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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:38

‘Kohli ran Bangladesh into the ground’

M Vijay, who was reprieved on 35, and his captain Virat Kohli punished Bangladesh with contrasting centuries, which led India to 356 for 3 on the first day in in Hyderabad. Vijay combined with Cheteshwar Pujara, who was handed a life on 11, in a 178-run partnership, before Kohli seamlessly took charge of the innings.Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim termed his side’s first bilateral international in India as a “great moment”; he might have later felt it was a wild roller-coaster ride. At the end of the day, in which Bangladesh’s fielding went from bad to worse, they were left nauseous and with a teasing thought: what might have been?Pujara and Vijay, India’s most prolific pair in Test cricket in the last decade, extended their dominance on Thursday with another century partnership, their fifth this home season and eighth overall.Kohli looked like he was on autopilot right from the moment he arrived, 30 minutes before tea. He began with two fours off his first three balls, the second of which was punched fiercely to the long-off boundary. He brought up his fifty off 70 balls at the end of the 73rd over, then brought up his next fifty off 60 balls with a signature whiplash to the midwicket boundary. Kohli now has a Test hundred against every opposition he has played against (he has not played against Pakistan and Zimbabwe).Bangladesh, though, had enjoyed the perfect start to their first bilateral international in India with fast bowler Taskin Ahmed removing KL Rahul in the first over. Rahul chased a full, wide ball – wider than a set of stumps outside off – and dragged it back onto the stumps. Taskin and Kamrul Islam Rabbi then found movement in the air and off the seam, and took regular trips past the edges. They also sent down rising short balls, which forced Vijay and Pujara to throw their gloves in front of their faces.At the end of five overs, India had only played four scoring shots. The first boundary arrived in the next over when Pujara uncharacteristically drove away from the body and sent an outside edge flying to his right of gully.Four balls later, Pujara watched a leading edge drop in front of cover. About three overs later, Kamrul drew an outside edge from Pujara, which dropped well in front of Shakib Al Hasan at first slip. Mushfiqur could possibly have caught it had he dived to his right, but he was unmoved. Then, in the 15th over, Mehedi Hasan Miraz produced an outside edge each from Pujara and Vijay, which flew to the right of Shakib at slip.1:09

When big runs were not enough

Vijay’s major reprieve came when he and Pujara found themselves at the same end. Kamrul put in the dive at square leg to create the run-out chance, and lobbed the ball back to Mehedi, the bowler. With the ball travelling slowly to him, Mehedi panicked and failed to collect the throw cleanly.India enjoyed these breaks in the field but the runs began to flow only after lunch. Vijay drove fluently through the covers and launched Shakib straight back over his head. Pujara brought out his staple shots – the bottom-handed drive and late-cut – and looked increasingly confident against the old ball on a slow track.The three spinners bowled 15 consecutive overs between them in the second session and conceded 54 runs. Overall, the second session yielded 120 runs in 31 overs.When Pujara drove Mehedi straight down the ground for four in the 51st over, he broke the record for most runs in an Indian first-class season, surpassing Chandu Borde’s tally of 1604 in 1964-65. The joy, though, was short-lived as he misread the next delivery – a straight ball from Mehedi – and edged behind, Mushfiqur diving to his right this time and pouching it via a ricochet off the pad.Kohli announced himself with authoritative boundaries, while Vijay got to his ninth Test hundred before being bowled around his legs in the sixth over after tea.Ajinkya Rahane, picked over Karun Nair, seemed comfortable while moving to 45 off 60 balls in an unbroken 122-run stand with Kohli. Bangladesh, though, were far from comfortable: the fumbles continued in the field and they even wasted a review.In the 62nd over, Taijul Isam tossed one up on middle and leg, and Kohli his forward defensive. Taijul and the close-in fielders reckoned it was pad first, only for the replays to throw up how embarrassing Bangladesh’s decision to review the on-field not-out call was. The second new ball wasn’t spared either, and Kohli went onto middle everything. He claimed 94 of the 150 runs India scored in the post-tea session.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
5:56

Highlights – Rilee Rossouw anchors Quetta innings

In a nutshellLahore Qalandars lost a game that they seemed to have a grip on for the first 25 overs. In a chase of 137, Lahore combined woeful shot selection with poor running to gift last year’s finalists a thrilling eight-run win at the Dubai Stadium. The two points Quetta Gladiators get may as well have a bow on them.Lahore looked set for a comfortable win when Jason Roy and Brendon McCullum took the attack to Zulfiqar Babar right from the beginning of the run chase, each contributing quickfire scores in the twenties to set Qalandars up nicely. However, Zulfiqar got his revenge by ultimately accounting for both of them. Even then – with the score on 49 from 4.3 overs – Lahore looked to be well on course. Then, left-arm spinners Hasan Khan and last year’s sensation Mohammad Nawaz, strangled Lahore with a tight middle-stump line and waited for the batsmen to make mistakes, who duly obliged as the last nine wickets fell for 79 runs.Earlier, Quetta’s innings failed to take off at any point in the first thirteen overs, with all batsmen struggling for timing after Lahore’s bowlers continued to build up pressure. At 65 for 5 in 13 overs, Quetta looked like they might struggle to get past the PSL’s record lowest score of 111, but a late surge from Rilee Rossouw, who anchored the Gladiators’ innings with 60, got them to a defensible total. From there, it was their bowling – and Lahore’s suicidal approach – that did the rest.Where the match was wonRossouw struggled early on in his innings, just as much as his team-mates, but he managed what most of his fellow Gladiators failed to do: bide his time instead of throwing his wicket away. After a start where he scored 16 runs off his first 24 balls, Rossouw made his move with seven overs to go, launching Grant Elliot for six over covers. 60 came off the next five overs, and Rossouw finished with 60 off 47 to give Quetta a fighting chance. As it turned out, Quetta needed every single run off Rossouw’s bat to get over the line, and the absence of a similar anchor man for Lahore led to their downfall. This was Roussow’s first competitive game outside South Africa after signing a Kolpak deal with Hampshire, and his knock came in parallel with South Africa’s match against Sri Lanka, where the Proteas were looking to seal the No. 1 ranking in ODIs.Rilee Rossouw was rewarded for an outstanding performance•PCB/PSL

The men that won itConsistent left-arm spinners in a low-scoring T20 contest seems to be as close to a winning formula as you can get in the sport, and Quetta got all their equations right on that front. They kept the faith with Zulfiqar, even as Roy and McCullum spanked him around the ground. He snared both of them, and then Hasan Khan and Mohammad Nawaz took a combined 4 for 29 runs in 6.4 overs. They cannot claim all the credit, however, with poor shot selection from Lahore’s batsmen at critical moments turning out to be just as conclusive.Moment of the matchWith less than six runs needed per over and eight wickets in hand, Lahore were never in a more assertive position than when Umar Akmal, last season’s highest scorer, came in to bat at 49 for 2. The openers had just departed after setting up a nice platform, and all Lahore needed was cool heads and the ability to keep rotating the strike to get their campaign going. It was here that Akmal chose to demonstrate his maddening inconsistency, trying to clear mid-off from a wide slower delivery by Anwar Ali. He picked out Thisara Perera, and Lahore were suddenly 50 for 3. From there, it was a grind, and Quetta were more than up for it.Where they standQuetta start the second season of the PSL win a win, joining Islamabad United at the top. Lahore, like Peshawar, lose their first game, meaning they have been on the wrong side in seven of nine games over the PSL’s two seasons.

While the short-ball barrage that took out Mushfiqur Rahim was the most conspicuous aspect of New Zealand’s attack in Wellington, Trent Boult has said the reverse swing they achieved at Basin Reserve was also a valuable addition to an armoury well stocked with swing and bouncers.New Zealand used both reverse swing and the bouncer to skittle Bangladesh for 160 in the second innings, which turned the Wellington Test in the home side’s favour despite conceding 595 in the first innings.”A big positive from the Test match was that we got the ball to reverse swing eventually,” Boult said. “Australia, the last time they came, taught us a lesson on ways to bowl sides out on flat wickets.”Boult said the ability to bowl short deliveries effectively was an asset to a bowling attack because it made the full deliveries more dangerous. “I think the short ball is a valuable skill for a fast bowler. I think people have to realise why we are bowling short in the first place. It is to upset the batsman and get them struck on the crease to make the fuller ball more effective.”When you are bowling a short ball it is definitely not with the intention of hurting the batsman but to make your other skills more effective. I think it is a method that we have been using successfully for a while. I am sure there will be short-pitched bowling among the group, looking to put pressure on the opponents.”Boult said it could be difficult to keep facing deliveries aimed at the throat, but felt Bangladesh had coped well by playing aggressively whenever the shot was directed downwind.”It is a bit intimidating facing a barrage of short-pitched bowling. They played it nicely,” Boult said. “They looked to be aggressive towards it and picked their times downwind and into the wind on when to play the shots. I am sure they got plans in place to adapt to it.”Bangladesh’s chances in the Wellington Test took a severe blow when Mushfiqur retired hurt in the second innings after he was hit on the head by a bouncer from Tim Southee, who had been targeting the batsman with short balls to exploit his injured finger. Boult said the prolonged use of the tactic depended on how successful it was.”I think it depends on how the opposition played it. I think you are trying to read how uncomfortable they are feeling and the game plan they are bringing towards it,” he said. “The Australians have played it quite nicely. So you have to quickly change your plans.”We are hoping that it will be nice, seam bowling conditions [in Christchurch] where we can pitch the ball up and skin the cat a different way.”Tamim Iqbal, the Bangladesh opener who will be standing in as captain at Hagley Oval, said there was no reason to complain over the short deliveries.”I think short ball is part of the game. I can’t really complain about it,” he said. “If we feel that a certain batsman is not comfortable, we might use those tactics. It is fair game. I said in the last press conference, we expect these things in this part of the world. When New Zealand or any other team go to our conditions, they expect spin. I am sure they don’t complain about the ball spinning too much so why should we complain about bouncers?”

The fifth Test between India and England is likely to go ahead as scheduled in spite of Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium having been placed on standby.The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association confirmed that cyclone Vardah, which swept through Chennai on Monday, damaged some stadium property but did not unduly affect the pitch and outfield at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.Both teams’ training schedules for Wednesday were, however, cancelled as the ground was unfit. The Test match is scheduled to begin on Friday.”Both teams have been informed about this and they have agreed,” Kasi Viswanathan, the secretary of the TNCA, told The Hindu.The pitch, the paper noted, was left dry as the covers, tied to iron poles stayed intact despite gusts of up to 100mph on Monday. Although there were wet patches across the outfield, Viswanathan was confident that the drainage system at the ground was capable of clearing the wet surface quickly.”There is a lot of work to be done, but we are taking it up on a war footing. We are confident the match will start on time,” Viswanathan said.”The assuring part is that the pitch and the outfield has not been affected by the cyclone,” he told . “But sightscreen has been damaged. The bulbs have blown off, air conditioners damaged.”There have been hundreds of tree trunks lying in the road leading up to the stadium. Our challenge is to set everything in order in the next two days. I am confident we will be able to set everything right.”Viswanathan also confirmed that the three stands of the stadium that have been locked by the Chennai Corporation for the last four years over a dispute with the TNCA would remain closed during the Test match.Both teams flew into Chennai on Tuesday, as per schedule, despite the airport having been closed until 9pm on Monday evening. They flew over miles of flooded agricultural land, and arrived in a city that was still experiencing power cuts and flooding in low-lying areas.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShahid Afridi took two wickets and struck a 20-ball 26 in Rangpur’s win•BCB

Rangpur Riders cruised to a seven-wicket win over Khulna Titans and replaced them at the top of the points table. A strong bowling performance restricted Khulna to 125 for 7, before Mohammad Mithun and Mohammad Shahzad contributed 49 not out and 37 respectively to ease Rangpur past the target with an over to spare.The Khulna bowlers had previously defended two low totals earlier in the tournament, but this was a task that quickly got out of reach after a 74-run second-wicket stand between Mithun and Shahzad.After opting to bat, there seem to be very little intent from the Khulna batsmen. Abdul Mazid and Andre Fletcher were both dismissed by Arafat Sunny. Mahmudullah gave deep midwicket a simple catch in the eighth over before Rikki Wessels and Taibur Rahman added 56 runs in the 55 balls.Wessels’ only six came off a switch hit in his 33-ball 27 while Taibur, who top-scored with 32 off 37 balls, struck a six over midwicket and also hit three fours. Both their sixes came in the 15th over, in which Liam Dawson conceded 19 runs.The two other sixes in the innings came in the last over when Ariful Haque slammed Shahid Afridi straight both times before being run-out off the final ball. Afridi, Sunny and Rubel Hossain finished with two wickets each.Shahzad and Mithun made light work of Khulna’s total after they got together in the fourth over. Shahzad quickly got over Soumya Sarkar’s wicket with a huge six over long-on before hitting over point twice.Mithun had struck three sixes in the span of five deliveries, pulling Alok Kapali twice and hammering Mosharraf Hossain over long-off. Shahzad holed out to long-on for 37.Afridi, promoted to No 4, survived twice in the 15th over, first being bowled off a no-ball by Benny Howell before the bowler dropped a skier off the last ball of that over. Dawson’s edged four completed the win with an over to spare. Mithun was unbeaten on 49 off 41 balls.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:44

Agarkar: Burden on Kohli if Rohit doesn’t perform

Martin Guptill’s opening salvo, and canny bowling from Tim Southee and James Neesham, ensured New Zealand forced the ODI series into a decider at Visakhapatnam. Having won their first toss of the tour in their eighth match, New Zealand, led by Guptill’s bruising half-century, tactfully exploited the field restrictions and ultimately finished at 260 for 7 on a track that offered turn and variable – sometimes negligible – bounce. The bowlers then frequently varied their pace and found equally good support from the fielders to throttle India’s chase.Southee was New Zealand’s key figure with the ball, first having Rohit Sharma caught behind with a perfectly-pitched outswinger. He returned with the old ball and produced a double-strike to all but snuff out the chase; a ball after Manish Pandey holed out off him, he had Kedhar Jadhav pinned in front by a slower offcutter for a first-ball duck. Three overs later Hardik Pandya was caught at long-off, Tom Latham running to his left to pocket a smart catch. India were left needing 94 off 84 balls, with three wickets in hand. Axar Patel, who was promoted to No. 5, and Amit Mishra briefly rallied with a 38-run partnership for the eighth wicket, Dhawal Kulkarni and Umesh Yadav then added 34 for the last wicket, but the hosts were dismissed for 241 in 48.4 overs.Neesham had produced a double-strike of his own, before ceding the stage to Southee. He dismissed Ajinkya Rahane for 57 in the 28th over and followed it with the bigger wicket of MS Dhoni in the 30th over. Rahane shuffled across and was trapped lbw by a straight ball while Dhoni was bowled through the gate for 11 off 31 balls.India, however, had started positively in their chase, with Rahane jumping onto any width offered and swatting away short balls with authority. He even uppercut Trent Boult for a six over point. He strung together 79 for the second wicket with Virat Kohli, who played a few trademark whiplash drives and punches during his 45 off 51 balls. Mitchell Santner, meanwhile, held his own and spun a few past the outside edge, with his family watching from the stands. And when he found the outside edge there was nobody at slips to snap it up.The partnership ended in the 20th over when Ish Sodhi found Kohli’s outside edge with a short legbreak and BJ Watling, who was playing his first ODI since February 2013, pouched it. The middle order then faded away, and although Axar showed glimpses of bravado in his cameo – 38 off 40 balls – India are yet to identify a genuine finisher with only four ODIs to go for the Champions Trophy.MS Dhoni was bowled through the gate for 11 at his home ground•Associated Press

New Zealand, on the other hand, ticked many boxes. For starters they read the conditions expertly, picking three spinners and taking the mind back to their success in the World T20. Guptill struck his second fifty of the tour. Latham was solid as usual, and Ross Taylor, under fire from all quarters, spent some time in the middle, although he was edgy throughout his 35 off 58 balls.But the most telling contribution, perhaps, arrived from Guptill. He didn’t always look pretty, but bent India’s attack out of shape in the Powerplay. He gave Kulkarni a cold welcome, hitting three fours off four balls. The first two were skewed drives wide of point and over mid-on. The third was disdainfully scythed through extra cover. He pressed on to unfurl sublime inside-out drives too. The nature of the pitch put in perspective Guptill’s early assault. As the match wore on, the odd ball kept low while several stopped on the batsmen. A couple of grubbers even raised puffs of dust from the surface.India could have had Guptill on 29, but Mishra could not hold on to one after diving to his left from mid-on – a decent effort, but he might have done better if he were a bit quicker to react. Mishra gave him another life later on, misjudging a much simpler catch at long-off when Guptill was on 62.Guptill had reached his half-century off 56 balls at the start of the 17th over, four balls after Axar had Latham top-edging a sweep to short fine leg for 39 off 40 balls. By then Axar and Mishra had settled into an asphyxiating rhythm. Guptill needed 12 balls to score his first run against spin, and was further stifled by Jadhav’s loopy offbreaks and straighter ones. The spinners conceded only 19 runs in the seven overs from the 11th to the 17th. But it was Pandya who eventually removed Guptill, when he had him playing inside the line and feathering behind to leave New Zealand at 139 for 2 in 26 overs.Mishra dragged them back further by removing Kane Williamson and Neesham in successive overs. New Zealand scrounged only 99 runs for five wickets from the last 20 overs of their innings, and only three boundaries in the last ten overs, including one of the final ball of the innings. But it proved enough to square the series.

The Cricket Association of Nepal, which was suspended by the ICC over government interference, has a good chance at being reinstated following a meeting between prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and ICC chief executive David Richardson.After discussions which took place in Kathmandu on Sunday, it was decided that CAN would form an advisory group to review its constitution then conduct fresh elections as per that constitution.”Nepal is an important member with huge potential. It is important for us to work out a roadmap for its reinstatement,” Richardson said.Although Nepal have been allowed to keep playing in ICC competitions – and had even made a fine debut at Lord’s – their ICC funding had been cut and there has been a leadership vacuum with CAN and Nepal’s National Sports Council in a court battle over who should run cricket in the country.ICC’s chairman of Associates Imran Khwaja, who was also at the meeting, said: “I’m confident everything will be worked out smoothly and the country’s cricket will benefit immensely in the coming years.”

James Anderson has apologised to both umpires for behaviour he admits was “petulant” and “unacceptable” on the second day of the third Investec Test at Edgbaston.Anderson, England’s record wicket-taker, clashed with umpire Bruce Oxenford after he was warned about running on the pitch after delivering the ball. Anderson received two official warnings meaning that, if he encroaches on the area again during Pakistan’s first innings, the umpires can withdraw him from the attack for the rest of the innings.It was a frustrating day for Anderson. As well as struggling to gain much assistance from a sluggish Edgbaston surface, he saw Joe Root, at second slip, put down Azhar Ali off his bowling when he had scored 38. Azhar went on to make a century as Pakistan reached stumps just 40 runs behind with seven wickets in hand.When Oxenford, who had been prompted to warn Anderson by the intervention of the TV umpire Kumar Dharmasena, repeatedly asked him to move away from the pitch in the immediate aftermath of delivery, Anderson appeared to remonstrate angrily.But, having seen a replay of himself remonstrating with Oxenford, Anderson accepted that such factors were no excuse and concluded that he had over-stepped the mark and took the decision to apologise.”It was a frustrating day,” Anderson said. “I had a bad half-hour where I let things get to me. I’ve apologised to both umpires as my behaviour wasn’t acceptable. It was a bit petulant.”I wasn’t convinced that I had [run on the pitch], but Bruce had the third or fourth umpire in his ear telling him I was.”Having seen my reactions on TV, it doesn’t look great when I’m pointing at the pitch. I don’t necessarily think it was what I said, it was just the way I behaved. I had a bad half-hour, I’ve apologised and hopefully that will be the end of it.”It is not the first time Anderson has succumbed to bouts of petulance. He was, for a long time, a persistent sledger of opposition batsmen and infamously clashed with Ravindra Jadeja during the 2014 Trent Bridge Test. Since that incident, however, he has appeared to rein in that side of his character but admitted he struggles to balance the “competitive edge” he feels he requires to succeed at this level with the standards of behaviour expected of an international player.”That competitive edge has helped me throughout my career,” Anderson said. “I know there are times I can get close to that line. I try to control it, but I don’t want to lose that competitive edge. It’s a balancing act.”The dropped catch probably added to the frustration, but you have to try and deal with things like that. There are going to be times when catches go down. There are going to be times when the opposition plays well, as they did today. They played really well.”The pitch has lost some pace. It didn’t have the zip it had on the first day. But we did a good job. We created chances and if that catch had stuck, who knows what might have happened. There was some good bowling and some average batting that got us into this situation.”Today I thought we bowled reasonably well. But we could have bowled slightly better. We had chances and we didn’t take them. At this level you get punished if you don’t take your chances.”Anderson will hope that his apology will appease the officials. But it will be no surprise if match referee Richie Richardson cites him for dissent.

James Anderson hopes his vast experience can help him compensate for a drop in pace over the remaining years of his career.Anderson, who turned 34 over the weekend, returned to the Test team at Old Trafford with a performance that showed his control and skills remain undimmed by age or injury. But it was noticeable that his average bowling speed in the game – about 81mph – was some way down on his peak.While Anderson hopes he was simply “rusty” and that he will be able to generate more pace at Edgbaston, he accepts that he may be at the stage of his career where he has to rely more upon other attributes if he is to continue to flourish.”I didn’t feel like my speeds in Manchester were where they could be,” Anderson said. “I felt a bit like Matthew Hoggard at the end of his career when he slowed down a bit but his control was pretty good.”With the skills I have, I can do a job even if my speeds did drop. With experience you can stay one step ahead in your head. It is like an old defender in football who might not have the pace of a quick striker but he’s two steps ahead of him upstairs.”Anderson has been sidelined by several injuries over the last year or so. After sustaining a side strain during the Edgbaston Ashes Test 12 months ago, he missed the first Test of the series in South Africa due to a calf injury and then the Lord’s Test against Pakistan due to a shoulder injury.But, after a modest tour of South Africa, he was back to something approaching his best at the start of this English summer. He claimed 21 wickets in the three Tests against Sri Lanka at an average of just 10.80 apiece – albeit in helpful conditions at times – and remains the No. 2-rated bowler in the ICC’s rankings for Test cricket. He is just one ranking point behind India’s R Ashwin.He denies that the relative glut of injuries are necessarily a reflection of ageing and suggests that he could emulate Glenn McGrath and play until he is 37 years old.”The way I feel at the moment, mentally, I’ve still got a hunger to play the game and a hunger to take wickets and help my team win matches,” Anderson said. “As long as I’ve got that hunger I’m going to keep working, keep improving and keep working on my fitness and if I get to 37 then great. I just try to concentrate on staying fit for the next game.”I thought I bowled well against Sri Lanka. I’m not sure it’s the best I’ve ever bowled but I felt in really good form and I just wanted to build on it, but the injury meant it wasn’t possible.”Fitness wise I keep working hard. My practice over the years has gone from searching for perfection to just doing as little as possible. The bare minimum. But when I do practise I try to make sure it’s absolute quality rather than going through the motions. If I don’t practise much I make sure what I do do is to the highest quality possible.”The England selectors took a lot of criticism for their decision not to risk Anderson in the first Test of this series at Lord’s. Although he was fit to bowl in the nets ahead of the game and subsequently played in part of Lancashire’s Championship match against Durham, he now admits it was “probably wise” not to rush him back into the Test team before he had gained match fitness after his shoulder injury. He hopes that, having had that Championship game and the Test in Manchester, he should be somewhere near his best at Edgbaston.Chris Woakes gets some advice from James Anderson in the England nets•Getty Images

“Looking back, without having had any game time before that first Test, it was probably wise to get some overs under my belt before I came back into the Test side,” Anderson said. “I think it was probably the right decision.”There was some rustiness in Manchester. I bowled 20-odd overs at Southport after four weeks out of the game, and then at Lord’s with the weather before the game I only bowled six overs outside so there was a bit of rustiness. But now I’ve got that match practice under my belt hopefully I can build on that and my speeds go up rather than down. The age I’m at, four or five weeks without bowling shouldn’t make me lose my form that much.”As Anderson matures, so his role within the squad may start to change. It has been noticeable over recent months that Chris Woakes, in particular, has started to use the wobble-seam delivery demonstrated with such success by Anderson and, at times, started to hide his grip of the ball until the point of delivery so that batsmen cannot anticipate which way it will swing.But Anderson denied that Woakes is the obvious inheritor of his art and insisted that he is learning from England’s younger bowlers as much as the other way around.”Chris has a lot of skills, but I don’t see us as similar bowlers,” Anderson said. “I don’t know why. He’s got more pace, he’s got a lovely action, that’s what he’s got going for him, a nice repetitive action that will help him for the rest of his career. I’m not forcing myself upon him.”As a group of bowlers we are talking to each other all the time. We are trying in the nets to give each other bits of information that are going to be useful whether it’s on the opposition, tactics or specifics in skills and we all learn from each other.”I learn from Chris Woakes, I’ve learnt from Steven Finn and Stuart Broad, we all pass information round to each other, it’s a really open forum and I think that’s how it should be. I think that’s how teams get better.”Poor weather in Birmingham means the Test pitch may lack just a little of the carry that England enjoyed when defeating Australia a year ago. But the surface is still expected to provide some assistance to seamers, especially on the first morning and with the new ball, and little encouragement for spinners. As a result, England look highly likely to go into the game with four seamers and Moeen Ali as their main spinner.

ScorecardHampshire hope a move down the order can spark Michael Carberry’s form•Getty Images

There was a heavy sense of sadness about this, the flattest of days, at the Ageas Bowl. Played out in front of a smattering of barely 100 people, a crowd described by one seasoned journalist as the smallest he had seen here for at least a decade; bottom of the table, relegation-threatened Hampshire battled and blocked, nudged and nurdled and waited for the forecasted rain to fall.It is at times like these that a club needs its senior players. In Michael Carberry, Hampshire have one who stood up better than most to some of the fastest bowling in history when Mitchell Johnson ripped England apart in the 2013-14 Ashes. Shortly after that, perhaps harshly, Carberry’s international career came to an end and Dale Benkenstein, the Hampshire coach, revealed it has not been an easy adjustment for Carberry to make. This season season his average hovers around the mid-20s.As part of Hampshire’s attempt to re-motivate Carberry they have shifted him down the order to No. 4 to give him a new challenge and the management will have been pleased with the fight he showed, closing on an unbeaten 37, alongside Sean Ervine in a 52-run stand before play was halted.”We are trying to find some motivation for Carbs,” explained Benkenstein. “I think it’s tough when you don’t have England anymore. You just lose your oxygen. When you’ve had one thing as your goal and suddenly it goes, and you’ve never really thought about anything else – you’ve always wanted to play for England. I’ve seen that with a few senior players in my career as captain.””Physically and skill-wise he could play for many more years, but at this level you have got to have a real hunger to play. Especially as a batsman you have to have that hunger for runs because you are getting a year older and guys are getting faster and better and they have ambition to play for England and you tend to see guys drop off quite quickly.””We’ve found he is actually playing quite well but keeps getting out,” Benkenstein said of the move to bat him down the order. “The new ball is always tough in England and we thought maybe it’s a chance to free him up a bit and take him away from the new ball. Just changing his role gives him a bit of a mini-challenge and we are hoping that stimulates him.”Hampshire will hope Carberry can flourish in the second half of the season. Play began under a warming sun, but as the day wore on, the clouds thickened and darkened and like the looming threat of Hampshire’s relegation, they slowly closed in.When, at 3.18pm the umpires decided the light was too bad for play to continue Ervine and Carberry could hardly have left the pitch much quicker. Less than five minutes later it started to rain and the players never returned.More rain is forecast tomorrow and Hampshire could well escape this match with a draw but having been hoping for rain since mid-afternoon on day one, it will be with a heavy heart that they make the five hour drive to Chester-le-Street on Saturday.This pitch has been very slow, too slow to produce particularly intriguing cricket, and without the blanket of dark clouds under which they bowled on the first day, Somerset must have felt what it was like to bowl several overs in Hampshire’s shoes on day two as the hosts fought admirably against some accurate bowling.Unlike Somerset’s batsmen however, Hampshire’s were unable to convert strong starts into significant scores. All three of the wickets to fall were self-inflicted.Tom Alsop was the first to go when shortly before lunch he was caught at second slip having tried to cut a ball from Peter Trego that was too straight to do so to and angling in further still. Alsop’s wicket ended a stoic partnership of 89 – tellingly Hampshire’s best second-wicket stand of the season.That Alsop received a generous reception from Hampshire’s members for his 53 when he finally reached the pavilion, head bowed, bat hanging limply by his side and dragging along the turf, is perhaps emblematic of the club’s readjusted expectations. A good effort it was, but ultimately not good enough.After the interval Will Smith dragged on to Lewis Gregory and when Liam Dawson’s limp push outside off stump ended up in the hands of second slip there was a possibility Hampshire were not even going to beat the rain, let alone Somerset.After an hour of thick, miserly rain, with darkness enveloping the ground and puddles forming on the covers, the floodlights were unceremoniously switched off. Ten minutes after that, with the ground practically deserted but for a lone member of the ground staff, the PA system echoed around the stadium confirming to no one but the assembled press that play had been abandoned.And with that the lonely groundsman trudged across the outfield and disappeared into the bowels of the stadium, the only sound he left behind him was the gentle patter of rain on the covers as a melancholy day crept slowly towards its end.