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Australia’s former captain Ricky Ponting has put his hand up for a role with the national team, expressing interest in either a selection or coaching job in the wake of the side’s present slump. He recently concluded his coaching tenure with Mumbai Indians in the IPL, and there has been some speculation over whether he may be the right man to help drive the Australian team back to better health.”I’d consider it. I said from the moment I retired that Australian cricket is me. I love Australian cricket and some of the guys that are playing now, I played cricket with them,” Ponting told the . “I’m open to discuss any role with Cricket Australia and whatever they come to me with, I’ll talk to my family and if we can make it work then great, because I want the best for Australian cricket and I think I’ve got a lot to offer as far as that’s concerned.”Ponting reflected on the departure of the former selection chairman Rod Marsh and the unforgiving nature of the job. “It’s a tough job and it’s a thankless job as well,” Ponting said. “If you pick a team and it wins, you don’t get any credit, but if you pick a team and it loses all of a sudden you’re the worst in the world.”It’s a huge commitment; a massive time commitment. I’m still incredibly passionate about the game and about Australian cricket, but it’s hard to find a role that’s going to work both for me and for Cricket Australia.”Since his retirement from international cricket in 2012, Ponting has worked in a range of cricket and media roles, and kept in touch with the team. He was among the select circle of people the team performance manager Pat Howard spoke to around the appointment of Darren Lehmann as coach in place of Mickey Arthur in 2013.

It’s been more than two years since South Africa have held a mid-series advantage against anyone but West Indies, so they might be forgiven for not quite knowing what to do with it. With the weather creating the possibility of a shortened Test match, should they let Australia chase the game, and the series, and come after them? Or with the unknown of a day-night Test awaiting in Adelaide, should they go all out and aim to seal the series here in Hobart?The captain, Faf du Plessis, has hinted at the latter and said even though South Africa thrives when they up against it, he hopes they can add a more attacking dimension to their strong defensive game.”We rely quite heavily on being a very resilient team,” du Plessis said. “We’re full of resilient players and personalities. If you look back on past performances here’s been a lot of occasions when we are really under massive pressure and somehow a few of the guys who are really resilient fight really hard to get back in the game. That’s always been a strong trait of this team.”We’re also trying to add being a little bit more positive to that. Resilience generally comes from a position of defence, when you’re in trouble. So we trying to make sure that we can be a little bit stronger by putting teams in that position first and not be them doing it to us.”This South African team has little experience of asserting themselves on the opposition. Since Graeme Smith’s retirement in March 2014, they only time they’ve done that away from home was immediately afterwards, when they toured Sri Lanka later that year. South Africa won the Galle Test convincingly to lead the two-match series 1-0. The victory proved crucial when they were in early trouble in Colombo after conceding a first-innings deficit of 139 runs, but rain and a stubborn effort from Hashim Amla and the tail helped them hold out for a draw and take the series.Since then, South Africa have also beaten Zimbabwe in a one-off Test and West Indies at home, but lost to India and England. At home against New Zealand this year, the first of two Tests was a wash-out, and South Africa won the second. Now, after their win in Perth, they find themselves ahead mid-series for the first time since 2014. At the WACA, they put up one of their strongest fightbacks, but now du Plessis is seeking a slight switching of gears to keep the pressure on Australia.For that to happen, South Africa require players who can adapt and du Plessis thinks they’ve already shown they have that because of how they respond when under the pump. “Generally guys that can adapt better in themselves are the guys who are better in those situations,” he said. “You get players that play one certain way and that’s the way they play.”Resilience is being able to adapt to a position of what the team needs to do rather than what you as a player want to do. I can name a lot of our players who can do that. It’s great asset to have.”Now South Africa need to show they can go the other way as effectively, like they did in Perth. “If you want to win Test matches you’re going to get small opportunities in the match the whole time when it’s 50-50,” du Plessis said. “Either you as a team take that pressure and get through that moment and play well through that to get on top again, or you don’t and then you fall behind the game.”Luckily for us in the previous Test match we could do that a little bit more often than Australia did. They had that opportunity and they let it slip and we did really well to keep that momentum for the rest of the four days.”The lesson South Africa gained from the way they took the game forward in Perth is that they are capable of dominating again, even without some of their superstars. Hobart is about showing it was not a once-off and that they have taken the leap from transitioning to transitioned and can progress as a unit.”It just comes with confidence. That’s something you have to go through a few times to learn how to get out of it. We as a team have been through it a lot of times,” du Plessis said. “Our team is very well balanced with young and older guys at the moment. But the more we play together as a test team the better we’ll get, because we’re still quite inexperienced as a Test team.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDevendra Bishoo collected career-best figures of 8 for 49•AFP

A 16-wicket day brought the Dubai day-night Test to life as Pakistan’s 400th Test swung one way and then the other. After Yasir Shah’s three wickets – which brought him a five-wicket haul and his 100th Test scalp – helped Pakistan secure a 222-run first-innings lead, Devendra Bishoo hit back with a career-best 8 for 49 to skittle Pakistan for 123 and leave West Indies with an outside chance of victory.West Indies lost Kraigg Brathwaite early in their chase of 346, before Leon Johnson and Darren Bravo shared a 60-run stand to lift the team. But Johnson’s late dismissal and Marlon Samuels’ early struggles against the legspin of Yasir served a reminder that West Indies still had an uphill task on the final day.Having declined to impose the follow-on, Pakistan chased quick runs and lost two early wickets before tea. Sami Aslam and Babar Azam added 57 off 70 balls after the interval to steady the innings and swiftly build the lead. But Bishoo then benefitted from some ambitious shots, and some good, spinning deliveries to rip through Pakistan, taking seven of the eight wickets that fell either side of the dinner break.With the score at 77 for 2 and the lead at 299, Azam played a loose cross-batted shot onto his stumps off Bishoo. Aslam played a late cut into the hands of Jermaine Blackwood at first slip and Misbah-ul-Haq was bowled after missing a slog sweep. The left-handed Mohammad Nawaz shouldered arms to his third ball, only to see a fizzing leg break cannon into his off stump. When Wahab Riaz miscued a slog sweep to Brathwaite at deep midwicket, Bishoo had his sixth of the innings. Jason Holder then had Yasir caught and bowled off the last ball before dinner.Bishoo wrapped up the innings within five balls of the resumption, getting Sarfraz Ahmed stumped, before hitting Mohammad Amir’s middle stump, his fourth bowled dismissal of the innings. That capped a collapse of eight wickets for 46 runs. Bishoo’s plunder and Pakistan’s slump still left West Indies with a daunting target, but they could hardly have dreamed of a better outcome at the start of the day.Day four had begun much as day three had done – with an early wicket for Yasir. A very full legbreak pitched just in line with the stumps and spun in before hitting the batsman’s pads. Dowrich had played across the line and missed.Bishoo and Holder then survived a stern short-ball examination from Amir and Wahab, putting on a 21-run stand that raised West Indies’ hopes of extending their resistance. That was not to be – Yasir got through Holder’s defences with a tossed-up googly and then bowled Miguel Cummins with a big-spinning leg break that evaded the batsman’s wild swipe. That was Yasir’s 100th Test wicket, in his 17th match, making him the joint-second fastest bowler to the mark. Nawaz finished the job in the next over. It had taken Pakistan just 14.5 overs to take the remaining four wickets, bowling West Indies out for 357.West Indies responded by making a couple of breakthroughs before tea. Shannon Gabriel trapped first-innings triple-centurion Azhar Ali in front for 2, a ball after Azhar had successfully reviewed a caught-behind decision. Then Asad Shafiq missed an attempted sweep off Bishoo and, while West Indies’ appeal for lbw was turned down, their review was successful.After tea, Gabriel and Cummins subjected Aslam and Azam to the type of short-ball barrage with which Pakistan had exposed the West Indies batsmen. While Aslam held his own, Azam struggled, showing a tendency to take his eyes off the ball. A Cummins bouncer hurried Azam into a top-edged hook that went high in the air between Gabriel at long leg and Brathwaite at deep-backward square. It was probably Brathwaite’s catch, but Gabriel went for it and could not hold on after a full-length dive.Cummins bounced Azam again in the next over and the batsman half-swayed and half-ducked while leaving his bat in the air. The ball brushed his glove on the way to the wicketkeeper, but Azam survived once again when replays revealed that the bowler had overstepped. Azam eventually got out to Bishoo, precipitating Pakistan’s collapse as the legspinner from Guyana went on the rampage. West Indies then moved to 95 for 2 by the close.While a wicket-filled day brought West Indies back into the match, they will require the balance to shift back in favour of the batsmen if they are to score the 251 more runs needed for victory on a fifth-day Dubai pitch.

South Africa’s captain AB de Villiers has been ruled out of the home ODI series and away Test series against Australia because of a persistent elbow injury. He will have surgery early next week and will need eight to ten weeks of recovery time.”AB has failed to come through his fitness test this morning,” Mohammad Moosajee, SA team manager said. “Although the physio strapped his elbow while he was batting and he did have some relief with some shots, the elbow pain has not gone away completely.”When the initial injury was discovered, the issue was that he was having impingement with certain shots. With that in mind, we advocated a period of rest, he has seen the physiotherapist for treatment, he received some bio-kinetics and rehab, and also saw an elbow specialist for the infiltration of cortisone. In most cases, you get resolving of symptoms within six weeks. This did not take place, so we gave him an extra week to see if it would recover.

Updated ODI squad for Australia series

Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn

“This morning, he had a couple of throwdowns. The elbow was strapped and he had some symptom relief. He probably felt about 80% better than without the strapping. But knowing AB, the complete cricketer that he is, he wants to make sure none of his shots are restricted. With that in mind, we decided on surgery and to give him adequate time to recover so he doesn’t hamper his career going forward.”The recovery is anything between eight to ten weeks and we are hopeful he will recover for the Sri Lanka series in December.”De Villiers will sit out the five home ODIs – beginning on September 30 – and the three Tests in Australia in November, one of which will be South Africa’s maiden day-night fixture. He also missed the two Tests against New Zealand in August and the one-off ODI against Ireland because of the injury.AB de Villiers has not led South Africa in a Test since he was named captain•Getty Images

Moosajee clarified that de Villiers’ injury was not a tennis elbow, a condition that former cricketers Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar had suffered from during their careers. He said that the workload for top players was a concern and Cricket South Africa was looking into how to manage them better.”In any sportsman’s life, he is going to encounter some form of injury. There is no doubt that sometimes it’s overload or overuse,” Moosajee said. “But the load of cricket there is, is something CSA is looking at seriously.”Generally, our season is eight to nine months. Most of the guys go and play in the IPL as well. We need to make sure the guys are injury free, that they have no niggles before we release them, and we need to make sure we restrict them from playing in the other leagues if they are carrying a niggle, or if workload dictates that they need a rest.”Rilee Rossouw will remain with the ODI squad for the series against Australia, while Faf du Plessis is likely to lead the Test squad in Australia. “Faf has led the team, he will do the same in the ODI series against Australia,” Moosajee said. “And I have no doubt he will carry on for another series.”

Australia have conceded the No. 1 Test ranking to India after losing all three Tests on their tour of Sri Lanka. Virat Kohli’s team – currently ahead of Pakistan by one point – must win the fourth Test against West Indies, beginning on August 18 in Trinidad, to retain their top ranking.Australia slipped to No. 3 after the 163-run defeat at the SSC; they had begun the series with 118 points but finished the contest just ahead of England, who also have 108 points at No. 4, on the ICC’s rankings.As a result of Australia being whitewashed 3-0, Pakistan have risen to No. 2, having drawn their four-Test tour of England 2-2. Should India fail to beat West Indies in Trinidad, Pakistan will become the No. 1 ranked Test side for the first time.Sri Lanka’s performance led to them over-taking South Africa to move into sixth place with 95 points. They had begun the home series against Australia at No. 7 with 85 points.ICC Test rankings 1 India (112 points), 2 Pakistan (111), 3 Australia (108), 4 England (108), 5 New Zealand (99), 6 Sri Lanka (95), 7 South Africa (92), 8 West Indies (65), 9 Bangladesh (57), 10 Zimbabwe (8)

Ireland have announced an ODI against West Indies against in September next year and have also confirmed the schedule for the tri-series in May involving New Zealand and Bangladesh.West Indies will play their match on September 13 ahead of the one-day series against England later that month. It will be the first time they have met since Ireland beat West Indies by four wickets in Nelson during the 2015 World Cup.It will also bring Phil Simmons, the former Ireland coach who is now in charge of West Indies, back to face his former charges.”I’m really looking forward to bringing the West Indies team to Ireland,” said Simmons. “I had eight great years there as coach and made some lasting friendships as well as winning trophies. It should be a tough contest and Irish conditions will be ideal in helping our preparations for England.”The tri-series in May will be part of the preparation for New Zealand and Bangladesh ahead of the Champions Trophy.Ireland take on Bangladesh in the first game on May 12 before facing New Zealand two days later.New Zealand and Bangladesh go head-to-head on May 17, with Ireland playing Bangladesh for a second time on May 19.Ireland’s final game is against New Zealand on May 21, with the last game in the series between New Zealand and Bangladesh taking place on May 24.Ireland will begin their 2017 season with a two-match series against England with matches at Lord’s and Bristol.

ScorecardAzhar Ali found some timely form ahead of the third Test•Getty Images

Shan Masood all but confirmed his place in the Pakistan side for the third Test at Edgbaston with a patient half-century in the tour game against Worcestershire.Masood, who has looked less than immoveable at the top of the order in the Test series, came into the game under a little pressure, but easily out-scored his most obvious rival for a spot, Sami Aslam, and has almost certainly done enough to retain his spot.That news may not cause any sleepless nights for James Anderson. He has dismissed Masood, who has scored 71 in four innings this series, in all six innings in which they have confronted one another in Test cricket and on four of those occasions he has failed to pass 2.But here, confronted by a modest attack and a painfully slow pitch being used for the second time in a week (it was described by Azhar Ali as “a very tired pitch”), he took the opportunity to gain some time at the crease and build some confidence with a determined innings that belied the low-key nature of this two-day contest.There was one nervous moment early on when he played and missed at Charlie Morris on 1 and another on 52 when Morris put down a tough chance at backward square leg off George Rhodes’ offspin. But in between times he demonstrated patience – he did not score his second run until his 27th delivery and it took him 124 balls to reach his half-century – some familiar nicely timed strokes off his legs and one pleasing off-drive against the medium pace of Alex Hepburn.Aslam may reflect that he has not been given the best opportunity to shine on this tour. Having not played a first-class game since December, he had had to wait until now for his first innings of the tour and, having clubbed the first boundary of the innings – a lofted drive over mid-on off the out of sorts Jack Shantry – from the penultimate ball of the 14th over, then followed one angled across him and edged to slip. Aslam may look back on this as a frustrating tour but, aged just 20, he has time on his side. Pakistan also hope to bat again in the latter stages of the second day of this game, so he should have one more opportunity to impress.There were also runs for Azhar. He is captain in this game in place of the rested Misbah-ul-Haq and has also endured a modest start to the series – he has scored 39 in four innings – but here he looked a class above in making an accomplished 81 that included a straight six off Rhodes and a slogged four through midwicket to bring up his half-century from 103 deliveries. “Teams do work you out in international cricket,” he said afterwards when asked about England’s bowlers exploiting his habit of falling over towards the off side. “You need to cope with it.”While Worcestershire are close to full strength – Brett D’Oliverira, who has just signed a three-year contract extension with the club, and Ben Cox and Joe Leach, who have both played every game this season, were the only three rested – this was a used surface and their attack is a good deal more sedate than the one Pakistan will experience at Edgbaston next week. Three of them – Rhodes, Hepburn and Alexei Kervezee – have nine first-class wickets between them, while Ed Barnard is just 20.Barnard can bowl, though. He produced a beauty to account for Azhar- the ball reversed just enough to clip the top of off stump – and, as he grows and strengthens, looks as if he could be a good prospect.The decision to rest Cox provided an opportunity for Joe Clarke, arguably the most talented 20-year-old batsman in England, to keep wicket and although he fumbled a couple of times, he took a nice catch to end Masood’s innings as the batsman skipped down the pitch, was beaten by some turn and edged his attempted drive.That allowed Mohammad Rizwan to compile an unbeaten 49 full of elegant strokes – his late cut and sweep, in particular – and Iftikhar Ahmed, whose first scoring stroke was a slightly mis-hit six off Kervezee, to make an unbeaten 41 in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 80 before the declaration. Younis Khan, slightly surprisingly given his form, was rested but batted in the nets. This two-day game does not have first-class status so there is some potential for the teams to change on the second day, though both sides have said they will resist that temptation.Meanwhile, Mohammad Hafeez worked with Carl Crowe, the former county spinner turned coach, in the nets. Crowe helped Sunil Narine re-model his action after it was deemed illegal and is trying to help Hafeez through a similar process now. As yet, though, there is no re-test booked for Hafeez and, until there is, he cannot be cleared to bowl in a match. As a result, it seems there is no chance of him bowling in the third Test and very little in the final Test.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJason Mohammad hit six fours during his unbeaten 42 off 29 balls•CPL/Sportsfile

Jason Mohammed steered Guyana Amazon Warriors to a thrilling four-wicket win over St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in Basseterre after Dwayne Smith laid the platform for the chase of 165 with a scorching 62 off 36.Smith’s pyrotechnics in the first 10 overs included three fours and five sixes, and helped the visitors race to 91 by the halfway stage of their innings. However, his dismissal off the first legitimate ball of the 11th over enabled Patriots to claw their way back with regular strikes. Chris Lynn was run out two balls after Smith’s departure, while Chris Barnwell and Anthony Bramble nicked behind.With Amazon Warriors still requiring 30 off the last three overs, Mohammed took charge. He did so with aplomb, finding timely boundaries as the Patriots pacers missed their lengths in the slog overs. With two needed off two, Mohammed mistimed a slog towards midwicket, but Faf du Plessis, sprinting in from the deep, could not hold on to the catch and the batsmen scampered through for two to seal victory with a ball to spare. Mohammed finished with an unbeaten 42 off 29 balls.Earlier, Sohail Tanvir was Amazon Warriors’ hero with the ball. The left-arm seamer began with a maiden, which included the wicket of Lendl Simmons for a five-ball duck. Tanvir was then re-introduced in the closing overs and conceded only 12 runs in his last two overs, while taking three wickets, including those of set batsmen Devon Thomas and Thisara Perera. Tanvir finished with figures of 4 for 20 while Australia legspinner Adam Zampa took 3 for 34 on CPL debut.While middle-order cameos from Thomas, Perera and Brad Hodge helped Patriots to to 164 for 9, that total proved to be not quite enough in the end.

After a one-hour delay to the start of the game, UAE won the toss and opted to bowl against Pakistan in a must-win game for both teams in the Asia Cup in Dubai. PCB cleared the Pakistan team to play after the board claimed that match referee Pycroft had apologised to their players for his actions during the India-Pakistan game on Sunday.UAE captain Muhammad Waseem expected dew to play a part and confirmed that Simranjeet Singh replaced Muhammad Jawadullah.”We will try to restrict them,” Waseem said. “It is a do-or-die game. We will take advantage. We had a good game in Abu Dhabi; this is a different game.”Related

• PCB clears Pakistan to play UAE; says Pycroft apologised

UAE’s decision went down well with Pakistan, who wanted to bat first anyway. Pakistan made two changes to the side that lost to India on Sunday, with Haris Rauf and Khushdil Shah coming in. They replaced Sufiyan Muqeem and Faheem Ashraf.One of these two teams will be eliminated after Wednesday’s result. Both sides beat Oman comfortably and lost to India, making this fixture in Dubai a knockout game: the winner joins India in the Super Four, while the loser exits.UAE: 1 Alishan Sharafu, 2 Muhammad Waseem (capt), 3 Asif Khan, 4 Muhammad Zohaib, 5 Harshit Kaushik, 6 Rahul Chopra (wk), 7 Dhruv Parashar, 8 Haider Ali, 9 Muhammad Rohid Khan, 10 Simranjeet Singh, 11 Junaid SiddiquePakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Sahibzada Farhan, 3 Mohammad Haris (wk), 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Salman Agha (capt), 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Hasan Nawaz, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed

India are likely to play the upcoming Asia Cup without a lead sponsor following Dream 11’s withdrawal from its contract with the BCCI last month.On September 2, the BCCI began the process to secure a new sponsor by releasing an invitation for expression of interest for the lead sponsorship rights of the national team. The last date for interested parties to purchase the expression of interest is September 12 and the deadline to submit a bid is September 16. The Asia Cup begins on September 9 and concludes on September 28.The need for a new team sponsor arose after the Indian government passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming bill last month prohibiting real-money gaming, which was Dream 11’s core business. Following that development Dream 11 communicated to the BCCI that it would have to pull out of its contract, which contained an exit clause to account for such government regulations. Dream XI’s contract was until 2026 and was worth USD 44 million (INR 358 crore approximately).The BCCI has been confronted with the challenge of finding a new lead sponsor after the incumbent pulled out mid-contract previously as well. The most recent instance was in 2019, when mobile company OPPO withdrew three years before its contract was scheduled to end. Educational technology company Byju’s filled the breach before Dream 11 made a successful bid for a three-year deal in 2023.In its invitation for expressions for interest for a new team sponsor, the BCCI specified that alcohol brands, betting or gambling services, cryptocurrency, online money gaming, tobacco brands, or any product or service likely to “offend public morals such as, including but not limited to, pornography” were not eligible to submit a bid.The Indian team is scheduled to leave on September 4 for the United Arab Emirates, where they are grouped with Oman, Pakistan and UAE in Group A of the tournament. They play UAE and Pakistan in Dubai on September 10 and 14, and then play Oman in Abu Dhabi on September 19.Group B comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. The top two teams from each group qualify for the Super Four stage, and the teams that finish one and two in that round will contest the final on September 28.