Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott hundreds revive memories and secure victory

Warwickshire 300 for 5 (Bell 145*, Trott 100) beat Durham 299 for 8 (Smith 119, Richardson 111, Patel 3-51) by five wickets
Scorecard

Ian Bell scored a brilliant unbeaten century to guide Warwickshire to a five-wicket win over Durham in their Royal London One-Day Cup match at Emirates Riverside.

Bell was outstanding with fellow former England man Jonathan Trott, who also scored a hundred, as the two players shared a stand of 202 to grind down Durham's total before Bell saw his side through to the victory. Will Smith and Michael Richardson both scored centuries for the home side, but their efforts were in vain as the Bears edged the contest.

The visitors won the toss and elected to field. Olly Stone and Keith Barker struck early to remove Paul Collingwood and Graham Clark, while Tom Latham also fell cheaply for 13.

Smith joined Richardson with the score at 54 for 3. Richardson found his rhythm, although before his first milestone of the day he was dropped by Sam Hain on 47.

Richardson made his half-century off 49 balls, maintaining his solid form in the 50-over game. Smith too relaxed into his innings, and the pair were able to put Warwickshire under pressure. They reached their 100-partnership off 102 balls before Smith brought up his fifty in style with a massive six off Stone.

Durham passed 200 with back-to-back boundaries from Richardson, who reached his second List A century. He reached his highest 50-over score of 111 before he was dismissed, ending his partnership of 161 with Smith. Smith upped the ante to reach his hundred off 98 balls, including eight boundaries and a six. He fell in the final over for 119, although the home side were still able to post 299 from their 50 overs.

Warwickshire were put on the back foot in their reply as Ed Pollock and Sam Hain were dismissed within the opening three overs. However, Trott and Bell proved their quality to stabilise the innings.

Trott played with a fine tempo to his innings and was the first of the experienced pair to reach his half-century off 68 balls, and soon brought up the 100-partnership with Bell from 125 deliveries. Bell took slightly longer than his partner to score his fifty, getting over the mark in 74 deliveries, scoring five boundaries as the visitors continued to grind down the total.

The experience of both former England players took the game away from Durham. The two veterans displayed nous to knock the ball around the park and dispatch the ball to the boundary when necessary to keep the required rate down. They continued the imperious nature of their batting, working the ball around the ground, reaching the 200 partnership off 207 deliveries.

Trott was the first to three figures, calmly stroking the ball down the ground to reach his 22nd List A century, although he fell drilling a Collingwood delivery straight to Richardson. Bell remained focused and brought up his hundred from 108 balls.

The wickets of Adam Hose and Tim Ambrose did not deter Bell as finished his flawless innings with a flurry of late boundaries to secure the vital victory.

Jonny Bairstow ready for challenge of batting No. 5 and keeping wicket

Jonny Bairstow was "proud" to be asked to move up England's Test batting order and remains confident he can cope with the demands of being the wicketkeeper at No. 5.

Bairstow's elevation is part of a broader restructuring of England's battling line-up as Ed Smith takes on the role of national selector. It was Smith who phoned and asked him about the shift following a winter campaign where Bairstow scored two of the four centuries England managed in seven Tests.

"I'm very proud to be asked to move up the order - it means the people in charge have got the belief in you to go out and deliver," Bairstow said. "They are asking a little extra, they are saying 'We want you to do this, we trust you, we believe in you' - and that's what you want within a team. You want the captain, coach and head selectors to back you."

Bairstow began last season at No. 5 but that lasted just two Tests against South Africa before he moved back down the order. During the Ashes he started at No. 7 (and was once, wastefully, as low as No. 8 due to a nightwatchman) before being elevated one spot, then ended the season back at seven where he scored a century in Christchurch.

Being so low runs the risk of him getting stranded with the lower order and Joe Root said the promotion for Bairstow was an attempt to get England's best batsmen into the top six. One counter argument made is that Australia rarely moved Adam Gilchrist from No. 7, from where he reimagined the role of a Test wicketkeeper-batsman, however he had a great batting line-up above him.

There remains a school of thought that England won't get the most out of Bairstow as a batsman while he has the gloves, but he is determined to make a success of the all-round position.

Rohit, Krunal blitz keeps Mumbai Indians alive

Mumbai Indians 176 for 4 (Suryakumar 57, Krunal 31*, Rohit 24*) beat Kings XI Punjab 174 for 6 (Gayle 50, Stoinis 29*, Bumrah 1-19) by six wickets

Mumbai Indians are on a cliff edge, but not yet weak enough to be pushed off just yet. Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya's unbeaten 56-run stand off 21 deliveries helped them chase down 175 with an over to spare, after Kings XI Punjab had the upper hand for the most part of the game.

Needing 50 off four overs, Ashwin threw the ball to Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who had picked up two wickets and caused Mumbai's batsmen much trouble. Rohit responded by hitting him for two sixes. The floodgates truly opened when Marcus Stoinis missed his lengths in the next over as Krunal got stuck in to take 20. This brought the target within touching distance, with four leg byes off a missed heave sealing Mumbai's third win in nine matches.

The Gayle-Rahul party continues

Mumbai had a plan for Chris Gayle: to hit hard lengths, target his rib cage, and not give him anything full or wide in his hitting arc. Gayle had scored one off eight balls as a result. His fluency was missing and KL Rahul, who began with a sparkling inside-out six over extra cover off Mitchell McClenaghan, was denied strike. But by hitting Hardik Pandya for three fours in the fourth over, Gayle caught up to get Kings XI going again. His hoist of McClenaghan for a 92-metre six that cleared the roofs at deep square-leg marked his arrival.

Kings XI had averaged 59 in the Powerplay coming into this game. They were slower today - 49 for 0 - but the openers eventually brought up their fifth fifty-plus partnership of the season. They were soon separated, though, when Rahul picked out JP Duminy at deep midwicket off Mayank Markande's half-tracker in the seventh over.

Yuvraj continues to struggle

Yuvraj's Smart Strike Rate of 40.32 was the poorest among 51 batsmen who have faced at least 50 balls this season. He started slowly again after being promoted to No. 3, making just five off his first nine balls. Yuvraj then smacked Krunal for six over deep midwicket, but that was the only highlight of another rusty effort as he was run out after a second mix-up with Karun Nair. Yuvraj's efforts: a run-a-ball 14, taking his season's tally to 34 in six innings. The move to drop Manoj Tiwary after just one game looking even more baffling.

Mumbai's poor finish

Jasprit Bumrah was superb in the Powerplay, and superb in the death; his figures of 4-0-19-1 were his best so far this season. But Mumbai still did not get the finish they wanted. After restricting Kings XI to 135 for 5, they conceded 39 off the last three overs. Two nights ago in Bengaluru, their final over, bowled by McClenaghan, went for 24. Here, Marcus Stoinis scored 21 off the last over, from Hardik. Stoinis finished with 29 off 15 and Kings XI had momentum, even though they may have been 20 runs short.

Kings XI use spin upfront

While Mumbai bowled only five overs of spin, Kings XI bowled those many in the first eight overs. R Ashwin, who kept Evin Lewis and Ishan Kishan quiet, bowled three. Then Mujeeb struck with his fourth delivery in the sixth over, when Lewis nicked a skidder to Rahul. Ashwin eventually bowled out by the 11th over, with Mumbai needing 99 off 54. Suryakumar Yadav scored a quick half-century even as a watchful Kishan, trying to overcome a slump of three ducks in five innings, played himself in. When it got to a point where they had to go, Suryakumar fell to an ugly hoick.

Rohit's batting position

Yuvraj batting at No. 3 and Axar Patel at No. 5 weren't the only surprises of the night. Mumbai played Hardik at No. 4 ahead of Rohit, who had smashed 118 off 43 against Sri Lanka in his previous T20I in Indore. On Friday, Rohit came in at No. 5 after Kishan fell, with Mumbai needing 75 off 42.

Hardik's 13-ball 23 ensured Mumbai kept up with the asking rate, but his dismissal brought Krunal to the crease. And then Kings XI lost their lengths. Stoinis, playing in place of Aaron Finch, bowled three slower length balls and a full toss to concede three fours and a six in the 17th over, as Krunal used the depth of the crease on a true surface and found the leg-side boundary. He finished on 31 off 12 balls, Rohit on 24 off 15, and Mumbai had six points, same as the three teams below them in the league.

Raine's late double tilts day to Leicestershire

Sussex 254 for 7 (Wright 88, Brown 64) v Leicestershire
Scorecard

Ben Raine took two wickets in two balls in the final session to wrest the initiative back for Leicestershire at the end of an absorbing first day of their Specsavers County Championship match against Sussex at the Fischer County Ground.

Raine produced fine seaming deliveries to bowl first Luke Wright, who had looked set for a century, and then Ollie Robinson after Sussex had recovered strongly from being 52 for 3 at lunch.

Pakistan seamer Muhammad Abbas, making his debut for the Foxes, bowled an outstanding opening spell, conceding just four runs from seven overs and taking one of the three wickets to fall during the opening session after Sussex skipper Ben Brown had won the toss and chosen to bat.

Openers Luke Wells and Phillip Salt received very few bad balls as they battled through the first hour. Wells faced 25 balls in scoring two runs, and had been hit on the shoulder by Abbas before he edged Raine to wicketkeeper Lewis Hill.

If that was a straightforward take for Hill, the catch he took to dismiss Salt off Abbas in the following over was anything but, a thick edge flying towards first slip, but the wicketkeeper took it beautifully two-handed to his right.

In the final over before lunch Harry Finch drove loosely at a Neil Dexter out-swinger, failed to keep the ball down, and saw Colin Ackermann take a smart catch at gully.

Wright and Stiaan Van Zyl dug in and began to prosper against a seam attack which, while accurate, was understandably less penetrative with the older ball on a pitch flattening under unbroken sunshine.

The batsmen had extended their partnership to 63 when Leicestershire captain Michael Carberry turned to spinner Callum Parkinson, and the left-armer was successful with just his second ball as Van Zyl's uncertain push resulted in an edge to Colin Ackermann at slip.

Wright reached his 50 off 92 balls, which included nine fours, shortly before tea, and he and Brown had brought up a century partnership before Abbas made the breakthrough with the new ball, having , on 64, caught at slip off an out-swinger.

Raine then struck twice to give Leicestershire a slight advantage to take into the second day.

Joe Clarke could be the new Joe Root

Joe Clarke could be the new Joe Root, according to Root's former batting mentor.

Kevin Sharp, for many years a player and coach at Yorkshire, worked with Root as a developing player. Now head coach of Worcestershire, Sharp believes 21-year-old Clarke shares many of the same attributes as the England captain and feels he would do well if picked for the Test team this summer.

"Yes, he could be the new Joe Root," Sharp told ESPNcricinfo. "He reminds me a lot of Joe Root's credentials.

"I met Joe Root as a 12-year-old and he had something special straight away. I knew that from day one. The way he went about his tasks, the way he talked about the game and the way he went about planning: he was always planning for the next level.

"Joe Clarke's the same. He's a fine young player. He wants to play all types of cricket for England. He's very self-driven.

"A few years ago I told Joe Root to look out for a guy called Joe Clarke. He said 'All right. OK then."

Clarke is clearly a huge fan of Root. During the days when the England and England Lions squads trained together in Australia during the Ashes tour, Clarke could be seen sitting in the closest net to Root as he batted and watching his every move intently. And, while Clarke did not score especially heavily on the Lions tour in the Caribbean, he redeemed himself with scores of 46, 71 and 112 in the North v South games. He had previously become the first teenage Lions player since Root.

With England struggling to find much consistency in their middle-order batting since Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen left the team, Clarke could even himself in the Test team within weeks. He is clearly highly thought of by the likes of Andy Flower and, if he starts the county season well, he will have given himself an excellent opportunity to push for a middle-order spot.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he was picked," Sharp said. "He would do well. He believes in himself, he's hungry and he concentrates well. It absolutely wouldn't be a problem if he got picked. He wouldn't let himself or anybody down."

Of more concern to Worcestershire could be the fact that Clarke is out of contract at the club at the end of the season. Counties can make 28-day approaches to players (that means they can notify the county of a player who is out of contract at the end of a season and inform them they wish to speak to that player in 28 days) from April 10 this year and Clarke is likely to have several big-budget suitors.

It may be relevant that he retains aspirations to keep wicket - a skill he feels could help him when it comes to England selection - and his ability to do so at New Road is blocked by the excellence of Ben Cox.

Zimbabwe Cricket sacks captain Cremer and all coaching staff

After giving them an ultimatum to step down by 3pm on Friday, Zimbabwe Cricket have sacked its entire coaching staff following an unsuccessful World Cup qualifier campaign. The captain Graeme Cremerwas another high-profile casualty with reports in the Zimbabwean press suggesting Brendan Taylor will take over leadership of the team.

In addition to the national coaching staff - head coach Heath Streak, batting coach Lance Klusener, bowling coach Douglas Hondo, fielding coach Walter Chawaguta, fitness coach Sean Bell and team analyst Stanley Chioza - all other coaching staff, including the Zimbabwe A coach Wayne James and Under-19 coach Stephen Mangongo have been booted out. Convener of selectors Tatenda Taibu has also stripped of his position.

In an email sent to Streak on Thursday evening, Zimbabwe Cricket MD Faisal Hasnain wrote: "Further to our discussions, please give your technical staff (and yourself included) until 3pm tomorrow to formally resign. After which time the technical team can consider themselves dismissed and relieved of their duties with immediate effect."

Streak and his staff refused to resign, on the principle that they did not consider their overall work a failure - Zimbabwe's ODI win-loss percentage under Streak was 37.5%, significantly more than the 22.6% Zimbabwe achieved between April 2014 and October 2016, when Streak took over - and decided to let the board make their decision.

Streak conveyed his disappointment in a brief conversation with ESPNcricinfo. "For everything I have given Zimbabwe Cricket, as a former player and a coach, to be given an email with no full explanation or even the courtesy of a hearing is something I didn't expect," Streak said. "I understand that every coach's tenure will come to an end, but we should at least have been given the chance to give our comments and ask some questions. I was looking to take the team to the World T20 in 2020."

Streak is the only one with alternative employment at the moment. He was appointed the Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach for this year's edition of the IPL.

The mass purge is mostly a result of Zimbabwe missing out on the 2019 World Cup, after a three-run defeat to UAE in the final Super Six match, but will no doubt also be related to finances. Zimbabwe Cricket is muddling through another monetary crunch, only made worse by the fact that they will not be participating in the World Cup.

ZC staff, including the players who were attempting to qualify for the World Cup, were only paid 40% of their salaries in February. But with Streak and Klusener accepting 40% of theirs, the squad was eventually paid in full for their work during the month. No salaries will be paid in March, as ZC looks to make up the deficit in salaries to the rest of its staff.

'Boots up! Thank you!' - Pietersen calls time on playing career

Kevin Pietersen, one of the most brilliant and divisive cricketers of his generation, appears to have called time on his playing career with a four-word update to his 3.65 million Twitter followers.

Pietersen, who had declared in February that this season's Pakistan Super League would be his last tournament, tweeted "BOOTS UP! Thank you!" to his fans in the wake of what seems to have been his final appearance for Quetta Gladiators on Thursday night.

Pietersen's returns in the tournament were underwhelming as Quetta finished fourth in the table to earn themselves a play-off berth - he made 7 from six balls against Islamabad United in that final innings, and managed just one half-century in eight innings all told - albeit an explosive 52 from 34 balls against Karachi Kings.

But now, with the tournament shifting to Pakistan for two Eliminator matches in Lahore before the final in Karachi on March 25, Pietersen has joined his fellow England cricketers, Eoin Morgan, Alex Hales and Jason Roy, in opting out of travelling to the country for security reasons.

At the age of 37, Pietersen's enthusiasm for the hard graft of competitive cricket has been visibly waning in recent months. He warned that he was "nearly done and dusted" during his stint with Melbourne Stars during the Big Bash, and prior to his departure for the PSL, he posted an emotional farewell to his family on Instagram, adding that "this evening is the last one I'll ever have to do."

Pietersen added a further update on his Twitter feed on Saturday morning, which appeared to cement his decision. "Just been told that I scored 30000+ runs which included 152 fifty's & 68 hundreds in my professional career," he wrote. "Time to move on!"

Though he has shown glimpses of his enduring class in his recent engagements, it is plain that the passion has ebbed away from Pietersen's game - and flowed increasingly into his new love of rhino conservation, for which he is an increasingly committed spokesman. He is having a house built near Kruger national park in South Africa, and used two of his final appearances, for Surrey in last season's NatWest Blast and Melbourne Stars in the BBL, to promote the cause with fund-raising "Rhino Days".

Pietersen leaves the sport as England's second highest run-scorer across all forms of the game combined, including 8181 runs in 104 Tests between 2005 and 2013-14, until he was sacked in a dispute over team ethics in the wake of a disastrous 5-0 drubbing in that winter's Ashes.

The acrimony of Pietersen's split with England clouded the final years of his career - not least because the ECB's selectors have, arguably, never yet found an adequate replacement for him in their Test middle order.

But Pietersen's greatest hits will endure long after the bitterness of the latter years has faded. Foremost among the memories will be his unforgettable maiden Test hundred at The Oval in 2005, with which England secured the most absorbing Ashes contest of all time; his Man of the Tournament display in the Caribbean in 2010, when England won the World T20, their first and, to date, only ICC global trophy; and his central role in England's series wins in Australia in 2010-11 and India in 2012-13.

Michael Vaughan, Pietersen's captain during that 2005 Ashes, led the tributes on Twitter. "Well done @KP24 on an fantastic career," he wrote. "Not everyone's Cup of Tea but you will do for me ... Best Batsman I had the pleasure to play with ... 1st England batsman that put fear into the Aussies .. #WellDone"

Duminy, Samit propel Islamabad to the top

Islamabad United 182 for 5 (Duminy 73*, Asif Ali 45, Wahab 3-30) beat Peshawar Zalmi 156 for 9 (Wahab 33*, Asif 25, Samit 4-34, Gohar 3-25) by 26 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Islamabad United are beginning to get that 2016 feeling all over again.

After having made a shaky start to this year's campaign, they have been building momentum steadily. Friday's hapless opponents, Peshawar Zalmi, were crushed by 26 runs. It could well be the day when Islamabad's train became a juggernaut. With the game long gone, Wahab Riaz and Umaid Asif strung together a 55-run ninth-wicket stand to reduce the margin of defeat.

A splendid unbeaten 73 by JP Duminy laid the foundation for the hammering, with Asif Ali's blazing 45 at the end taking Islamabad to within one run of the tournament's highest score. Peshawar had, in truth, bowled poorly; no one except Wahab was able to hit either the yorker or bouncer lengths accurately enough, and the 81 runs Misbah-ul-Haq's men pillaged off the last 37 balls reflected that.

No Peshawar batsman was able to spearhead the innings. It was trial by spin here with eight of the nine wickets falling to spin. Samit Patel, the left-arm spinner, was stellar again. He enjoyed grip and turn off the surface to sort the top order out. But it is Zafar Gohar who could generate excitement in the Pakistan cricket circles. Playing in his first game, he exhibited splendid control and flighting the ball up to some of the most fearsome hitters in the game. He took three wickets to effectively end the contest.

Where the match was won

None of Peshawar's top eight managed to score more than 22. Compare that with Islamabad, where Duminy, carried his bat through and took the pressure off the other end. He was supported by cameos from Talat and Luke Ronchi, who scored 29 and 27 respectively. Those scores would've been the second-highest for Peshawar. Throw in the scorching 24-ball 45 from Asif at the end, and it's clear where they won.

The men that won it

Peshawar were 53 for 1 after seven overs. They'd set themselves up nicely, until Samit struck several crippling body blows. Kamran Akmal was trapped plumb in front, before Andre Fletcher and Dwayne Smith fell off successive deliveries to the Englishman to expose Peshawar's middle order sooner than they'd have hpped From there on, the asking rate inexorably went up, which meant they had to take more risks. That resulted in more wickets. Peshawar had been trapped in a vicious circle, and it was Patel who had run rings around them.

The magic delivery

Gohar bowled exceptionally well, and was rewarded for it with figures of 3 for 25. At one stage those figures had read 3 for 4. That included a dream ball to Darren Sammy off the second delivery he faced. Flighted nicely, it pitched just outside leg stump, and Sammy closed the face of the bat to flick it to the onside. However, upon bouncing, it gripped and turned so sharply Sammy's bat was barely in the same postcode. The ball went on to clip off stump.

Where they stand

Islamabd go top with 10 points, having one each of their past four games. Peshawar stay fifth, with three wins and four losses.

Challenging pitch, but not dangerous - Rahane

India were clearly not happy with being taken off the field when they were by the match officials, 19 minutes from the scheduled close of day three. They felt the ball that led to the players going off was not unusual but was consistent with how the pitch had played. They felt disadvantaged after they had batted on the "same" pitch, and felt that it didn't seem dangerous to them.

"The wicket was definitely challenging, but if you see our openers batted so well," Ajinkya Rahane said. "The wicket was similar for both teams. Vijay got 25 runs, and he faced 130-140 [127] balls. It was completely the same for everyone. Our approach was that we want to play and win this Test match. When Bhuvi and I were batting, we were not thinking about the wicket. We were just focussing on playing that particular delivery. Yes, the odd ball we got hit on the hand or the glove, but that's the nature of the wicket, we cannot control that."

Both Rahane and Sunil Subramaniam, the India manager, insisted the ball that hit Dean Elgar in the helmet grille was not too far from being a regular bouncer. "I don't think so," Rahane said when asked if there was anything irregular about the ball. "I think the ball was back of a length, a hard length. As our manager mentioned, it kicked off. Slightly more bounce than usual, but if you see the wicket and see the bounce here, it was completely natural. Even when Bhuvi and I were batting, or Vijay was batting against the new ball, we faced the same. It is not dangerous, it is completely similar for both teams."

The teams revealed that the first discussion around the nature of the pitch took place during the tea break, when the match referee met the two captains, but there were quite a few discussions between the umpires and the players, and the umpires looked at the pitch with concern every time a player took a blow. Rahane said the discussions with him were not about whether play should continue or not.

"They were just checking on me, that if I'm okay," Rahane said. "Because I got hit once on my elbow and my glove. They were telling me I can take my time, and [telling me] if you want to call the physio, you can call Patrick [Farhart] and take your time. Don't be in a hurry."

India also made the point that it was a pitch South Africa had asked for. "This is the wicket they prepared," Rahane said. "We also batted, our openers also batted. We struggled a lot, but it is completely similar for both teams so we cannot complain about this wicket. Our aim is to play and win this Test match, and we are looking to play.

"We all knew that when we come to South Africa, we will get wickets like this. Because when we played in India, we prepared turners, so we knew that we'll get wickets like this when we come here. We have to be prepared to play on these kinds of wickets."

Rahane wouldn't get dragged into speculating whether South Africa didn't feel like continuing with the game because of the situation they found themselves in. He also wished Elgar well. "When Hashim Amla got 60-odd in the first innings, no one was talking about that," Rahane said. "Everyone was talking about his innings, and how he played. Unfortunately Dean Elgar got hit on his head, and I hope he's fine. But I don't think the wicket is too dangerous.

"You cannot call it a dangerous wicket just because Elgar got hit. Most of the batsmen got hit, even Amla got hit in first innings, Vijay got hit. Pujara batted well in first innings, Virat batted well, they got hit. We never complained about it being a dangerous wicket. We just said it is a challenging wicket. They prepared this wicket, we never told them to prepare a track like this. They prepared this wicket so we want to play."

South African allrounder Dik Abed dies aged 73

Sulaiman 'Dik' Abed, the prolific South African allrounder who went on to captain Netherlands in the 1980s, died on Friday in the Netherlands aged 73.

He was the youngest of five brothers, all of whom were talented sportsmen. But his cricket career coincided with Apartheid, as a result of which he never got to play for South Africa. The South African Cricket Association (SACA) did ask Abed and another player of colour, the left-arm spinner Owen Williams, to join the team for a tour of Australia in 1971-72 but the government refused to let them go. In any case, both of them declined the offer, and the entire tour fell by the wayside.

Abed, known as a capable batsman and a fast bowler with a fine legcutter, gained a lot of his acclaim playing in the Lancashire Leagues in England, scoring more than 5000 runs and taking over 800 wickets over a 10-year period from 1967 to 1976. At home, he represented the Western Province Cricket Board with great distinction.

Abed eventually settled in the Netherlands and led the team in the ICC Trophy in England in 1982. He also attended several trials with English counties but never got the opportunity to play first-class cricket.

CSA's acting chief executive Thabang Moroe paid tribute to Abed: "On behalf of the CSA Family I extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and his many cricketing colleagues. He was an outstanding all-rounder who, like many before and after him, was denied the opportunity to play on the international stage that his talents merited."

Boult takes five-for, Pakistan routed for 74 in huge loss

New Zealand 257 (Williamson 73, Taylor 52, Raees 3-51, Hasan 3-59) beat Pakistan 74 (Boult 5-17) by 183 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

They might be the current Champions Trophy holders, but over the last two years, Pakistan have conceded the highest score in the format's history - 444 at Edgbaston. Today, in Dunedin, they came perilously close to posting the lowest ODI score; it was very much on the cards when they reeled at 32 for 8. In a batting performance so listless that even New Zealand appeared to be embarrassed by the ease with which Pakistan's innings crumbled, the home side rubberstamped their superiority by bowling Pakistan out for 74, winning by a mammoth 183 runs.

Any semblance of a contest was blown to pieces by a sensational opening spell from Trent Boult, who made a mockery of the notion that it was a slow pitch on which bounce was difficult to extract. Azhar Ali was the first to fall. Granted a life two balls earlier, when Santner dropped one at cover, Azhar poked at one outside the off stump and gave first slip a straightforward grab.

Fakhar Zaman had been trying to cut Boult for much of an innings that was destined to be ephemeral. He eventually dragged on. With Hafeez then edging a catch to Ross Taylor at first slip, the contest was over, but the potential for humiliation had only just begun.

The records began to tumble; only on three other occasions since 2006 had a side made less than ten runs in the first Powerplay (Pakistan made 9 for 3 today); only once before had Pakistan lost six wickets for fewer than the 16 they managed today.

Suddenly, the lowest-ever ODI total - 35 - began to be threatened, as batsmen came - each appearing as clueless, as amateur as the last - and met the same fate.

Pakistan's ineptitude could spawn much cricketing literature, but New Zealand's magnificence is far worthier of attention. After Boult and Southee's brilliance, the change-up bowlers backed them up, their foot never leaving Pakistan's throat. There was excellent fielding to run out Babar Azam, whose bat got stuck in the pitch as he attempted to drag it over - an appropriate metaphor for the rut Pakistan have found themselves in since reaching New Zealand shores.

The captain Kane Williamson, whose "ugly" innings of 73 began to look prettier by the minute, also took a splendid catch, diving to his right to hold on with one hand. Sarfraz, who was forlornly going down with his ship, remained till the bitter end, watching as his partners came and went. Mohammad Amir flashed at a few deliveries, but the defeat was too chastening for any Pakistan fan to draw entertainment out of it.

The contest ended in the only way that was appropriate, Boult returning to clean up Hasan Ali with an excellent yorker to complete his five-wicket haul. It put Pakistan out of their misery, and gave New Zealand the series with two games remaining.

At the start of the game, the pitch had played far slower than most expected. In scrappy, turgid conditions for batting, New Zealand's batsmen showed patience and temperament, stringing together several excellent partnerships to put up 257.

Colin Munro and Martin Guptill began like they usually do, each striking a six within the first eight balls. But it soon became evident that that strategy wouldn't be sustainable.

Munro fell in the second over, having misjudged the pace and bounce of a delivery, lobbing it straight up to Sarfraz.

De Villiers changed the game in one over - SA batting coach

At 12 for 3, South Africa were looking for some calm, for someone to absorb the pressure and block out a few overs, for a little bit of good, old-fashioned Test defense. AB de Villiers was not in the mood for any of that and he used the ninth over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's fifth as he claimed three top-order wickets, to show it.

In five balls, de Villiers drove Bhuvneshwar through the covers twice by smothering the movement with aggression and tucking into the full length. Then, he slashed a pair of short balls through point. With that intent, de Villiers grabbed momentum by the throat, flung it up against a wall and told it, "You are going to turn around." And it obeyed.

"Luckily our phones get taken away otherwise I would have been looking for an Uber to get back to the hotel," South Africa's batting coach Dale Benkenstein said. "They are a quality bowling attack and that stage I was sitting there wondering how we were going to score a run. The genius of AB de Villiers and the tenacity of the captain, that partnership got us back in the game and got that belief back in the change room. I think it was just one over where AB just changed the game. He made the bowlers have to worry about their lengths."

De Villiers started striking at over a run a ball after that over and continued playing aggressively, finding the boundary often and forcefully. He had the perfect foil at the other end in Faf du Plessis, who set up his typical rearguard action and bedded in. Between them, South Africa benefitted to the tune of 104 runs and quickly went from being dominated to dominating. De Villiers' ability to single-handedly change matches is well-documented, but now he seems to be doing it at will in the longer format, where South Africa are trying to play a more proactive brand of cricket.

That much was evident in the way all their batsmen played. Quinton de Kock, Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj all looked to get quick runs, not just because South Africa wanted to get India in as soon as possible, but also because they perhaps decided the best form of attack is to simply attack.

"As a general philosophy, as a batter you go out there to score runs, and on a wicket like that you're not going to get many opportunities to, so I would rather they are looking to score and then your last mindset is to leave or defend. They did that well," Benkenstein observed.

This aggressive thinking extended even towards team selection. They opted against the security of seven batsmen, by playing four quicks and a spinner in Maharaj. This meant Temba Bavuma, who has strung up gritty middle-order performances, had to miss out. Benkenstein admitted it was a difficult decision to leave him out, and by extension one of Chris Morris and Andile Phehlukwayo, but explained the need for experience swung the decision that way.

"With AB and Faf back, you've got your top six that all average over 40 in Test cricket," Benkenstein said. "We wanted to go with a strong bowling attack and our best batters at this time. As a group it was felt that was the best team."