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Pakistan have made significant gains in the next FTP schedule – they will now play at least 121 games, up from the 104 that were allocated to them last week

Osman Samiuddin19-Dec-2017The PCB made considerable gains in its scheduling for a new Future Tours Programme (FTP) during a workshop held in Singapore earlier this month. Last week ESPNcricinfo reported on a version of the FTP that Full Members took into the workshop, held on December 7 and 8.By the end of the meeting members produced an updated FTP in which there were minor adjustments to the total commitments of most members. The biggest gains from that meeting, however, were for the PCB. The earlier FTP showed 104 internationals scheduled for Pakistan between May 2019 and May 2023. The updated version has them playing 121 internationals – they have two Tests, five ODIs and 10 T20Is more than in the earlier FTP.That total puts them on a more even footing with countries such as Australia (123), Bangladesh (124), South Africa (122) and New Zealand (119). It is not yet clear who the extra matches have been arranged against. The FTP will likely undergo further tweaks – though not significant ones – as members aim to present a final version at an ICC board meeting in February.Not included in the PCB’s totals is a bilateral arrangement with Cricket West Indies (CWI), which will mean more limited-overs games in the four-year period. The PCB is also thought to be involved in discussions with members for limited-overs tri-series in the next cycle.Add to that Asia Cup matches (which are not included in the FTP total) plus the obligatory ICC tournaments and they could end up not far below the number of internationals they are scheduled to end with in the current FTP (from May 2014 to May 2019): 183. There is also the pending matter of 19 matches against India, from an earlier agreement, the fate of which rests on an ICC dispute resolution process.The PCB will play 30 Tests in the new FTP, a number that officials say could have been higher had there not been three ICC tournaments in the cycle that run through the Pakistan home season, as well as an expanded six-week window for the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The World T20 in Australia in 2020 is scheduled for October-November that year, as is the Champions Trophy in India the following year (though neither tournament, traditionally, lasts that long), and the 2023 World Cup in India is across February-March. In fact, the latter will require a shifting of the PSL window for that year, likely to be brought forward.In any case, the PCB has been eager to emphasise that its engagements in the new FTP will be about quality of contest rather than quantity. Opponents have been classified on the basis of the value they provide to a broadcast deal – by the PCB’s working, 46% of their total home games in the next FTP will be against high-value opponents (Australia, South Africa, England and Bangladesh), 30% against mid-value opponents such as New Zealand and West Indies and the remaining against low-value teams such as Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan. Nearly half of Pakistan’s away matches, it calculates, are against high-value opponents.Once a version of the FTP is approved at the February meetings, it will go through a vote at the ICC’s annual general meeting in June.The four-year FTP is built around two cycles of a two-year Test league, with nine teams in it. Each team is required to play six series over two years, with the top-two sides meeting in a Test championship final in June 2021.The calendar also includes a two-year ODI league of 13 teams, which will lead into qualification for the 2023 World Cup. The Test league starts with the new FTP in May 2019, but the ODI league begins the following year (because of pre-existing commitments between sides that run from the current FTP into the start of the new one).

South Africa’s stand-in captain Faf du Plessis wants to see his boys also win the body-language battle ahead of the Test series

Firdose Moonda11-Oct-2016In targeting a clean-sweep over Australia, Faf du Plessis has promised South Africa will assert themselves with more than just bat and ball in Cape Town on Wednesday. South Africa’s stand-in captain wants to see his boys also win the body-language battle ahead of the three-Test series in Australia starting November 3.”As a captain, its important the intensity we play at. That does not always mean verbally, it’s body language and the way you carry yourself on the field,” du Plessis said. “When there is a battle that asks for another battle to come their way, that will happen. We are a team that will stand up against that. If that’s required of us as a team, we will also go into that space, but its a very focused and channeled aggression; more of a body language thing.

Important to build a pool of pacers – Saker

Australia’s assistant coach David Saker has given a vote of confidence to the rookie bowlers who have come under attack on this trip. Chris Tremain, Joe Mennie and Daniel Worrall are all on their first tour with the national side.
“I don’t think they’ve marked their card, it’s obviously a very hard place to come and bowl and their batting team has been amazing,”he said. “I think Chris Tremain has shown some really good things, Scott Boland the other day was really good.
“More the number of fast bowlers you’ve got, better it is, because of the injuries. they are one part of your team that does get injuries. So if you can add people to your fast bowling group all the time, it’s always very, very important.”

The only real needle in the ODIs so far came in Port Elizabeth when Matthew Wade and Tabraiz Shamsi had a verbal exchange that earned both of them a a 25% fine of match fee along with one demerit point. Talk became action when Wade took a single and made no effort to avoid running into Shamsi, who protested.Du Plessis took it up with the umpires but was proud of how Shamsi stood up. “It’s just showing the opposition you are here to play, no matter how many games you have played,” du Plessis said. “Shamsi has only played three ODIs but he showed he is there to compete, no matter who is on the other side. It was good to see we can also step it up in that department.”In the other departments, South Africa have exceeded expectation by dominating against the top-ranked ODI side, which is without their first-choice pace pack. However, du Plessis chose not to dwell on that, instead emphasising on how South Africa have out-batted Australia.”I am really impressed with the style of cricket we’ve played,” he said. “The first game set the tone for us where Quinton played one of the best one-day knocks you will see and then out-batting has been a level above what we’ve seen in the past. If you compare that to their batting, which is just as strong possibly on paper, maybe even stronger but they haven’t matched up with our batters at all. We haven’t allowed them to compete at times and even when they looked like they were going to compete, we stuck in and waited for the opportunity.”The third game in Durban was where Australia threatened their biggest comeback. Their only centuries came in that match as they piled on 371 for 6 before reducing South Africa to 217 for 5. Yet, South Africa found a way, which du Plessis was proud of.”In Durban, they were all over us and nine times out of ten, you should lose games like that. It took something magnificent for us to win and it’s happening more regularly in this team that guys are doing amazing things,” he said. “The style of cricket we have played has been a new level, hopefully that’s something we can drive forward. We need to make sure we keep playing like that because that’s the style I would like us to play.”South Africa started the season with a culture camp that addressed their dramatic slide from No. 1 to No. 6 in the Test rankings last summer and their early exit from the World T20. They decided on what they’ve termed a “different direction”, which is not about individuals but the collective, aiming to go “where no other South African team have been”.”We want to reach higher levels and achieve greater things than anyone else. From that perspective 5-0 is very important,” du Plessis said. “The fact that the Test series comes straight after this and 60% to 70% of both teams’ players are the same, the motivation of 5-0 will mean a lot to me.”

The most pressing issue on the agenda is likely to be a decision on the two suspended teams in the IPL – Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals- and a discussion on the intricacies of the Lodha Committee’s order

Arun Venugopal08-Oct-2015The BCCI’s working committee will meet on October 18 in Mumbai, for the first time since the death of Jagmohan Dalmiya and Shashank Manohar’s subsequent election as president. The most pressing issue on the agenda is likely to be a decision on the suspended owners of two IPL teams – Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals- and a discussion on the intricacies of the Lodha Committee’s order.A BCCI official confirmed the development and said the agenda was likely to be the same as the one that had been originally chalked out for the Kolkata meeting on August 27, but that had been adjourned due to confusion over the legality of N Srinivasan’s presence.

The issues on BCCI’s plate

• Decision on the two suspended IPL franchise owners

• Fixing the date of the board’s annual general meeting

• Looking into the bottle-throwing incident in Cuttack

• Decision on moving National Cricket Academy out of Bangalore

• Formalising contracts to women cricketers

The working committee meeting will also fix a date for the board’s annual general meeting. The decks for conducting the AGM have been cleared after the Supreme Court, while dismissing BCCI’s plea seeking clarification on Srinivasan’s presence at its meetings, asked the BCCI to stick to its stand of not allowing him to attend the meetings due to his alleged conflict of interest.A working group that was set up in July to formulate guidelines for the IPL’s future conduct is also likely to submit its report at this meeting. The group comprises IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, legal advisor Ushanath Banerjee and former India captain Sourav Ganguly.The working committee meeting, which can’t be held before October 16 with Thakur going to Dubai later this week for the ICC Chief Executives’ Committee meet, may also decide on possible action against Odisha Cricket Association regarding the bottle-throwing incident in Cuttack.There may also be clarifications made on the document seeking no conflict of interest declarations, after four BCCI members sought explanation on its scope.The working committee is also likely to confirm the finance committee’s decision to award central contracts to women cricketers, the first time India’s women players will have annual retainers. Also, there may be a discussion on whether the National Cricket Academy will be moved out of Bangalore. The NCA board had shortlisted Pune, Mohali and Dharamsala as alternative venues, but Pune has already opted out.The conundrum surrounding India’s coaching staff – another issue that was up for discussion in Kolkata – has been sorted, at least in the near future, with Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Bangar, B Arun and R Sridhar receiving extensions till the end of the World T20 in April 2016.However, the major issue that couldn’t be resolved in August was the ratification of the technical committee’s decision to introduce new points system in the Ranji Trophy and changes to the format of domestic one-day and T20 tournaments. With the Indian domestic season having begun already, all new implementations will have to wait at least another year.

Both sides picked three seamers but even on the opening day in Colombo the standout bowler was Ranaga Herath

The Report by Siddarth Ravindran16-Mar-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Rangana Herath took his 15th five-wicket haul•Associated Press

In Galle, the score at the end of day one was 361 for 3. At the R Premadasa Stadium, 11 wickets went down on day one. The track in Galle was so lifeless that it drove fans to boredom. The Premadasa pitch wasn’t as free-scoring, but the lethargic surface didn’t have too much in it for the bowlers either.Both sides picked three seamers – one more than they usually do in the subcontinent – but even on the opening day the standout performer was Rangana Herath, Sri Lanka’s lone spinner and their most bankable bowler of recent years.In 2011, 33-year-old Herath’s career was on the rocks with Sri Lanka seeming to have a plethora of young spinners, but improbably, over the past two years he developed into one of the leading bowlers in the world. He showcased some of that skill on Saturday, with his 15th five-wicket haul, which restricted Bangladesh to 240, and put Sri Lanka ahead in a match they desperately need to win; anything less will mean they have botched the easiest assignment going around in Test cricket.Though the Bangladesh batting subsided without putting up a testing total, the good news for their fans is that two of the younger batsmen were the highest scorers. Twenty-one-year-old Mominul Haque again showed the poise he had in his debut Test to score his second consecutive half-century, while Nasir Hossain burnished his reputation as one of their most reliable batsmen, with a battling 48 – only the second time in his last seven Test innings that he hasn’t scored a half-century.The batsmen found it difficult to time the ball on the slow pitch and the sluggish outfield meant that threes were almost as common as boundaries. Still, when Mohammad Ashraful and Jahurul Islam were comfortably playing out everything Sri Lanka threw at them in the first session, Angelo Mathews may have been pondering whether opting to bowl was the wisest move, but by tea Bangladesh had lost half their side and reached only 155.Though Bangladesh were bolstered by the return of the experienced Tamim Iqbal from injury, he didn’t last long as he missed the first ball Nuwan Kulasekara bowled from round the stumps to be trapped lbw for 10 in the seventh over.Jahurul played like an old-school opener early on, prepared to grind it out on a pitch where run-making wasn’t easy. Ashraful was also cautious, not dipping into his repertoire of flamboyant shots in his one-hour stay. Bangladesh made slow-and-steady progress to 50 for 1, and had got through the difficult early phase. Just when you thought the two settled batsmen could cash in, Ashraful threw away his wicket, with a lackadaisical bit of running. While completing a quick single, he was looking back to see where the throw from Shaminda Eranga was headed; the throw was arrowing towards the stumps and it caught Ashraful short.Mominul’s entrance picked up the tempo for Bangladesh as he and Jahurul went for their shots after lunch. With the fast bowlers attempting some short deliveries, Jahurul countered with the pull shot. For Mominul the area around point was a profitable one, and Bangladesh went along at nearly four an over early in the second session. Once again just as a partnership was developing, Sri Lanka struck. Eranga, the pick of the quicks after lunch, had Jahurul chasing a ball wide outside off, nicking to the keeper for 33.Though Mominul top socred, it wasn’t exactly a chanceless innings. Soon after Ashraful’s dismissal, Mominul could have also been run out off a direct hit, just making his ground on 5, then survived a close lbw call off Suranga Lakmal, and nearly chipped a catch back to the bowler Herath. In between though, there were some assured strokes, including a punch past mid-off for four and a take-that pull off Lakmal.Even after Jahurul’s exit, Bangladesh had moved along to a reasonable 128 for 3, but their position was quickly undermined as they lost both their captain and vice-captain before tea. Mahmudullah was smartly snapped up by Mathews at slip after the edge popped up off the wicketkeeper’s pads, and Mushfiqur Rahim was regularly troubled by Herath before being bowled for 7.When Mominul was caught-behind in the second over of the third session, Bangladesh were 163 for 6 and a quick finish to the innings loomed. Nasir and Sohag Gazi, though, went after the spinners to put on 59, the largest stand of the innings before Herath outwitted Gazi, and the new ball helped Sri Lanka polish off the tail.Bangladesh got the dangerous Tillakaratne Dilshan in the four over before stumps, but tomorrow will be a huge challenge for their three-pronged pace attack that has little in the way of Test credentials.

The second match of the evening too didn’t produce an evenly matched contest as Chittagong Kings’ 206 proved too much for Duronto Rajshahi

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2012
ScorecardThe second match of the evening too didn’t produce an evenly matched contest as Chittagong Kings’ 206 proved too much for Duronto Rajshahi. Nasir Jamshed smashed 56 while Mahmudullah and Jason Roy hit 43 each to bring up the first 200-plus score of the tournament.Jamshed smashed three sixes and five fours in his knock. England’s Roy hit the same number of sixes in his 25-ball knock. Both Roy and Jamshed departed before the 15th over, setting the platform for Mahmudullah and Dwayne Bravo to unleash their fireworks. Bravo hit a 19-ball 38 to go with his partner’s 18-ball unbeaten 43.Bravo was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 for 17. He truck twice in the first over of the innings and that set Rajshahi back in their chase. They failed to string together partnerships the highest being 60 for the third wicket between Abdul Razzaq and Junaid Siddique. The next highest stand was 27, for the seventh. Rajshahi also found it difficult to get on top of the spin duo of Enamul Haque jnr and Muttiah Muralitharan.

The Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Columbo will host the two World Cup 2011 warm-up matches that had been scheduled to take place at Pallekele in Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Feb-2011The Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Columbo will host the two World Cup 2011 warm-up matches that had been scheduled to take place at Pallekele in Sri Lanka. The ICC said in a statement that it had also considered Hambantota as an alternate venue, but heavy rain in the southern Sri Lankan region ruled out that option.The two games, Sri Lanka versus the Netherlands on February 12, and Kenya versus the Netherlands on February 15, will be day games. This does not affect the three tournament fixtures scheduled to take place at Pallekele in March.The decision to move the games from Pallekele was made following a recommendation by ICC pitch consultant Andy Atkinson after he inspected the venue on Wednesday. Heavy rain in the region had affected the preparation of the pitches.

Amit Mishra, who had struggled to buy a wicket until the penultimate day of the series, provided two inspirational moments just before two breaks to keep India hopeful

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga17-Feb-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
HawkeyeAmit Mishra provided two big breakthroughs•AFP

Amit Mishra, who had struggled to buy a wicket until the penultimate day of the series, provided two inspirational moments just before two session breaks to keep alive India’s hopes of a win on a day that they could managed only 157 minutes of play. Hashim Amla, who had scored 367 runs in two innings before this, was made to dig deep into his patience and skill reserves, and will be hoping he has more in the tank. India would have been much more comfortably placed despite bad light and rain had M Vijay held on to a sharp chance from Amla at backward short leg.On a riveting, if truncated, day’s play India couldn’t manage wickets in a hurry but got three of them at regular intervals. Graeme Smith came out bull-headed and, along with Alviro Petersen, almost batted out the one-hour first session. Five minutes before the break, though, Mishra got him with his first delivery. In the second session, Harbhajan Singh, looking menacing with almost every delivery, got Petersen early. Amla and Jacques Kallis looked pretty comfortable for 16 overs, but in deteriorating light Mishra got Kallis with a beauty minutes before the players walked off.Zaheer Khan got an iffy moment each out of Smith and Petersen in the first few overs, but wasn’t helped by the inexplicable choice of just two slips and a gully in his third over. Petersen survived then, but it was Harbhajan – opening the bowling – who looked the most difficult to negotiate.Harbhajan tested both the batsmen with his drift and dip, and the bounce that the pitch has provided on each of the four days. Smith made sure he didn’t repeat the mistake Ashwell Prince and JP Duminy committed in the first innings. His first instinct was to play at every delivery, but he watched the rotations closely, and only if certain of an offbreak he left it alone. Against Zaheer, Smith took a middle and off guard, covering the stumps better, preventing a repeat of the earlier two dismissals.Against Mishra, though, it seemed Smith let the guard down, and paid for it. He played all around an accurate legbreak, missed, and was trapped in front. India went in to the break a confident side, and came out a confident side.Just before the break, Harbhajan had got one to bounce and break at Petersen, but there was no backward short leg to take the catch. In his first over after lunch, he nearly got Amla who swept at a full delivery and somehow managed to get an inside edge. In his second, the inevitable Harbhajan dismissal arrived, with another ball turning in sharply to Petersen, and taking the bat and pad. It took a smart catch from forward short leg S Badrinath, though, who went up high to his right, parried it, and then recovered quickly to take the rebound.Harbhajan was on a roll, and in his third over after the break, got an inside edge from Amla, but Vijay couldn’t get down in time. It was the 20th over of the innings, and the Amla-Kallis partnership had hardly even begun. After that and before the eventual Kallis dismissal, neither of the batsmen struggled.Ishant Sharma’s bouncer ploy didn’t work: Amla swayed away easily, Kallis pulled him. Harbhajan was swept regularly by Amla, and easily defended by Kallis. Zaheer looked off in his post-lunch spell and was taken off after one over. Mishra’s four overs were easy to negotiate.Then Mishra changed ends and started his third spell off with an accurate maiden to Amla. The second ball of the second over landed around middle, Kallis had to play at it and made provision for the spin as he did, but the ball turned more than budgeted, took a thin edge and settled in MS Dhoni’s gloves. It was a big moment in an important day’s play: two balls before the dismissal the umpires discussed the light situation, and four balls later walked off for bad light.That was at 1.44pm, 41 minutes before scheduled tea. Rain followed soon and play resumed at 3.20pm, only for light to deteriorate within three minutes. During this period, Harbhajan bowled one over and Alma cut him for a four to move to 49.

Kawya Kavindi and Rashmika Sewwandi have also been named, while several senior players have been left out

Andrew Fidel Fernando16-Dec-2025Sri Lanka has named a young squad for the forthcoming T20Is against India, bringing in the likes of 17-year-old ambidextrous spinner Shashini Gimhani, 23-year-old seamer Kawya Kavindi, while 19-year-old Rashmika Sewwandi has also been named.Captain Chamari Athapaththu also has some experienced hands in her ranks for the series, with spinner Inoka Ranaweera, 39, also in the squad, alongside a top order that has now had significant exposure at the top level. But as the team builds towards next year’s T20 World Cup in England, there is now a drive within the squad to blood younger players.There is no room in the squad for wicketkeeper-batter Anushka Sanjeewani (35), who has played 86 T20Is. Also omitted are Udeshika Prabodhani (39), Sugandika Kumari (33), or Achini Kulasuriya (34), who had all been part of the squad for the team’s most recent T20I assignment, the tour of New Zealand in March this year.Gimhani, one of Sri Lanka’s most exciting young talents, delivers wristspin with either arm, though left-arm wristpin is her primary suit. She earns her place in this squad through solid showings against Australia Under-19 in September. She had already made a promising start to her senior international T20I career, however, having taken six wickets at the top level from five matches, with an economy rate of 5.53.Seamer Kavindi also has some top-flight experience under her belt, with 10 T20Is to her name. Sewwandi, also a seamer, has one T20I against her name, but did not bowl in that match. Nimasha Madushani, the 26-year-old left-arm spinner, is uncapped in internationals.While Sri Lanka seek fresh talents in the bowling department, the batting is more familiar. Hasini Perera, Vishmi Giunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshika de Silva, and Kavisha Dilhari – all of whom played significant roles in the recent ODI World Cup – are in this squad. Kaushini Nuthyangana is likely to take the gloves in Sanjeewani’s stead.Seamer Malki Madara, 24, has impressed with the ball this year in ODIs, is also there. Malsha Shehani, who bowls both seam and spin, finds a place as well.The five-match T20I series begins in Visakhapatnam on December 21, before moving to Thiruvananthapuram for the last two games.Sri Lanka squad: Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Hasini Perera, Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshika De Silva, Kavisha Dilhari. Imesha Dulani, Kaushini Nuthyangana, Malsha Shehani, Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani, Nimesha Madushani, Kawya Kavindi, Rashmika Sewwandi, Malki Madara

There is a 60% chance of rain around the match start time

Ashish Pant18-May-20244:26

How do RCB make best use of Maxwell?

The morning of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB’s) high-stakes IPL 2024 game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was bright and sunny, but as the day progressed, the sun was mostly out of view, hidden behind clouds. There remains a forecast of thundershowers and a 60% chance of rain around the time the match is scheduled to start, at 7.30pm local time.It’s a game that will decide the identity of the last team in the IPL 2024 playoffs, but the weather could have a big say in how things pan out at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.The Indian Meteorological Department has predicting a “generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers”.Related

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Fans who are expected to fill the ground can, however, take heart from the way things went on match eve. Rain and thunderstorms had been forecast for the evening but, while it was cloudy for the most part, the rain never arrived in central Bengaluru. Both RCB and CSK trained for over an hour without any disruption.The city has received consistent rainfall over the last couple of weeks after a spell of uncharacteristically hot weather. However, it has remained relatively dry in most places in the last three days.Even if it does rain, the Chinnaswamy Stadium has an excellent drainage system and is one of the few grounds in India with a subsurface aeration system, which allows play to begin 30 minutes after the rain stops.RCB’s chances of making the playoffs will end in case of a washout. After losing seven of their first eight matches, they made a sterling comeback, winning their next five games. They are currently on 12 points with a net run rate of 0.387, while CSK are on 14 with an NRR of 0.538. To go past CSK’s NRR and make it to the playoffs, assuming a score of 200, RCB need to beat CSK by 18 runs or chase down the target with about 11 balls to spare. A truncated game will make that task tougher.”The good thing is that it is crystal clear what we need to do,” Malolan Rangarajan, RCB’s head of scouting, said on the eve of the game. “Doesn’t matter if it is a 20-over game or a five-, six-over game. For us, it might be 3.1 or 3.4 [the number of overs in which RCB may have to chase the target in case of a five-over game] because there are other intricacies within that. We are not going to be going inside thinking we need to restrict 18 runs or 11 balls. We are going to go there, try to stay consistent with what we have done.”For CSK, the equation is simple: a win, a washout, or even a narrow defeat is enough for them to make it to the final four.”The weather and these kind of things we don’t have control over,” Dwayne Bravo, the CSK bowling coach, said. “We don’t try to bring up things that we don’t have control over. It’s another game for us to push for a playoffs spot and we’re really looking ahead to the challenge against a very good team tomorrow.”

Fast-paced batting key to victory as New Zealand are left looking for answers

Andrew Miller19-Feb-2023Ben Stokes, England’s captain, admitted he was “blessed” to be able to call upon a bowling attack led by England’s greatest seam pairing, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, after an emphatic 267-run victory in the first Test against New Zealand. However, he added that the positivity of his batting line-up had been instrumental in allowing the bowlers to thrive under the floodlights at Mount Maunganui.Twice in the Test, on days one and three, England batted at such a high tempo – with Harry Brook, the player of the match, instrumental in both performances – that they were able to cede the stage early in the day’s final session and unleash their fast bowlers in the twilight, when the pink Kookaburra ball habitually offers the most assistance.Anderson and Ollie Robinson were duly to the fore on the first day, reducing New Zealand to 37 for 3 in reply to England’s 325 for 9 declared, before Broad took centre stage on day three, ripping out four wickets in his first seven overs as New Zealand closed on 63 for 5. From there, there was no way back into the match, as England wrapped up their tenth victory in 11 Tests inside the first session of day four.”It was another great performance,” Stokes said during the post-match presentation. “We were very clinical with the bat and obviously very clinical with the ball. You look at the bowling attack that we’ve got, with this pink ball especially under lights, we executed everything as well as we wanted to. When you got the likes of Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson in your bowling attack, it’s always going to be tough for any opposition with the bat in hand.”Tim Southee, New Zealand’s captain, admitted his disappointment after overseeing a first loss to England on home soil since his own Test debut at Napier in 2008, but acknowledged that “strategically, they played it pretty well.”Related

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• Late England wickets vindicate Stokes' funky declaration

• Stuart Broad runs riot through the night to leave New Zealand in tatters

“We were on the receiving end of a couple of night periods that weren’t obviously ideal,” Southee said. “Broady last night, that spell was pretty impressive, but if we had got through that, we knew there were not a lot of demons out there today, with the nature of the pink ball, so I think it’s credit to the way they played it.”Stokes acknowledged that that had been England’s battle-plan after losing the toss and being asked to bat first, even though it took another remarkable pair of innings, both scored at a rate in excess of 5 an over, to give them the platform they were looking for.”The way we set the game up, with us having to bat on day one, the pace that we scored allowed us to get ahead of the game,” he said. “Having 320 on the board is a good score anywhere. So we were able to inflict some pretty hard damage with that new ball on day one, get them three-down, and then the same again last night.”It’s tough for anyone when Jimmy and Broady get that new ball talking like they did,” Stokes added. “I’m pretty blessed to be able to be in charge of this bowling group at the moment. But when you’re out in the field, the idea is to take 10 wickets and that’s what we’ve got to try and do. We’ve got an ethos with the bat, but also with the ball. It’s about taking 10 wickets, and not worrying too much about how he runs they go for.”No one, however, went for more runs in the match than the New Zealand quick, Neil Wagner, who bore the brunt of England’s second-innings onslaught with figures of 13-0-110-2, the second-most expensive bowling analysis in Test history.Faced with Wagner’s consistent short-pitched approach, England’s batters set themselves to clear the ropes at every opportunity, and Brook was one of his main tormentors, striking his 11th over for three fours and a six, en route to 54 from 41 balls. Coupled with his first-innings 89 from 81, that took his overall Test record to 623 runs in eight innings, at an astonishing strike rate of 96.88.”It is one of the most fun I’ve had,” Brook said afterwards. “Every time I go out to bat, I’m really excited to just do whatever I want. I think it helped a little bit that they went bumpers early, obviously I stuck to my strengths and just kept on trying to whack it.””Brooky’s just carried on from his amazing series in Pakistan,” Stokes added, after his Player-of-the-Series display in England’s 3-0 win before Christmas. “He’s a fantastic talent and I think he’s going to go on to be a global superstar.”For New Zealand, there is likely to be a week of soul-searching after their fourth bruising defeat in as many matches against England’s new aggressive approach, and Southee hoped that a return to red-ball cricket at the Basin Reserve in Wellington – one of New Zealand’s iconic venues – could offer them a chance to regroup.”Their style of play is going to present opportunities and we knew that,” Southee said. “We were able to get nine wickets in the first innings, and in the second innings, we got all ten. But it’s about trying to stem the bleeding in between those wickets, and trying to create those chances as often as we can.”