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Graeme Cremer conceded Zimbabwe’s batsmen may have been too eager on the sweeps and reverse sweeps during the second ODI on Sunday, even though those strokes had proved productive during Friday’s record chase. Sri Lanka’s best bowler Lakshan Sandakan, meanwhile, had come prepared for that tactic from Zimbabwe, which goes some way to explaining his match figures of 4 for 52.Zimbabwe had been 67 for 1 before the spinners came into operation in Galle, and prompted a collapse that cost the visitors five wickets in the space of 10.3 overs. Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl all fell attempting to sweep or reverse sweep.”Maybe with the wicket, we should have adjusted, should have hit the ball down the ground a bit more,” Cremer said after the seven-wicket defeat. “I thought the wicket was a little bit different from the pitch for the first game, and we didn’t adjust early enough. At one stage we could have batted off the overs – 230 could have been a decent score, but we lost too many wickets in the middle.”Sandakan, playing his first ODI since March, employed several strategies to counter Zimbabwe’s sweep-happy batsmen. Early in the innings, he overcame Hamilton Masakadza’s reverse sweep threat by firing deliveries on a leg-stump line. Later in the innings, the dip he achieved also made him a difficult bowler to play across the line.”We identified that they were sweeping us, and we tried to change the field, slow the ball up a bit and change our lengths,” Sandakan said. “We didn’t try too many changes, but length and pace was important and it worked for us today. We also bowled wicket to wicket – a little straighter – to stop some of those shots.”While Sandakan had made the more telling blows to the opposition innings, debutant legspinner Wanidu Hasaranga knocked out Zimbabwe’s tail with a hat-trick in his third over. After the match, captain Angelo Mathews said he had not known much about Hasaranga, which suggests Cremer and the Zimbabwe are likely to have been even less enlightened on the threat he posed.”To get a hat-trick on debut that something special,” Cremer said of Hasaranga. “He looked a little bit nervous when he started, which is understandable. But credit to him when he stuck at it, and credit to the skipper having faith in him to keep him on. To clean up the back end of the innings was excellent.”Sandakan also lauded the 19-year-old’s poise. “When someone is debuting, he is under pressure. He managed the pressure well and bowled his googlies, flippers and leg-spin nicely.”

Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka’s captain, hailed his players for defying expectations after their seven-wicket victory over India at The Oval kept alive their hopes of a Champions Trophy semi-final. He dedicated the performance to Sri Lanka’s supporters, who made their presence increasingly felt as the game went on, as well as the victims of last week’s flooding in the country.India had looked in control after posting 321 for 6 but Sri Lanka, led by dashing half-centuries from replacement opener Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis, overhauled the highest successful Champions Trophy chase to set up a virtual quarter-final against Pakistan on Monday.”It was a very important game for us,” he said. “You know, no one really expected us to win. That took a lot of pressure off ourselves, and we just went out there, expressed ourselves and you can see what we can do when we play with a lot of freedom.”That’s our trademark, papare,” he said of the band playing enthusiastically in the stands for much of the game. “They come wherever we play. The Sri Lankan people like to have fun. It was very pleasing for us to give them a win because we had some terrible times in the recent past, especially with losing a lot of lives for floods, and we are very grateful that we could give them a smile.”It was like playing a World Cup Final. It was so noisy and a great atmosphere. We all know that all the Indians travel, and they’re right behind their team. I must thank all the Sri Lankan supporters that came out here. Even though it was little numbers, it was fantastic support for us. We really thank all of them.”Angelo Mathews swivels into a pull•Getty Images

Mathews had sat out Sri Lanka’s opening fixture – a heavy defeat against South Africa – due to a calf injury but contributed an unbeaten half-century on his return to help his team over the line. When asked about criticism aimed at himself and the coach, Graham Ford, for recent performances, he said he had been glad to be able to front up.”It’s always the coach and the captain. Today, once again, Kusal Perera’s call [to retire hurt] was also crucial. As a captain, I had to send him in, and it would have been a few bullets fired at me if it hadn’t gone too well. But that’s what we are there for, to take crucial decisions at crucial times, and it doesn’t matter if it fails. But, yeah, there is a lot of responsibility on the coach and the captain. So we do our very best out there, and we get the boys to do their very best, and we get the boys to try really hard, that’s what we look for.”Mendis was named Man of the Match for his innings of 89 off 93 and Mathews said that he and the team had benefited from speaking to Sri Lanka’s previous No. 3 before the match. “He [Mendis] met Kumar Sangakkara to get a few batting tips, and he’s the king, and we all look up to him. We all get advice from him, all the batters. He taught us a lot of good things on how to play on these tracks. Yesterday the guys met him and took a lot of advice and went out there and implemented it.”Sri Lanka’s victory left all four teams in Group B on two points after two games. Pakistan pulled off a surprise of their own when beating South Africa at Edgbaston on Wednesday and Mathews warned about taking preconceptions into the final round of matches.”It doesn’t matter if the opposition respects us. We are out to do a job, and we don’t really think about what the opposition think,” he said. “I mean, no one really expected us to win today as well, but we knew underneath that we had the talent and we had another opportunity to beat a fantastic team, which we did.”We don’t want to think too far ahead. We just want to take one game at a time. Now it’s done, and we look forward to the next game. It will be the same plans, go out there, no expectations. Go out there, play with a lot of freedom. You know, if we play good cricket, I’m certain that we can beat any team.”

Bangladesh have recalled Shafiul Islam to their 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy. There was no place for wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan, pace bowler Subashis Roy and allrounder Shuvagata Hom, who were all part of Bangladesh’s most recent ODI series in Sri Lanka.Nurul and Subashis, however, have been included in the preliminary squad that will undergo a training camp in Sussex from April 26 to May 6 and also play in a triangular ODI series in Ireland that begins in mid-May. Shuvagata is the only player to miss out on both squads. Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said his omission was due to English conditions requiring fewer spinners.Shafiul, the 27-year old fast bowler, last played an ODI against England in October 2016, after which he suffered a hamstring injury during the Bangladesh Premier League. He has taken 63 wickets at 36.41 in his 56 ODIs. Minhajul said that Shafiul was always part of the selectors’ plans but had to be sidelined due to the injury.

Bangladesh squad for Sussex camp and Ireland tri-series

Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Subashis Roy, Sunzamul Islam, Nurul Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Shafiul Islam

Nurul and Subashis didn’t play any ODIs in Sri Lanka, with both having played during Bangladesh’s previous series in New Zealand.Apart from Subashis and Nurul, the middle-order batsman Nasir Hossain has also been included in the squad for the Ireland tri-series. Nasir had last played for Bangladesh against England in October last year, after which he missed out on tours to New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka. He had recently been part of the BCB’s Emerging squad, and made a hundred in the Dhaka Premier League.Shakib Al Hasan, who is currently playing the IPL in India, will join the squad on May 4. ESPNcricinfo understands, meanwhile, that Mustafizur Rahman will return to Bangladesh on April 25 and join his team-mates in Sussex thereafter.

Pakistan might be playing their first T20I series in six months, but limited-overs captain Sarfraz Ahmed feels they are well-prepared to take on West Indies, given they’ve arrived in the Caribbean fresh off the Pakistan Super League. In the four-match series, Pakistan will be fielding new-look XIs, with a brand new opening combination and a couple of high-profile old names returning, and Sarfraz said he was “optimistic” about these changes.”It’s an important series and the first match will set a tone for the series,” Sarfraz said on the eve of the first T20I in Bridgetown. “PSL is an advantage as the boys are coming through playing T20 cricket. Many players who performed have been rewarded. I think it’s a good sign that PSL is happening and players who are performing in domestic are being selected. [Legspinner] Shadab [Khan] did well, so did [left-arm pacer] Usman [Khan], so it’s good to have top performers such as these boys coming through; this event is helping us unearth talent.”The change at the top of the order was prompted by a less positive event; Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif have been charged by the PCB for alleged breaches of its anti-corruption code in the PSL. Sarfraz said the team was not letting this get to them. “Morale of our team is very good and boys are working hard,” he said.Two contenders to fill their spots are two returning big names: Kamran Akmal, who last played in 2014, and Ahmed Shehzad, who last played a year ago. These two, too, owe their comeback to their performances in the PSL. Kamran, in fact, has been solid overall in domestic cricket in the three years he has been away from international cricket. He was the top-scorer with 1035 runs at 79.61 in the recent first-class domestic tournament and was the leading run-scorer in the PSL with a tally of 353. Before that, he scored 480 first-class runs at 60 and 576 List-A runs (topping the domestic One-Day Cup charts) at 72 in 2015-16, and 900 first-class runs at 52.94 in 2014-15.”We are all impressed with Kamran’s performance,” Sarfraz said. “The way he had been scoring runs continuously over the last two years is outstanding. With his recent form in the PSL, I am optimistic that he can carry his form here and contribute and win it for Pakistan.”Like his counterpart Carlos Brathwaite, Sarfraz is hoping the mixing of players at the T20 leagues will give his side an advantage. “Four to five senior players have been playing their league [the Caribbean Premier League] in the West Indies and this is an advantage. It’s a good thing for us that these boys can easily adjust in these conditions.”

Former Hyderabad wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel is one of three former first-class players to be invited to a USA selection camp from March 16 to 19 in Houston, Texas. The purpose of the camp is to pick a 14-man squad to tour Uganda in May for WCL Division Three matches.Khaleel, 34, last represented Hyderabad in January 2015, having played 57 first-class matches in the Ranji Trophy since his debut in 2002. He has been playing league cricket in Chicago for the past several summers and was identified by selectors at an ICC Regional Combine held in Chicago last May.It was understood that Khaleel has not yet met the eligibility threshold – a non-citizen can represent his resident country provided he has spent a minimum of 183 days per year over four consecutive years prior to a tournament – but would be immediately eligible if he were to secure a US passport. According to a source, Khaleel currently has US permanent residency status and was in the latter stages of obtaining US citizenship.Roy Silva, the Sri Lankan batsman who played 87 first-class matches, and Camilus Alexander, the former Windward Islands legspinner, were also called up to the selection camp.Silva, 36, played his last first-class match for Colombo CC in March 2013 and has been a heavy scorer in the Georgia and Florida leagues since moving to the USA. Alexander, 35, was the leading wicket-taker at the USACA T20 National Championship in 2014 while playing for the South East Region. Both would be eligible to play for USA under the ICC’s four-year deemed national rule.The 19 players from the camp are expected to link up with a training squad of 31, which had been assembled prior to USA’s title-winning run at WCL Division Four.The other talking point was the potential returns of offspinner Abhimanyu Rajp, batsman Charan Singh and left-arm spinning allrounder Mrunal Patel. Rajp and Charan last played for USA during the Auty Cup tours to Canada in 2013 and 2011 respectively while Mrunal had been part of the team that went to Ireland in 2015 for the World T20 qualifier.Four recent USA Under-19 representatives will be part of the camp as well. New York batsman Randall Wilson is a strong contender for a batting spot after solid performances at the ICC’s Regional Combine in New York last June and a half-century against a touring MCC side in September. Batsmen Gauranshu Sharma, Sagar Patel and Tohidul Islam were the other former U-19 players up for selection.Danial Ahmed (left) was unavailable while Timroy Allen (right) has issues over taking time off work•Peter Della Penna

“When considering players to add to the trial, the [selection] panel wanted to predominantly focus on youth players, young guys who stood out at Combines last year or in previous USA U-19 teams,” selection chairman Ricardo Powell said in a press release. “It will be good to give them some additional exposure in this environment. Those young players are accompanied by a couple more experienced players who have been consistent performers in the US and abroad.”The large number of invitees was partly because seven of the most recent USA squad members were unavailable, including four who were a part of either the Division Four squad or the one for their previous assignment, the Auty Cup. Fast bowlers Hammad Shahid and David Pieters, and allrounder Srini Santhanam have been ruled out due to injury while seamer Aman Lobana and left-arm spinner Danial Ahmed were unavailable.Shahid’s absence was the biggest blow. He had taken three wickets in two matches, with an exemplary economy rate of 3.55 in the Auty Cup last October. He had a strong chance of being among the final 14 to play in Uganda but sustained a torn posterior cruciate knee ligament (PCL) during a recent training session and was expected to be out for up to three months.Santhanam had surgery on his right shoulder in December and cannot play cricket at least until the second half of 2017. Pieters, who has yet to debut for USA, tore a meniscus at a trial match in Florida last August ahead of Division Four. Subsequent tests revealed cartilage damage in his right knee. After going under the knife for a second time last week, he has been ruled out of action indefinitely.There were doubts over batsman Alex Amsterdam and allrounder Timroy Allen attending the camp as well. Both spent a month in Barbados with the ICC Americas squad at the WICB Regional Super50 in January and February, making it difficult for them to take more time off work again, especially considering the team would be away from home for up to three weeks for the Division Three tour. Allen, one of USA’s most valuable assets, was recently retained by Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL draft.A six-day pre-tour to South Africa has been organised for USA before they land in Uganda for the start of the matches on May 23. In addition to the hosts, USA will be competing against Canada, Malaysia, Oman and Singapore in the next phase of the qualification process for the 2019 World Cup. The top two finishers at Division Three advance to Division Two, expected to be held in late 2017 or early 2018. It is the last step prior to the 2018 World Cup Qualifier, currently slated for Bangladesh in April 2018.

Uttar Pradesh‘s left-arm spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Saurabh Kumar took seven wickets between them as Mumbai were bowled out for 233 on the first day in Mysore.Mumbai lost three wickets for 55 in the first session, including that of Shreyas Iyer for 35, after electing to bat. Suryakumar Yadav held the innings together; he put on consecutive fifty partnerships with captain Aditya Tare (30) and Siddesh Lad (13), followed by another with debutant Aditya Dhumal (34) for the seventh wicket.He was eventually removed for 99, one short of a second-consecutive century, trapped in front to the part-time offspin of Shivam Chaudhary with the score on 223. Saurabh and Kuldeep then cleaned up the tail to finish with three and four wickets, respectively. Medium-pacer Tushar Deshpande took the solitary UP wicket to fall, that of Tanmay Srivastava, as UP finished the day on 22 for 1.Baroda failed to cross 200 for their third innings in a row, as left-arm spinner Avinash Yadav’s first five-wicket haul – on his return to first-class cricket – helped Railways bowl them out for 183 in Nagpur.Baroda’s top-order batsmen all got off to starts. Opener Kedar Devdhar scored 45, Dhiren Mistry scored 50 at No. 3 and Deepak Hooda got 30 at No. 4. They were decently placed at 137 for 2 when Hooda was stumped off Avinash. This triggered a collapse that eventually read 8 for 46, as Baroda folded up for 183. Avinash took five of those wickets, and legspinner Karn Sharma (3-37) took the last two. In response, Railways openers Saurabh Wakaskar (16*) and Shivakant Shukla (23*) took them to 39 for 0 at stumps.Priyank Panchal’s tenth first-class fifty helped Gujarat finish the first day on 224 for 4 against Madhya Pradesh in Nagothane. Panchal put on 75 for the opening wicket with Samit Gohel (34) and 42 for the third with Parthiv Patel, before getting stumped off left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma (2-60) for 62. Parthiv then stitched together 68 with Manpreet Juneja (44*) before falling for 49. Juneja and Chirag Gandhi (9*) batted out the last 11.4 overs to add 17, and take Gujarat to stumps without further damage.Bengal scored at just above two runs per over to reach 190 for 3 at stumps, against Tamil Nadu in Rajkot. Bengal’s 190 was anchored by a 111-run partnership for the third wicket, that began with Sudip Chatterjee (34) and Manoj Tiwary before Chatterjee had to go off retired hurt. Agniv Pan was Tiwary’s other partner during the third-wicket stand, which ended with Tiwary’s dismissal on 56. Pan was unbeaten on 51 at the end of the day, his third first-class fifty in four games, and Shreevats Goswami was with him on 15.

New Zealand allrounder Jimmy Neesham has been ruled out of the first Test against India in Kanpur due to a rib injury. But since he is expected to be fit for the second Test, which begins on September 30, New Zealand Cricket have opted not to name any replacements.Neesham picked up the injury during training last Thursday, and it had affected his participation in the warm-up fixture against Mumbai in Delhi. He didn’t bat in either innings and bowled just five overs.Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, expected Neesham to return to full fitness ahead of the second Test in Kolkata. “Jimmy was struck in the nets and has been in discomfort the last few days,” he said. “It will take a few days for the bruising to go away, but it’s very much a short-term injury.”This comes as yet another setback for Neesham, who hasn’t played international cricket since the recurrence of a back injury last November. He is the second player from the squad in India to have fitness issues after Tim Southee had to return home with a ligament strain on his left ankle. Matt Henry was brought in. Squad for first Test: Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling.

Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina will captain the India Red, Blue and Green teams respectively in the upcoming Duleep Trophy, which will be played for the first time with a pink ball, and under lights. The tournament will be held between August 23 and September 14 in Greater Noida, the BCCI announced on Thursday.The league stage will be played in a round-robin format, with each game lasting four days and beginning at 2pm IST. The final will be played from September 10 and will be a five-day match. The tournament was shelved last season due to a busy international calendar.

Duleep Trophy 2016-17 schedule

• August 23-26 – India Red v India Green

• August 29-September 1 – India Red v India Blue

• September 4-7 – India Blue v India Green

• September 10-14 – Final

The Red Team, led by Yuvraj, also includes Punjab allrounder Gurkeerat Singh, Rajasthan fast bowler Nathu Singh and M Ashwin, who had an impressive debut IPL season this year. Shardul Thakur, Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay, who are with the Test squad in the West Indies, have been named in the Blue and Green teams.However, with the Test series set to end on August 22, it is likely that they could be unavailable for the first round. Raina’s selection as captain for India Green also means that is set to miss the two-match T20 series against West Indies in Florida, which will be played on August 27 and 28. Jasprit Bumrah and Ambati Rayudu, who were part of the T20I squad in Zimbabwe, are also likely to miss out, after being named to play for India Green.A BCCI source didn’t rule out the possibility of the likes of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and R Ashwin participating towards the later stages of the tournament, after they’re back from the tour of West Indies and USA.There was speculation about the format and the venues in the lead-up to the tournament, apart from uncertainty whether the board would follow the fixtures committee’s recommendation to play the tournament with a pink ball under lights.With the T20 series in the USA confirmed, and India’s A team on tour in Australia, the number of teams was finally kept to three, with the Greater Noida international stadium chosen as a venue despite earlier suggestions of multiple venues.The tournament is also important from the point of view of trying out the pink ball in Indian conditions. During the BCCI’s annual conclave in Dharamsala in June, board president Anurag Thakur had said that the feedback of players from the tournament would be important to India’s prospects of hosting a day-night Test.Teams: India Red: Abhinav Mukund, KS Bharat, Sudip Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Singh, Yuvraj Singh (capt), Ankush Bains (wk), Arun Karthik, Akshay Wakhare, Kuldeep Yadav, Nathu Singh, Anureet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Nitish Rana, M Ashwin, Abhimanyu Mithun.India Blue: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Sheldon Jackson Baba Aparajith, Siddhesh Lad, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Parvez Rasool, K Monish, Krishna Das, Suryakumar Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Pankaj Singh, Shardul Thakur, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma VihariIndia Green: Robin Uthappa, Jalaj Saxena, Ambati Rayudu, Ian Dev Singh, Rohan Prem, Suresh Raina (capt), Parthiv Patel (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Ashok Dinda, Sandeep Sharma, Ankit Rajpoot, Rajat Paliwal, Jasprit Bumrah, M Vijay

Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman will undergo shoulder surgery on August 11 in London, according to the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Andrew Wallace of London’s Fortius Clinic, who was recommended by the ECB to the Bangladesh board, gave Mustafizur the appointment for the surgery. The recovery time could keep Mustafizur out for at least six months.”The operation will take place in London on August 11,” BCB’s media committee director Jalal Yunus said. “After Mustafizur had met him yesterday, he gave the appointment. We are confident that Mustafizur is in good hands. We want this to get over as soon as possible.”BCB president Nazmul Hassan had said on Tuesday that Mustafizur was sent to Wallace after the surgeon who was the board’s initial choice went on leave. There was talk of sending Mustafizur to Australia for the surgery, too.Mustafizur had complained of pain after his second match for Sussex on July 22. He was ruled out of the rest of their one-day and T20 campaign with a SLAP (Superior Labrum from Anterior to Posterior) tear, and did not return to Bangladesh, instead meeting specialists for the injury to his left shoulder.

ScorecardAlex Lees railed at an umpiring decision•Getty Images

Nottinghamshire may be looking over their shoulders somewhat anxiously in the Championship but their white-ball game is gathering momentum, so much so that their place in the quarter-finals of the NatWest Blast is all but assured with two matches remaining.Their last 10 matches in this competition have included four washouts, more than any other side, yet they have won all of the other six, this one added to the sequence with two balls to spare.After Yorkshire had posted an under-par 160, which was in no small part down to the disciplined bowling of Harry Gurney and Luke Fletcher in particular, Samit Patel’s 58, the highest score of the night, was the crucial innings.Even then, however, Patel’s dismissal in the final over after two Liam Plunkett dot balls caused nerves to jangle before Chris Read drew a deep breath and cracked the winning boundary through square cover.It left Yorkshire’s qualification hanging by a thread, with the probability that they will need to win their three remaining matches to be sure to go through, and Alex Lees, in his first season as captain, was in no mood to take the rough with the smooth, claiming that a contentious umpire’s decision cost them the match.It came in the fifth over of Nottinghamshire’s chase for their 161-run target, when umpire Martin Saggers called no ball for a fielding irregularity, namely that Yorkshire had one too many players outside the circle.Plunkett was bowling to Dan Christian, who ran a single off the no ball. Greg Smith then hit a four from the free hit before Christian swung through the last ball of the over – the extra one in Lees’s eyes – to score six.”We could have done with 10 more runs with the bat and saved 10 in the field, and then we’d have won,” Lees said. “But even with that score it’s boiled down to a terrible decision by the umpire. I don’t know how, from 40 yards away, you can tell if someone is in or out of the ring, and it’s cost us 12 runs.”It was judged that I was out of the ring. I wasn’t out of the ring, and it cost us 12 runs. I think even if someone is out by a yard, can you see that from 40 yards? He said that he watched the bowler from his run-up all the way and said he watched me all the way.”I don’t think he’s doing his job properly if he’s looking at me when the bowler’s bowling. I don’t how he can track it. I don’t know how he can track all seven players in the ring.”Sometimes in cricket they go your way, and unfortunately it went for Notts tonight.”Although emotions run high sometimes in cricket, the comments by Lees were unwise and it would be a surprise if he does not have to account for them with the authorities, given their tough stance on dissent.Mistakes are sometimes made. Later in the innings, for example, Nottinghamshire’s Steven Mullaney had grounds to question how he could be given run out with the naked eye – again by Saggers – when he appeared to have beaten Steve Patterson’s direct hit to the non-striker’s end when Patel sent him back.That could have been a turning point. At that moment, Nottinghamshire were 59 short of their target, with 53 balls left and some restrictive overs by the Yorkshire spinners, Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq, seemed to be tipping the balance in favour of the visiting team.In the event, Patel and Read stepped on the accelerator when Patterson and Tim Bresnan returned, plundering 39 runs in three overs so that three runs were needed off the final six deliveries, in which Nottinghamshire were always likely to get at least one hit off the square.Read finished on 35 not out and Greg Smith’s 32 off as many balls was essential in providing an anchor after Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels failed. Yorkshire’s fielding, on the whole, was excellent.Yorkshire, who had won their last three matches batting first, again backed themselves to set a target they could defend and although Lees was an early casualty, Adam Lyth was in superb touch, the format requiring a change of gear from his double century against Surrey in the Championship but inhibiting him not one jot.Lyth raced to 39 off 20 deliveries, the last 18 of them coming in one dreadful over from Nottinghamshire captain Christian that also conceded five wides. But then Patel, whose own opening over had cost 12 runs, had some revenge when Lyth tried to clear the rope again in the seventh over but, with the field now back, found Imran Tahir on the cover boundary.The left-handed England batsman, whose form this season is being talked about in selectors’ meetings again, gave way to Travis Head, the 22-year-old Australian left-hander, whose debut innings for Yorkshire looked to have set up his new side for a total perhaps in the 180 to 220 range.Head, who made a T20 hundred off 53 balls for Jason Gillespie’s Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash last December, introduced himself by hitting four sixes in a 25-ball blitz that brought him 40 runs, doing most of the damage between the 10th and 12th overs as he launched in turn into Imran Tahir, Patel and Mullaney.He had some luck. Dropped by Patel at long-on off Mullaney on 30, he was fortunate twice more when steepling top-edges fell safely to ground. His luck ran out when the excellent Gurney returned to have him caught at long-on by Riki Wessels.Head’s partnership with Kane Williamson added 67 in 42 deliveries but with the Australian’s dismissal in 14th over went Yorkshire’s momentum. Indeed, there were only two boundaries scored in the last eight overs of the innings and just 38 runs added after Head was out.Nottinghamshire’s bowling was top class. Mullaney dismissed Williamson when a paddle-sweep from the Kiwi found Imran Tahir lurking round the corner and both Gurney and Fletcher did their jobs superbly at the death, giving away only 13 runs between them in the final three overs. Yet Yorkshire’s batting lacked something in finesse.