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Teenage spinner now has 15 wickets in five One-Day Cup appearances as Lancashire stumble

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay22-Aug-2025Warwickshire 253 for 5 (Shaikh 75, Malik 72, Blatherwick 4-48) beat Lancashire 249 for 9 (Tazeem 3-39) by five wicketsHamza Shaikh made 75 and legspinner Tazeem Ali took 3 for 39 to help Warwickshire beat Lancashire by five wickets at Aigburth and thereby consolidate their bid to reach the knock-out stages of the Metro Bank One Day Cup.Having restricted the home side to 249 for 9 on a pitch that aided spin, Ed Barnard’s side reached their target with 61 balls to spare, Kai Smith finishing on 45 not out having put on 77 with Shaikh.The one consolation for a severely under-strength Lancashire was that Jack Blatherwick took a career-best 4 for 48 but Marcus Harris’s side have now won just one of their seven matches in this competition and their own slim chances of making further progress had vanished with Wednesday’s defeat to Durham.Michael Jones was caught behind without scoring off Ethan Bamber’s second ball of the game but George Bell and Kesh Fonseka then batted positively against the Bears’ seamers to give their side a respectable platform of 69 for 1 after 15 overs.However, 33 of the next 35 overs were bowled by the Warwickshire spinners and scoring runs never looked as straightforward as it had done in the first hour of the game. Lancashire’s second-wicket pair put on 87 before Fonseka was caught at cover by Shaikh for 43 when driving Tazeem and the legspinner took his second wicket in his next over when Bell was leg-before for 46 when attempted to sweep.Harris and Harry Singh then tried to rebuild the innings with a stand of 68 in 13 overs only for Singh to depart for 29 when he pulled Rob Yates straight to Alex Davies at deep midwicket and the left-handed Harris to be bowled for 41 by a lovely offbreak from Yates.File photo: Shaikh led the way in Warwickshire’s run chase•ECB via Getty Images

Tazeem took his third wicket when George Balderson pulled him straight to Zen Malik and the remainder of Lancashire’s innings was dominated by Arav Shetty, who consolidated the good impression he has made during this competition by making 40 off 30 balls.Shetty, though, was one of two wickets to fall to Jake Lintott in the 49th over of the innings and the experienced Warwickshire wristspinner finished with 2 for 62 from his ten overs. Yates finished with 2 for 44 but it was Tazeem’s bowling that had taken the eye – and not for the first time this month.Warwickshire’s reply got off to a thunderous start, eight boundaries being struck and 44 runs scored in the opening four overs. But the visitors’ progress was slowed, first when Ed Barnard was caught by Bell when trying to scoop Blatherwick for 21 and then when Yates tried to slap Blatherwick through mid-on but only found Balderson’s safe hands and departed for 23.Former Lancashire batter Alex Davies was then surprised by the lift Blatherwick extracted from the Aigburth pitch and was caught behind for eight to leave his side on 71 for three in the eleventh over. That, though, was as near the home side got to upsetting the form book.Sheikh put on 97 with Malik, who reached his maiden List A fifty off 39 balls and seemed set for a century when his attempt to hit Blatherwick for six over mid-off only found the safe hands of Jones on the cover boundary and he departed for 72. Seemingly untroubled by this setback, Shaikh reached his own fifty off 74 balls and Warwickshire’s victory was all but certain long before Shaikh was bowled by Luke Hands when his side needed five runs.

IPL’s breakout star produces another fast-paced innings after Rocky Flintoff top-scores for England

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay27-Jun-2025India U19 178 for 4 (Suryavanshi 48, Kundu 45*) beat England U19 174 (Flintoff 56, Mohammed 42) by six wicketsIndia’s 14-year-old sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 48 from just 19 balls as India’s Under-19 side made short work of beating England in the first of five Youth ODIs at Hove.Suryavanshi, who became the youngest-ever century maker in men’s T20 when he hit 101 off 38 balls for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL earlier this year, made a startling debut to competitive cricket in England, putting on 71 in 7.3 overs with his captain, Ayush Mhatre as England were overwhelmed, losing by six wickets with 26 overs to spare.The young India side have made a memorable start to their tour of England. Three days earlier they had won another 50-over game, against a Young Lions Invitational XI at Loughborough, by 231 runs.Here, Suryavanshi was the star attraction, bludgeoning five sixes and three fours. Jack Home’s first over cost 21 runs as the left-hander top-edged his pull shot for six before driving over mid-on and pulling to cow corner for other sixes. But when slow left-armer Ralphie Albert came on Suryavanshi immediately skied to point.It was a different game after that, with India losing three more wickets before crossing the line, keeper Abhigyan Kundu leading the way with an unbeaten 45.England had been bowled out for a disappointing 174 in 42.2 overs, with only Rocky Flintoff (56) and Isaac Mohammed (42) reaching the 20 mark.There was a constant cloud cover and a green tinge to the pitch but it was India’s spinners, Mohamed Enaan and Kanishk Chouhan, who caused most problems, sharing five wickets and proving the most economical of the bowlers.England, who had chosen to bat, had started so positively, with Ben Dawkins and Isaac putting on an aggressive 39 for the fist wicket. The left-handed Isaac, one of two debutants in the team, along with French, was particularly exciting, pulling Henil Patel over square-leg for the first of his four sixes – there were also three fours in his 28-ball innings.The 17-year-old is related to England’s Moeen Ali and Worcestershire’s assistant head coach Kadeer Ali. He signed a three-year contract for Worcestershire from the Warwickshire Academy earlier this month.England lost their first wicket in the eighth over when Dawkins edged to first slip. But Isaac responded by striking Yudhajit Guha for successive sixes to bring up the 50 in the ninth over. Isaac then pulled Enaan over square-leg and out of the ground for another six. But three balls later he was caught at backward square-leg going for another big hit.Flintoff, the youngest player to score a century for the side, again looked in fine form. But his efforts were compromised by the constant fall of wickets at the other end. Ben Mayes looked in good touch when he drove through mid-on for four, but he was caught behind next ball to make it 80 for three and then captain Tom Rew was caught behind third ball.Flintoff, unsure whether to stick or twist, waited for some decent company but it didn’t arrive. Joe Moores and Albert fell cheaply to the off-spin of Chouhan and then Home was run out for five to make it 129 for seven. Flintoff was finally forced to hit out, and there were three sixes and three fours in his 90-ball innings before he was last out, going for another heave.

Five-wicket win opens series at Western Province CC in Cape Town

ECB Reporters Network17-Jan-2025England Under-19 91 for 5 (Mayes 51) beat South Africa Under-19 87 (Minto 3-15) by five wicketsA dominant bowling performance from England Men U19s paved the way for a comfortable five-wicket win over South Africa Men U19s in the opening Youth ODI at Cape Town.New-ball duo Harry Moore and James Minto did the damage up top taking five wickets between them as the hosts were skittled for just 87.Opener Ben Mayes then broke the back of the chase with 51 from 48 balls while debutant captain Archie Vaughan added 26 as the Young Lions reach their target in 18.3 overs.Moore and Minto immediately got to work after the hosts opted to bat and subsided to 33 for six.The tone was set for an impressive Lions display in the field when Joe Moores held a sharp catch at backward point when Adnaan Lagadien arrowed a backfoot drive off Derbyshire right-armer Moore.Durham left-armer Minto had already had opener Shaylen Pillay caught by wicketkeeper Thomas Rew on his way to figures of innings-best three for 15.Spinners Taz Ali and Farhan Ali ensured the wickets continued to tumble before Worcestershire’s Jack Home – one of three debutants alongside Vaughan and Aaryan Sawant – ended the innings.Home first had Enathi Kitshini caught at backward point by Moores before pulling off a direct hit at the non-striker’s end to run out Nqobani Mokoena.Mayes and Vaughan then combined in a 64-run stand for the second wicket to ensure there were no jitters for the Young Lions. Mayes took the lead role, reaching his half-century from 45 balls, and despite some late wickets the tourists were always on course for a comfortable win.The Lions can secure the three-match Youth ODI series on Sunday when the second match is also played at Western Province CC in Cape Town.

Afghanistan continue bring joy back home with fourth victory of World Cup campaign

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2023Hashmatullah Shahidi, the Afghanistan captain, dedicated his side’s seven-wicket win over Netherlands to the thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who are facing the prospect of being deported back to Afghanistan.Shahidi was speaking after a comfortable win in Lucknow, Afghanistan’s third in a row and one which sees them move to eight points and closer to a semi-final spot, albeit with two games left to play against Australia and South Africa.”Right now, a lot of refugee peoples are in struggle so we are watching their videos and we are sad for that and we are with them in this tough time,” Shahidi said after the game. “I dedicate this win to those refugees that are in pain and also to all country peoples back home.”Nearly two million Afghan refugees that Pakistan says are in the country illegally had been told by the government to leave by November 1 or face either deportation or arrest. This week many thousands have rushed to the border between the two countries, trying to beat the deadline but worried about facing an uncertain future in Afghanistan, which has been governed since August 2021 by the Taliban.Related

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Pakistan has a long history of taking in Afghan refugees, dating back to 1979 when the former Soviet Union came into Afghanistan in a new front of the Cold War with the US. A lot of the players from Afghanistan’s earliest cricket sides had grown up and learnt the game in refugee camps in north-west Pakistan. There has been another sizeable influx of refugees into the country after the Taliban took control two years ago. But the order for the refugees to leave Pakistan comes amid tense political relations between the two countries.The issue has been close to the hearts of the cricket team. Following their eight-wicket triumph over Pakistan in Chennai last week, Ibrahim Zadran also dedicated the win to refugees being forced to leave.”I think the players are attuned with everything that’s going on back home, whether it’s an earthquake and other things,” Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan’s coach, said on Friday after the Netherlands win.”So they realise, and I think they’re enjoying the joy that they’re giving to the Afghan people and the smile that they currently have on their face in the changing room, but also the smiles that’s giving everybody else. That’s the great thing about sport and being able to touch people far further afield than just here in the stadium or in this country, but back home as well.”Afghanistan are now fifth on the points table, outside the top four on net run-rate but with the same points as New Zealand and Australia. They take on an in-form Australia in Mumbai first, on Tuesday, and then a rampaging South Africa in Ahmedabad, among their toughest tests.”I think you’ve got to definitely prepare and have a look at how the opposition are going to play, but the thing is with us, I certainly feel that if we worry, we just focus on how we play and what makes us the side that we are,” Trott said.”We’ve got to make sure that we don’t look at the opposition too much and forget about what we’ve got to do well. So that’ll be it and obviously we’ll prepare for Australia, a very good side along with South Africa but right now we’re focused on Australia and what we can do to beat them.”

Australian veteran will act as a player-coach for Victoria in the 2023-24 season

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jul-2023Peter Siddle has left Somerset after sustaining an injury to his hand which has ruled him out of the remainder of his stint with the club as an overseas player.Siddle, 38, fractured a finger while attempting to take a catch off his bowling during Somerset’s T20 Blast defeat to Hampshire last month and the injury will not heal before the end of his contract later this month.Somerset, who will play Nottinghamshire in the Blast quarter-finals on Friday night after topping the South Group, have signed Ish Sodhi as a replacement for the Blast. Sodhi has already played twice, taking four wickets, at the end of the group stage.Related

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Siddle will return to Victoria from Tasmania in the Australian summer in a player-coach role but said: “My playing days are slowly dying down.”He told the Somerset website: “Although I still want to play a bit, I’m aware that’s slowly coming to an end. I’ll move into doing a bit of coaching, but whether or not I want to do that in the long term, I don’t know.”I think my days of signing long deals over the summer are behind me, but if I come back to England and play, it will be as a replacement to cover someone for a short stint. Who knows?”If Somerset sign Matt Henry again next year and he ends up missing a month during his stint then maybe I might be able to dust off my boots and pull a kit back on. You never say never. I may have a game or two left in me for the club, but as things stand, I’m pretty sure my county cricket days are done.”Siddle has spent two seasons with Somerset, taking 43 County Championship wickets as well as 24 in the Blast. “I’ve really enjoyed being a part of the club and I’m definitely going to miss it,” he said.

Other officials in the group deemed close contacts; second and third ODIs will go ahead as planned with new match officials

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Dec-2021The first ODI between USA and Ireland, scheduled for December 26, has been cancelled following a positive Covid-19 test among the crew of match officials. Though only one official has been infected, the other three in the group have been deemed “close contacts” of the positive case, and have been rendered unavailable.However, the second and third matches of the series are expected to take place, with USA Cricket saying that replacement officials would be arranged in time for the second game, slated for Tuesday, December 28. The second and third ODIs – the last one is set for December 30 (all matches are in Lauderhill) – “will go ahead as planned, with an alternative match official group if required”.USA Cricket said that all ticket-holders for the first ODI “may re-use their tickets for any additional match in the series” or, if the ticket-holders can’t attend another match, the “full fee will be refunded within 7 working days”.USA and Ireland had earlier competed in a T20I series, also in Lauderhill, which ended 1-1. USA won the first game, a historic occasion for them as it was their first victory over a Test-playing nation as well as an ICC Full Member. Ireland, however, hit back in the second game to square the series and head into the ODI series on a positive note.The series has had its share of Covid-19 scares already. On December 17, four Ireland players and a member of their support staff tested positive ahead of the series. Not long after, on December 21, four Covid-19 cases were reported in the USA camp as well.

Saqib Mahmood helps reduce Northants to 59 for three, still needing 366 runs on final day

Paul Edwards17-Apr-2021When this morning’s play began Lancashire had a lead of 188 over Northamptonshire and all their second-innings wickets in hand. By the time the long day closed at 7.20pm they had reduced the visitors to 59 for 3 and a victory target of 425 appeared merely fantastical. A good day for the Red Rose, you might think, and you would be correct. Yet much of their batting had been so careless that it might have been designed to have their head coach, Glen Chapple, emulating Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Agatha and hopping about with a hatchet.The one player exempted from Chapple’s ire was Steven Croft, whose unbeaten century will have had Lancashire supporters smiling in shared pleasure. Croft’s love for the county of his birth is undoubted. When he pulled Nathan Buck for six to reach his hundred, thereby prompting a declaration, the home dressing room erupted in noisy acclamation. Croft was hugged by Tom Hartley, his batting partner, and he raised his arms towards his team-mates, some of whom may still have been watching Peppa Pig when he first played for Lancashire.The century had been the product of careful workmanship rather than effortless style. There were pulls to square leg, nudges through the slips and leg glances but only seven fours. The one concession to modernity, albeit Croft has kept his place in Lancashire’s T20 team, was the reverse sweep, which he now plays as easily as Robert Browning once produced rhyming couplets. He could have gone for three early in the morning session had Adam Rossington clung on to a right-handed diving catch but Croft has long been careful to make the most of such opportunities, for he has no clue how many more he might get.Three years ago he thought he would not get another contract with Lancashire but the coaches opted to give him another season, then one more, then another. There was nothing indulgent about these decisions. Although not the five-furlong favourite he once was, Croft can still do a job anywhere in the field and held on to two slip catches as Northants subsided this evening.Related

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Croft played in the side that won the Championship in 2011 and he skippered the team that won the T20 Blast in 2015. He is 37 in October yet it is an offence against nature to think of him as a veteran. Like schoolboys with a favourite master, supporters honour him with a nickname, although ‘Crofty’ is hardly in the class of ‘Rhino’, the name the boys at Thursgood’s gave to Jim Prideaux. This was his first Championship century since 2017 but there have been more than enough valuable innings in the meantime to reassure supporters wondering if a much-loved cricketer might have hung on a season too long.Application and an awareness of responsibility are often made particularly noticeable by their absence elsewhere and Lancashire’s other batsmen probably made Croft’s effort appear a little better than it was. Both openers were dismissed in the first nine deliveries of the morning, Keaton Jennings playing around an inswinger from Ben Sanderson and Alex Davies pushing forward just enough to edge Tom Taylor to Ricardo Vasconcelos at first slip. But the worst was yet to come.Having driven the Northants seamers for three of the pleasantest boundaries we will see this season Josh Bohannon played skew-whiff at a well-flighted off-spinner from Rob Keogh and inside-edged the ball onto his leg stump. Given that he had been presented with a good opportunity to collect a cheeky 80 runs or so, Bohannon’s 22 must have frustrated the coaches. But Lancashire were still well placed on 162 for 3 at lunch. On the resumption sanity left the stadium.In the first over of the afternoon session Dane Vilas played the ball to square leg and called Croft for an absurd single. The daftness of the exercise was plain almost immediately but not soon enough to save Lancashire’s skipper. Two overs later Croft clipped the ball in a similar direction only to see Rob Jones scampering down the wicket as if escaping a lunatic with a sharp knife. Emilio Gay threw the ball to the non-striker’s end and someone noted that five of Lancashire’s last 18 wickets had been lost to run outs. For the only time since last August one was grateful spectators were not present.The rest of the innings was less deranged. Luke Wood and Tom Bailey helped Croft take Northamptonshire’s target beyond that scored by any side in the fourth innings to beat Lancashire and the visitors’ job was made even harder by Saqib Mahmood’s magnificently hostile five-over spell with the new ball from the James Anderson End. The fast bowler beat both Ben Curran and Gay for pace and is clearly well suited to the short burst Vilas gave him. He will be steaming in again in the morning and then Matt Parkinson will send down some leg spin. Northants have form when it comes to foxing the bookies but one cannot like their chances.

Kent seamer claims maiden five-for under the Canterbury lights as Middlesex sufer dramatic collapse to 54 for 9

Matt Roller at Canterbury25-Jun-20181:33

Nash’s ton gives boost for Notts

ScorecardGrant Stewart, Kent’s burly Western Australian seamer, took five top-order wickets under the Canterbury lights as Middlesex collapsed to 54 for 9 in another setback for their promotion push.Stewart, only playing thanks to the absence of Matt Henry (rested ahead of Saturday’s Royal London Cup final) and Darren Stevens (who struggles to pick up the pink ball), had taken four wickets in as many games in his first-class career to date when he took the new pink ball; two hours later, he had his maiden five-wicket haul.The pink Dukes, thought to hold together better than its Kookaburra equivalent, swung late in the fabled ‘twilight period’ after the sun disappeared behind the Frank Woolley Stand. Stewart jagged the ball back into the left-handers, and moved it sharply away from the right-handers’ edges, ripping the heart out of Middlesex’s top six in their response to Kent’s 241 earlier in the day.

Malan questions pink ball policy

Dawid Malan, Middlesex captain, questioned the use of pink Kookaburra ball in Division One and a pink Dukes ball in Division Two, contending that Division Two batsmen potentially faced a much tougher challenge against the swinging ball in twilight.
“I can’t quite understand why the two divisions are using different balls.” he said. “It’s still county cricket and we have guys out here with aspirations to play international cricket, so to have different balls seems strange as we don’t do that in red-ball cricket.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense. It was doing so much at the end there that we actually did quite well to nick a few.”

Middlesex’s batsmen came and went in a hurry. First, Sam Robson’s horror season continued. Four years ago last week, the right-hander made his England debut in the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka; here, he pushed apologetically at a Stewart away-swinger and he failed to pass 20 for the ninth time in 11 innings this campaign.When the umpires took the players off soon after, with the low sun behind Stewart’s arm rendering the ball impossible to see, it looked as though the Canterbury faithful were set for a floodlit farce: the lights were on, but nobody was in the middle.But after the resumption, with the shadows lengthening, Stewart steamed in with menace and purpose. Next to go was Max Holden, stunned that a ball pitched well outside his off stump had fizzed back in, before Dawid Malan – who struggled against the pink ball in England’s day-night Ashes Test last winter – edged a similar delivery to Sean Dickson at slip for a duck. At 19 for 3, Kent were on the charge.Stewart soon had two more. Stevie Eskinazi, the only man to make double-figures in Middlesex’s effort, prodded at a ball which hit the seam, before debutant George Scott was cleaned up. Harry Podmore’s dismissal of Hilton Cartwright was sandwiched between Stewart’s fourth and fifth, and Ivan Thomas skittled James Harris to leave Middlesex reeling at 54 for 7.Calum Haggett got in on the act in the penultimate over, as John Simpson edged through to the keeper, before bowling Ravi Patel with the day’s final ball: the collapse was six wickets for 10 runs, and Kent were in dreamland.The visitors had hoped that last week’s remarkable turnaround at Leicester would prove the catalyst for change in a season that had promised so much and delivered so little; but with the prospect of another day in the heat looming over them, already it will take a monumental effort to save this game.Grant Stewart celebrates his maiden first-class wicket•Getty Images

For Kent, the final session completely changed their outlook after they had been frustratingly short of their best for the previous two.In his first Championship appearance of the season, following an underwhelming stint with the Chennai Super Kings and some drinks-carrying for England, Sam Billings won the toss and chose to bat. It looked a poor decision: Tim Murtagh and Harris started well with the new ball, the latter trapping Dickson leg before in the first half-hour.But the innings was one of loose shots, with the in-form pair of Heino Kuhn and Joe Denly both failing to kick on after getting in. Billings himself led the way in this department: after a high-elbow, hold-the-pose drive through extra cover for four before lunch and a kiss-the-surface punch down the ground off Murtagh, the runs dried up for him after the interval.”Go on then,” Murtagh’s fourth-stump line said to the captain, “do something stupid.” Billings duly obliged, and chipped to short cover for 17. Dragging himself off the field to the members’ silence, he could not have envisioned the scene four hours later: Billings barely able to conceal his Chesire-cat grin, as Stewart led the sides off with Kent in complete control.

North Zone finished on top of the table after the last round of matches before the break for this year’s Dhaka Premier League

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2018East Zone and Central Zone played out a high-scoring draw at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna. In a match of several notable individual performances, Zakir Hasan scored his maiden double-hundred, while five other East Zone batsmen made centuries. East Zone made 735 for 6, the third highest team score in Bangladesh’s first-class history. Zakir top-scored with 211 off 320 balls, hitting 23 fours. He added 193 runs for the third wicket with Liton Das who made 112 off 186 balls with eight fours and a six.Zakir then added 132 runs for the fourth wicket with Tasamul Haque who made 60, before departing on the second day, following which Yasir Ali and Alok Kapali also struck hundreds. Yasir made 132 off 175 balls with 12 fours and two sixes while Kapali blasted an unbeaten 165 off 139 balls with nine sixes and 10 fours.Central Zone were then bowled out for 428 after fifties from Shadman Islam, Raqibul Hasan, Marshall Ayub, Shuvagata Hom and Tanbir Hayder. Sohag Gazi was the pick of the bowlers, taking 7 for 141 in 46.1 overs.There was enough time for two more centuries in the game. East Zone openers Tasamul Haque and Mehedi Maruf made unbeaten scores of 108 and 111 respectively during their unbroken first wicket stand of 226 runs in 52 overs in the second innings.Junaid Siddique raises his bat after notching up his century•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Junaid Siddique scored hundreds in each innings during North Zone’s drawn match against South Zone. They are now on top of the points table with 34 points as the Bangladesh Cricket League heads into a break for the Dhaka Premier League List-A competition that begins next month.Batting first, North Zone were bowled out for 408 runs after a big opening stand. Mizanur Rahman and Junaid added 169 runs, with both getting hundreds. Mizanur made 106 off 155 balls with 16 fours while Junaid, who batted till the 96th over, struck 13 fours and two sixes in his 137 off 238 balls. Dhiman Ghosh and Taijul Islam later struck fifties.Abdur Razzak, who recently became the first Bangladeshi to take 500 first-class wickets, took six wickets in the first innings from his 34.2 overs.South Zone took a 25-run lead wit their 433 runs in 115.1 overs. Tushar Imran, who recently became the first Bangladeshi to reach 10,000 first-class runs, top-scored with 148. Imrul Kayes made 118 off 131 balls and the pair added 143 runs for the third wicket.Taijul Islam and Shafiul Islam took four wickets each, following which North Zone batted 71.3 overs in the second innings. Junaid made 150 off 170 balls with 16 fours and a six. He added 109 runs for the fourth wicket with Naeem Islam who chipped in with 61, before adding 160 runs for the fifth wicket with Ariful Haque who remained unbeaten on 103 when the match ended.

New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling says the team is not judging its season on the loss to South Africa in Wellington, but might do so on its performance in the final Test in Hamilton

Firdose Moonda in Hamilton22-Mar-2017As 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.”