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A disastrous DRS misunderstanding between Australia’s captain Steven Smith and the No. 4 batsman Shaun Marsh helped set them on the path to defeat in Bengaluru, one that allowed India back into a bare-knuckle fight for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Twice Smith appeared to have established useful stands in pursuit of a target of 188 for victory and an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series, first with David Warner and then with Marsh. Warner was lbw to R Ashwin while attempting to sweep, and on review was found to be have been struck in line with the stumps by the barest possible margin, therefore upholding the decision.That left Australia with a solitary review when Marsh shouldered arms to Umesh Yadav’s delivery from around the wicket and was hit on the pads in the vicinity of the off stump. After Nigel Llong raised his finger in response to the appeal, the two batsmen got together to chat about using DRS.”We weren’t entirely sure,” Smith said. “I sort of said “go” as in “go have a look at it” and he sort of turned around and started walking, so I should’ve probably put my hands up and done it.”HawkEye showed the ball wouldn’t hit the wicket and Smith admitted it had been an unfortunate way to lose a batsman who had been in good form. “Obviously we saw the replay and it was missing the stumps so it would’ve been a nice one to review,” he said. “It perhaps could have been important. Shaun was looking pretty good. It was a disappointing wicket at the time, but that’s the game of cricket, you have to move on and try and do what you can from there.”Marsh’s dismissal left Australia with only two specialist batsmen in Smith and Peter Handscomb. After they were separated by the captain’s subsequent lbw, the end came quickly, exposing the limitations of Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade and the tail on a fiendishly difficult pitch and handing the match to India by a more comfortable margin than what seemed likely for most of a very memorable Test.”On a day four wicket that’s pretty challenging, you need a few things to go your way, you need a bit of luck and today wasn’t our day,” Smith said. “We competed very hard, this morning we bowled well and got the breakthroughs we needed to and got ourselves batting, but 188 was always going to be a difficult task. We probably just needed one or two batsmen to stand up a little bit more and try to get us close to that score.”In assessing where the visitors lost the thread of a contest they had begun in fine style on day one after losing the toss, Smith pointed to shortcomings in their bowling in the second innings. Rather than being patient – a quality they showed in spades throughout the first day in Bengaluru and throughout the first Test in Pune – Smith conceded his men had rushed a bit. By the time they regained the right tempo, India’s lead was past 150.”I think when we came out and bowled we were probably rushing a little bit, almost expecting things to happen instead of getting to the basics and executing our skills,” Smith said. “We were a little bit off with our lines and lengths, gave them a few too many freebies in the first innings as well.”On this wicket, it was about maintaining your line and length and letting the wicket do the work. There was a lot of natural variation in this game and at times we got a bit too wide or a bit too full and we weren’t able to continually hit those areas we were able to hit and that relieved the pressure [off India] a little bit.”What we did this morning was what we needed to do yesterday, and if we did that, things could certainly be different. But credit to the way the guys came out and did it today, 188 was always going to be a difficult task. Ashwin went to work on a wicket that was certainly suiting him and their quicks bowled in some very challenging areas.”Australia must now overcome the mental hurdle of losing a match they had made much of the running in. “It’s disappointing but I’m still proud of the way the boys competed,” Smith said. “When we came over here we were written off and expected to lose 4-0 but the boys have competed incredibly hard over the last two Test matches, so if we can continue to do that then hopefully we can get some more results go our way.”

ScorecardJahmar Hamilton and Rahkeem Cornwall added 123 for the sixth wicket•Getty Images

Chris Woakes wasn’t the England allrounder who gained the most attention in the IPL auction, but he proved his value to England once again with a match-winning contribution in St Kitts.England, set 234 to win, were reeling at 177 for 7 in the 40th over before Woakes calmed the situation with a run-a-ball innings of 47 not out. It was the third highest List A score of his career and saw England to a two-wicket victory with seven deliveries remaining. He had proved the pick of England’s bowlers, too, claiming 2 for 37 from nine well-controlled overs.England were grateful for his contribution. With only Jake Ball, who had earlier been forced off the field with a knee injury, left to bat (England later confirmed that he would have batted if required), they were facing an embarrassing reverse against a modest-looking WICB President’s XI side hit by withdrawals with 55 required from the final 10 overs.But Woakes added 35 for the eighth-wicket with Adil Rashid and then an unbroken 22 for the ninth with Liam Plunkett to help England squeak home. Despite taking just one run from the 48th over of the innings – 10 were required from the start of it – bowled by Kyle Myers, he laced Ronsford Beaton for four from the next over to all but end the contest. He had earlier driven Myers for a straight six and produced a couple of sweetly-timed drives through the covers.But this was an unconvincing performance with the bat from England. With Sam Billings, caught off the shoulder of the bat by one that reared at him, again failing to take his opportunity at the top of the order, England were heavily reliant upon an innings of 86 from Jonny Bairstow to get them anywhere near their apparently modest target.Bairstow, thrust into the unusual position of opener, responded with his highest List A score since August 2014 and looked in fine touch. But when he fell, failing to time an attempted paddle and spooning a simple catch to leg slip, it exposed the lack of contributions from the rest of the top order.While Joe Root added 117 with Bairstow, Jos Buttler cut to point, Eoin Morgan missed a reverse-sweep and Ben Stokes was punished for being stuck in the crease when he was bowled for a second-ball duck. When Moeen Ali was beaten by some turn, it seemed England’s familiar nemesis – spin bowling – might be their undoing once more. But while Woakes may not be England’s most glamorous cricketer, he showed again what a reliable allrounder he has become with a match-winning contribution that revived memories of England’s tie against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge in 2016.To be fair to England, conditions appeared to become more difficult for batting as the day progressed. On the same pitch used for Saturday’s game, the ball both spun and appeared to stick in the pitch for the seamers as the match wore on. Chasing the sort of score that Jonathan Trott might have made look simple, they instead exposed a slight lack of sophistication by continuing to attempt to blast their way to success in conditions where accumulation was required. The pitches for the ODI series are expected to be similar.”It was the sort of pitch that got tougher and tougher,” Paul Farbrace, England’s coach, said. “Cricket out here tends to be four quarters: the first 25 overs is a lot easier to bat than the last 25 overs. I don’t want to make excuses, but it got tougher and the ball stopped.”But even so we made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to. If one bloke gets 130 not out you win the game comfortably.”Earlier the President’s XI were grateful for a stand of 123 for the sixth-wicket between Jahmar Hamilton and Rahkeem Cornwall. Coming together with their side on 55 for 5, they counter-attacked attractively, with Rashid hit for a series of vast sixes.Cornwall, in particular, is a fascinating cricketer. Standing at six feet, seven inches and carrying a significant amount of surplus weight – he looks as if he thinks of strength and conditioning coaches as a small snack between meals – he still manages to be a good striker of a ball and a more than decent offspinner. Despite his obvious mobility issues – he dropped Bairstow at slip on 46; perhaps a match-defining moment – he has bowled more overs than anyone in the regional four-day competition (and only two men have more wickets) and is a genuine contender for an international place.Those two apart, the President’s XI batsmen struggled against an impressive display from England’s bowlers. Plunkett, learning from the first game, delivered a series of cross-seam deliveries that stuck in the surface and claimed two wickets with catches at leg gully, while Stokes also claimed three wickets as reward for much improved control.When Root and Bairstow were ticking over in their century stand for England’s second wicket, it seemed victory would be straightforward. And had offspinner Andre McCarthy not been bizarrely withdrawn from the attack having just claimed two wickets in three balls, the President’s XI might have exploited England’s familiar weakness against spin. But Woakes held firm and ensures England head to Antigua on Tuesday with victories from both warm-up games.It remains to be seen who lines up in that team. Ball is one obvious injury doubt – Chris Jordan and Sam Curran appear to be the leading candidates to replace him – while it also seems that Alex Hales, who joins up with the squad on Tuesday, will not be considered for the first game or two. That means that Billings is likely to remain as opener and Bairstow may rue is failure to make his excellent start here count. Jason Roy, rested here due to a bruised hand, is deemed fit to play.

ScorecardFile Photo – Tamim Iqbal struck seven sixes and nine fours in his 136-run knock•Getty Images

Bangladesh batsmen made a roaring start to their tour of Sri Lanka, as Tamim Iqbal reeled off a rapid hundred, with Mominul Haque and Liton Das also contributing with unbeaten half-centuries.The Sri Lanka Board President’s XI does not feature a particularly strong attack, given that the country’s second-string bowlers are currently engaged in the Sri Lanka A team. However, a score of 391 for 7 will, nonetheless, have the visiting batsmen approach the Galle Test with a measure of confidence.Tamim’s 136 off 182 balls (retired out) came after a few modest performances on tours of New Zealand and India, during which he scored only one half-century in six Test innings. Perhaps, it is because of this brief stretch of indifferent form that he was not retired out earlier. In any case, Tamim struck seven sixes and nine fours in his innings, and forged a 143-run second-wicket stand with Mominul, following it up by a 75-run partnership for the third wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim.Mominul’s 73 (retired out) also came at a brisk pace – off 103 balls – and featured 10 fours. Towards the end of the day, Liton struck an unbeaten 64-ball 57 in what was an important knock for the wicketkeeper-batsman, as he would be taking the gloves from Mushfiqur and, as such, will feature in the XI for the first Test.Meanwhile, Mahmudullah, who finds himself in competition with Sabbir Rahman for a lower-order position, may not have done enough with his 73-ball 43 to definitively win over the selectors’ favour.Chamika Karunaratne, the 20-year-old Tamil Union seam bowler, returned the best figures for the hosts, taking 3 for 61. If the Board President’s XI bat tomorrow, Dinesh Chandimal’s innings will be of particular interest in light of him having failed to cross fifty on the recent tour of South Africa.

Barbados secured a one-wicket win in a low-scoring Group B clash against Jamaica at the Kensington Oval, to keep their unbeaten streak intact in the competition so far.After Jamaica were bowled out for 190, Barbados lost half their side for 83, before recovering through late contributions and eventually limping past the finish line with two overs to spare. They rode on a vital 40 from Shane Dowrich who came out with the score on 62 for 4; by the time he fell, caught behind in the 38th over, Barbados were eight down and still needed 48. The ninth-wicket partnership between Ashley Nurse and Kemar Roach knocked off 42 of those runs, with Nurse calmly seeing the side to the win and finishing on 21 not out. Jamaica’s new-ball duo of Jerome Taylor and Reynard Leveridge took five wickets between them, while Nikita Miller impressed with 1 for 22 in 10 overs.When Jamaica batted, after winning the toss, they were in an early wobble at 27 for 3. Jermaine Blackwood held up his end for 40, but his wicket left the side at 97 for 6. They recovered through a seventh-wicket partnership of 77 between Rovman Powell, who top-scored with 74, and Damion Jacobs, who struck 31. Powell’s knock, which came at a strike rate of 93.67, included three fours and six sixes. He was the eighth man to be dismissed, seven balls before Jamaica were all out. Barbados’ new-ball duo did the bulk of the damage with Roach and Jason Holder snaring three wickets each.ICC Americas continued to languish at the bottom of Group B after conceding a five-run win via the Duckworth-Lewis method against Guyana, their third defeat is as many matches. In a match reduced to 45 overs a side at the start, ICC Americas rode on contributions from the middle order to put up 220 for 7. In reply, Guyana were 212 for 4 with nine to get off as many balls when bad light forced the match to be called off. Guyana were found to be four runs ahead of the target at that stage and picked up their second win.ICC Americas got into a solid position of 120 for 2 in the 31st over after being invited to bat, before Alex Amsterdam and captain Nitish Kumar, who top-scored with 66, fell in quick succession. Timroy Allen (37) and Srimantha Wijeratne (27) got off to starts at No. 5 and 6 but the side could not finish strongly. bowler Ronsford Beaton took 4 for 28 in nine overs for Guyana.Guyana were reduced to 29 for 2 by the 11th over of the chase but they got back on track through a third-wicket stand of 131 between opener Assad Fudadin (54) and captain Leon Johnson (78). The batsmen fell in successive overs, but Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Barnwell struck unbeaten 20s to see their team through.

In a record-breaking 497-run T20 match in New Plymouth, Neil Wagner defended eight off the final over to help Otago clinch a one-run thriller against Central Districts. It became the highest aggregate of runs in a T20, beating 489 scored by India and West Indies in Lauderhill in August this year. Otago raced to 249 on the back of a 46-ball hundred by Hamish Rutherford, before Mahela Jayawardene’s 48-ball century kept Central Districts in the hunt. With two required off the final ball, Dane Cleaver was run-out.Jayawardene batted till the 19th over during his third T20 century – 116 off 56 balls. Central Districts needed 21 off 11 balls when he was dismissed. Tom Bruce kept firing at the other end with a 22-ball fifty. A no-ball and a wide in the penultimate over helped Central Districts, before a six from Bruce brought the equation to 10 off seven. However, they couldn’t score a boundary thereafter. Wagner conceded eight off the first five balls of his over. Cleaver was subsequently run-out, and the Otago players ended in a heap while celebrating.”Wags has been sensational in the death throughout this whole campaign so to have him bowl that over was exciting,” Rutherford said. “I just said to him, ‘Mate, come on, this is what you play cricket for’. And as Neil usually is, he was absolutely fizzing for it. Once it got down to that last ball, it took a while to understand what we were going to do and we thought about maybe a Super Over but to walk away with an actual victory at that point was amazing.”Openers George Worker and Jayawardene had given the chase a flying start by putting on 50 in just four overs. Worker fell for 35 off 20 in the last over of the Powerplay, to Jimmy Neesham, and captain Will Young managed 16 off 10 balls. Needing 145 runs off 10.5 overs, Jayawardene and Bruce clobbered 124 in only nine overs. Jayawardene smacked 11 fours and six sixes when he reached his century. Bruce knocked three fours and six sixes in his unbeaten 61 off 29. Neesham was the only bowler to concede at less than 10 per over in the innings, with figures of 2 for 37.”I guess you look back and say he gave us two chances and unfortunately we put them down,” Rutherford said of Jayawardene’s innings later. “I’m not sure where that would have ended up if they were taken. But again you can’t put it away from him, it was a quality innings – untroubled, he hit some nice shots in nice areas and didn’t try and manipulate too much.”Otago had cashed in on their decision to bat as the openers Anaru Kitchen and Rutherford plundered 100 runs in 8.2 overs. Both scored their half-centuries off 25 balls. They put on 130 in 11 overs before Kitchen’s stumps were knocked over by left-arm spinner Marty Kain’s flat delivery, for his 54 that included three fours and five sixes. Rutherford and Neil Broom then joined forces to hammer 67 runs in the next five overs. Rutherford took only 21 balls for his next 50 runs to score his maiden T20 hundred. He holed out to long-on of Seth Rance for 106 when they were three runs adrift of 200 with four overs left.Neesham scored an 11-ball 18 before he also fell to Rance. Broom was unbeaten on 42 off 24 and Michael Bracewell struck the three balls he faced for a four and two sixes to post the highest T20 total in New Zealand and the seventh-highest overall.The win helped Otago to third on the points table, two points behind second-placed Central Districts.”I’m sure it’s something everyone will remember for a long time. These moments really come crucial towards the end of the tournament, you remember those moments, those games, those tight finishes so that will put is in good stead moving forward,” Rutherford said.

ScorecardFile photo: Chadd Sayers took his match tally to nine wickets at stumps on day two•Associated Press

Chadd Sayers continued his demolition job against Tasmania after the two Jakes – Lehmann and Weatherald – set up a hefty South Australia total of 481 on the second day at Adelaide Oval. Weatherald had scored his maiden first-class hundred on the first day of the game and Lehmann registered his fifth on the second day, moving to an unbeaten 129 as South Australia dominated.The morning began with South Australia on 2 for 222, and Weatherald added 25 to his overnight 110 before falling to the part-time bowling of Beau Webster. But Lehmann steered the remainder of the innings and compiled a series of partnerships with the lower order that would have frustrated Tasmania, whose debutant Cameron Stevenson finished with the 4 for 114.Tasmania’s first-innings deficit was nearly 400 after they had been skittled for 98 on the opening day, and their second innings in fact started in even worse fashion. Sayers, who had collected 6 for 32 in the first innings, struck twice in the first over of the innings to dismiss Jordan Silk and Webster, and then added the wicket of Ben Dunk as Tasmania collapsed to 4 for 18.By stumps they had recovered a little, at 4 for 57, with George Bailey on 20 and Dominic Michael on 16, but an innings victory for South Australia appeared a formality. Sayers also needed only one more wicket to complete his second ten-wicket game in first-class cricket, his first having come the last time he played against Tasmania, in March.