who are without their inspirational captain Andrew Flintoff – who is gone home for a couple of days to see his new-born son – are keen to maintain their winning momentum while the youngsters in the home side will try hard to make an impression on the selectors ahead of the one-dayers.The drubbing in Mumbai has served as a wake-up call to the national selectors who will be present to assess the performance of players like Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. The injury-enforced absence of Sachin Tendulkar from the Indian squad has thrown up a slot for a youngster to come in, and it will be interesting to see who finally fills his shoes.The injury scare concerning Virender Sehwag, who played with a back spasm in Mumbai, has also forced the selectors to look at the bench strength, although he has been named in the 15-member one-day squad.The English team, to be led by Vikram Solanki, had a strenuous workout in the nets today after arriving in the Pink City last night, while the RCA squad was still gathering.One player in the local side who will attract the spotlight is the former Indian international and current Rajasthan captain Ajay Jadeja. This will be his first outing against an international side since he successfully fought a five-year ban slapped on him by the BCCI for match-fixing related allegations.The game also gives an opportunity to promising youngsters like V Shivramakrishnan, who hit a brilliant hundred in Deodhar Trophy, and Jaidev Shah to test their prowess against quality opposition. However, Rajasthan players Dishant Yagnik, Vikrant Yadav, Pankaj Singh and Sanjay Gill may struggle to make it into the final XI.England squad Vikram Solanki (capt), Andrew Strauss, Owais Shah, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones, Matt Prior, Liam Plunkett, Ian Blackwell, Matthew Hoggard, Kabir Ali, James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Sajid MahmoodRCA President’s XI squad Gautam Gambhir, V Shivaramakrishnan, Ajay Jadeja (capt), Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif, Parthiv Patel, Ramesh Powar, VRV Singh, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma, Pankaj Singh, Sanjay Gill, Dishant Yagnik, Jaidev Shah, Vikrant Yadav

Daniel Vettori has got his wish of more responsibility after being named captain of the New Zealand squad for the Twenty20 World Championship. Vettori also wants the one-day job after Stephen Fleming stepped down following the World Cup, and the former leader was not included in the 15-man outfit for the tournament in South Africa in September.John Bracewell, the coach, said Fleming had been omitted to allow Vettori the freedom to run the side. “This is the first opportunity for Daniel to captain the team abroad and we wanted to ensure that Daniel and the team were not looking to Stephen for leadership,” he said. “We also thought it would be a good opportunity for Stephen to remain with Nottinghamshire to build towards the longer forms of the game.”The leadership switch was not the only change as the wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins, Nathan McCullum and Bradley Scott were included after strong tours of Australia with New Zealand A. “Gareth gets under the ball and hits it a long way,” Bracewell said. “With their complementary skills, we are not going to lose anything if both Brendon McCullum and Gareth play in the same match.”Nathan McCullum is another aggressive lower-order batsman who performed well as a bowler on the A tour and Bracewell has been impressed with his all-round skills. Scott comes into the side instead of James Franklin, who the team management wants to focus on the one-day and Test scenes.”Chris Martin has been included in the squad as our second strike bowler in support of Shane Bond,” Bracewell said. “Batting at the end of the order, it is unlikely that his batting will be exposed in Twenty20 cricket.” Scott Styris has been picked subject to fitness after having back, knee and calf problems during his off-season stint with Durham.On left-arm seamer James Franklin’s omission, Bracewell said that he needed to rectify his action, given his tendency to fall away to the leg side on his delivery stride.”I think we’ve all noticed that there are things in Franky’s action that are not right, so we have decided this is the time to do it,” he told the . “It is tough on him because no one wants to miss out on cricket.”New Zealand squad Daniel Vettori (capt), Shane Bond, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Chris Martin, Craig McMillan, Brendon McCullum (wk), Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Bradley Scott, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Lou Vincent.

Duncan Fletcher was in a defiant mood on the morning after England’s disastrous defeat in the second Test at Adelaide, insisting that England’s batsmen were to blame for the collapse of their Ashes prospects, and not the defensive team selection that had allowed Australia to dictate terms in the closing stages of the game.”We lost that match in that hour, hour-and-a-half, yesterday morning,” Fletcher told reporters at the team hotel in Adelaide, prior to their departure for Perth. “We put ourselves under a little pressure. The first two wickets were unnecessary, and when KP [Kevin Pietersen] got out, a large part of our batting had gone. If we had batted well there and continued in a real positive vein, who knows what could have happened.”Positivity has not been a watchword of England’s team make-up in this series, however, and Fletcher’s position as coach is under greater scrutiny than ever before. Several former captains have pointed the finger at the team’s selection, including his old ally Nasser Hussain. “He will come under the immense pressure in the next week or so,” Hussain told The Evening Standard. “His selections have let him down and let England down in [Ashley] Giles and [Geraint] Jones.”Part of Fletcher’s success as a coach in his seven-year tenure has been his ability to absorb the flak on the occasions when things have gone wrong, but on this occasion, he chose to share the buck with his beleaguered captain, Andrew Flintoff, who – to judge from his dodgy ankle, dreadful dismissal and thousand-yard post-match stare – has got more than enough issues to worry about.”I’m not the sole selector on tour,” Fletcher reiterated on at least four occasions. “I’m not the one who says: ‘right, this is what we’ll go in with’. Out here it’s like it’s been for the last four or five years, which have been pretty successful. The captain and coach finalise the side for each Test match, and do I stand by the selections? Of course we stand by those selections. I’ve got to stand by those selections as part of the selection committee.”Andrew and I have the final say,” he confirmed, adding that the mysterious selection committee didn’t include David Graveney or any of the home selectors, but instead consisted of a panel of senior players – Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and Jones – who are consulted prior to each Test. Given that Jones, who does not currently have a central contract, is one of the most contentious choices on this tour already, it is a further sign that Shane Warne was spot on in his pre-series assessment, when he claimed that Fletcher has his “favourites”.And those favourites certainly do not include Monty Panesar, whose continued omission from the Test team has created waves of indignation from England’s disgruntled fans. “I’m sure there’s a lot of anger,” Fletcher said, “but I could have taken the easy option with the other players on the selection committee. We’ve got to sit down and say what do we think is the best side, with all the knowledge we’ve got around, within that group of people. What is the best side to win the Test match?”

Fletcher also defended James Anderson’s retention in the side, despite his current series figures of 2 for 303. “Andrew Flintoff was talking about how he wanted to go back to the seamers on a skiddy wicket,” Fletcher said. “When we played South Australia, Jimmy was the best bowler there. He was more impressive than the spinner and that’s why we picked him for Brisbane ahead of [Sajid] Mahmood. When you bowled on the main square, not the rough, it didn’t turn. Skiddy bowlers was the way to go. We had to pick him for Brisbane, because he was the most economical at that stage, and he’s bowled well here already.”The folly of entering such a marquee series with just one fully match-fit bowler in Matthew Hoggard was exposed by England’s inability to polish off Australia’s tail on the fourth day, but Fletcher turned that situation around to highlight once again the importance of a No. 8 who can score Test runs. “At 376 for 6 Australia were pretty vulnerable, but Warne’s hundred [partnership] put the pressure back on us,” he said.There will inevitably be calls for his resignation if England cannot turn their fortunes around at Perth, starting next Thursday, but Fletcher insisted he still had the backing of his team. “I’ve never had long-term views,” he said. “I’ll sit and have a look at it and see if I feel comfortable with myself, that’s the most important thing. If you don’t feel comfortable with yourself, you’ve got a problem. If you feel comfortable you can contribute, that’s the most important thing.And despite the massive odds that are stacked against England, Fletcher still believed his team could emulate Don Bradman’s men in 1936-37 and become only the second side in Ashes history to come back from 2-0 down. “Anytime we play against Australia it’s a huge challenge,” he said. “It was a huge challenge last year, and it’s a huge challenge this winter. But we play sport for that. We might as well not pitch up if we didn’t believe we could come back.”

Career-bests from Goolam Bodi (143) and Renato Almeida (5 for 18) provided the catalyst for Easterns who inflicted a humiliating defeat over Gauteng. Facing a target of 219 runs, after Bodi’s near six-hour innings, Gauteng collapsed in dramatic fashion to the pace bowling of Almeida to be scuttled for a mere 85 runs, giving their neighbours an unexpected 133-run victory.Nick van Woerkom’s knock of 53 allowed the home team, Northerns, to declare at 218 for seven, setting North West a tricky target of 279. With wickets falling all around him, and facing a big target, Driaan Steyn showed a lot of composure to go to his maiden hundred that allowed North West to walk away with a creditable draw. Pierre Joubert followed up his first innings six-wicket haul taking 3 for 29 as North West reached 190 for 8 when time ran out.Bowlers had the upper hand in the KwaZulu-Natal Western Province clash with 21 of the 30 wickets falling going to three bowlers. First it was Rory Kleinveldt for Western Province taking 5 for 42 as Natal were bowled out for 164 in their first innings. Robert Frylinck then replied with 6 for 94 as Western Province scored 244 thanks to an unbeaten 115 from Kleinveldt. Natal’s second innings saw Quentin Friend add 7 for 31 to his 3 for 48 for the first innings as the home team only managed 150. Western Province wasted no time in knocking off the 71 for victory without losing a wicket.