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Soumya Sarkar, whose lapse in concentration at the start of the third day started Bangladesh’s slide, has lauded his captain Mushfiqur Rahim for helping the side avert the follow-on in Galle. Mushfiqur played the ball on merit and ultimately fell 15 short of his third century in three Tests.He took 89 balls to score his first boundary – a clean six over Rangana Herath’s head in the 72nd over – and then picked up the pace. He managed only 22 off his first 88 balls and then struck 63 off the next 73 to finish with 85 off 161 balls. Sarkar said that the rest of the batting line-up didn’t have a set plan to attack or even play cautiously. That the batsmen still got early boundaries was down to a supply of bad balls from Sri Lanka. Conversely, Mushfiqur assessed the conditions well and built a steady innings.”Mushfiqur played proper Test cricket today,” Sarkar said. “He took his time at the beginning. Although many of us hit a boundary at first, he survived for a long time and then hit a four [six]. Of course there is a lot to learn from him. He is an experienced player and he is our captain.”Maybe some of us got a bad ball at the start and we hit a boundary, and maybe they bowled better at Mushfiqur . In Tests you have to wait for the bad ball but maybe he got fewer bad balls. The ones who came later like Liton [Das] or [Mehedi Hasan] Miraz maybe got a bad ball early. But we didn’t plan to attack while Mushfiqur defended.”Sarkar’s error in judgment – attempting to pull a Suranga Lakmal ball though it was too close to his hip – added to the list of his soft dismissals in the recent past. “It was the first ball of pace I faced today, so I shouldn’t have played that shot,” Sarkar said. “If I had maybe taken some more time before playing that, then maybe I would have connected.”Since it was the first ball, maybe I did not connect. It was a mistake. If I didn’t play that, it would have been good for me and even better for the team.”Shakib Al Hasan too fell to a soft dismissal, tickling left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan down the leg side to wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella. Sarkar, however, put the dismissal down to misfortune.”Since there was no fielder at fine leg, Shakib was able to read the wrong’un and may have thought that since it’s away from the stumps he will get two runs from it,” Sarkar said. “There was little chance to get out to that delivery.”It was very unlucky. It’s not a matter of experience; he is obviously a very experienced player. He was unlucky not to have connected, if he had connected it would have been good for everyone.”Mahmudullah then missed the line of the ball and was bowled while Liton Das played too far away from his body and nicked behind. When asked why Bangladesh haven’t come to grips with building or re-building a Test innings, Sarkar said they were still working on it.”We are trying; how much we are succeeding is for others to judge. We will try to bat longer than we have been.”Having conceded a 182-run first-innings lead, Bangladesh now need a massive effort to turn the tables on the hosts. “We have to give even more than we did when we started,” Sarkar said. “If before we would have given 100 percent, then we have to give 120-150 percent to bring the match back in our favour or to win. So, of course, tomorrow there will be an effort to execute the plans we have so that we can bring the match back in our favour as soon as possible.”

Mark Arthur has warned that Yorkshire could lose their ability to host major matches if they are unable to finance a partial redevelopment of their Headingley home “within weeks.”Arthur, Yorkshire’s chief executive, says the situation is so critical that not only could the club lose its right to host four World Cup matches in 2019, but they would be unable to apply to host any Test cricket after that date and might even risk their chances of hosting games in the new-team T20 competition which is anticipated to start in 2020.Yorkshire’s predicament comes months after the ECB announced that Durham would no longer be considered eligible to host Tests due to financial problems. That leaves the prospect that Lancashire’s Old Trafford ground, in Manchester, could be the only ground north of Nottingham Test eligible to stage Test cricket from the start of the 2020 season.It would also appear to raise the possibility, if less likely, of arch-rivals Lancashire hosting the closest team to Yorkshire in the new T20 competition.The problem centres on the stand at Headingley shared with the rugby club. Built in the 1930s, it was partially condemned in 2015 due to corrosion with the hope it would be rebuilt in time for the 2019 season. The club were hoping to increase capacity from around 17,000 to 20,000 with the addition of the new stand. As things stand, capacity at Headingley is reduced to around 14,000.But attempts to raise the £17m required for the latest stage in the redevelopment (it is expected to cost £38m in all) have so far been thwarted. The biggest jolt came when Leeds City Council suddenly announced that they were not prepared to provide a grant of £4m for the project as previously hoped.”Ever since the grant was withdrawn, we’ve been working with Leeds City Council and Leeds Rugby, and other entities, trying to find a way of funding the new stand,” Arthur said.”At this moment in time, we haven’t got a formula to put to our members. What we can’t go to them with is a half-baked proposal. If the board does come to a resolution at some stage in the near future, which means that we can recommend a financial proposal to the members, then we would call an extraordinary general meeting to go through the numbers.”Yorkshire are close to £25m in debt, with around £20m of that sum owed to trusts set-up by ECB chairman Colin Graves. They had hoped that the prospect of major matches from 2020 onwards would help them repay such debts, but without a new stand their future is fraught with uncertainty.”Gordon Hollins, the chief operating officer of the ECB, has confirmed to us in writing that Headingley does not comply with the International Facilities Policy,” Arthur said. “Therefore, once the current staging agreement ends in 2019, we will not be considered for Test Matches.”This has to be resolved in the very near future or we will have run out of time to complete the stand by the start of the 2019 season. While the Ashes Test is secure, the four World Cup matches in 2019 are not.”The need to have a new stand has recently taken on greater importance with the introduction of a new T20 city based competition from the year 2020. The host cities will be selected on the basis of facilities and catchment. It will be akin to hosting four additional one-day internationals per year and will bring further incremental income to those host grounds and cities.”Not only is the clock ticking from a financial point of view, the ECB will be allocating international matches from 2020 to 2023 later this year as well as the new city based T20 host contracts.””We need to reach an agreement with all parties in the next few weeks. We will be solvent, but we will not be able to solve our long-term debt so quickly.”The allocation of major matches from 2020 until 2023 is already long overdue. That has led to concerns around the counties over their ability to plan for a future which looks set to contain fewer Tests.

Islamabad United coach Dean Jones said his side has “been through hell” over the last few days after two of their players, Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif, were provisionally suspended by the PCB as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged attempts to corrupt the 2017 Pakistan Super League. Three other players – Mohammad Irfan, who also plays for Islamabad, Zulfiqar Babar and Shahzaib Hasan – were questioned by the PCB’s Anti-Corruption Unit as part of the investigation.Sharjeel and Latif were suspended a day after the defending champions won the opening match of the 2017 edition, beating Peshawar Zalmi by seven wickets (D/L method). They lost their second match, however, on Saturday, going down by six wickets against Lahore Qalandars.”Emotionally and physically the team has been through hell,” Jones said after the match on Saturday. “All in all, we’re trying to prepare these guys coming into the match and it’s not been the best preparation, I’ll be honest with that. The boys came here, they wanted to get out here and have some fun and play. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked that way.”Irfan made way for Rumman Raees in the XI for the second match, while Asif Ali took Sharjeel’s place. Put in to bat, Islamabad made a solid start with a 73-run opening stand between Dwayne Smith and Sam Billings. They went on to score 158 for 7, with captain Misbah-ul-Haq hitting 61 not out off 36 balls.Islamabad United could not check Lahore Qalandars’ chase led by a confident Jason Roy half-century•PCB

Qalandars, however, chased down the target with 10 balls to spare. “When you lose, it’s always difficult,” Jones said. “It’s our first loss in seven games if you want to look back from last year to now. It was a big game for us in a lot of ways but it’s one and one [a victory and a loss in 2017], and we are in a position a lot of teams would want to be in.”The good thing is we’ve got a four-day spell now before our next game, when we go down to Sharjah. We’ll regroup, go out and enjoy each other’s company like we always do. It’s my job as a coach to remind them that we failed a bit today but we’re in a pretty good position.”Jones said that Misbah had been a calming influence on the side.”Misbah’s always calm, cool and collected,” he said. “He doesn’t give a lot of emotion away, that’s the good thing about him as not many people see the humorous side of him, but we’ve seen a bit of that over the past 24 hours to loosen things up. From our owners to Wasim and our senior players, it’s been a bit of a tough time but now we’ll regroup and we’ll get together and move on.”Can I just say well done to the PCB? I think they have handled everything over the past 48 hours really well. We’re here to keep this great game clean and we’ll do everything we can to do that.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:21

‘Abbott played an absolute blinder’

In a season where they have been brilliant or dire, Sydney Sixers beat Melbourne Stars by three wickets with an over to spare to seal the third spot in the points table, setting up a semi-final against Brisbane Heat at the Gabba. The Stars made the semi-finals too, at the expense of their cross-town rivals Melbourne Renegades. They will travel to Perth to face the Scorchers on Tuesday.Luke Wright lived up to his reputation as the man who comes to life on the MCG’s biggest nights with his second successive half-century, but the Stars – missing six first-choice players to injury and international call-ups – fell away after he was dismissed. Chasing 157 for a place in the semi-finals, the Sixers then pulled off an impressive come-from-behind win.Their top six struggled and it looked like their season was over, but Sean Abbott and Johan Botha picked their targets effectively to add 59 in 28 balls. With the scores level, Botha was caught and bowled by Scott Boland, but it was too little, too late for the Stars. Ben Dwarshius edged the next ball for four to complete the chase.Stars’ flying start and grand stall
Rob Quiney and Wright both stroked their first balls through the covers for four, and looked set to rack up a huge total. Quiney went after Johan Botha and smote Sean Abbott over long-on for six. After he fell to the final ball of the Powerplay – caught at short fine leg off Moises Henriques’ first over of the tournament – Wright kicked on while Kevin Pietersen accumulated. The England pair put on 71 and, on a belting pitch, 128 for 1, with five overs left in the innings, looked a very strong position.The Stars, however, ended up with a modest total. Wright was bowled by Lyon when he tried to accelerate further, then the promoted Evan Gulbis was stumped. Seb Gotch was caught behind in the next over, then David Hussey and Pietersen fell to leave the Stars at 6 for 150 in 19 overs. Sam Harper and Ben Hilfenhaus fell in the final over of the innings, which yielded only six runs.In the last 27 balls, the Stars had lost 7 for 26 and managed just eight runs in boundaries. In the absence of their Australian call-ups, the Stars looked thin on the batting front, and in the end they had a tail like a diplodocus – starting at No.4! Somehow, they had only five bowling options.Luke Wright struck his second successive fifty but it was not enough for Melbourne Stars to put it across Sydney Sixers•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Lyon and the power of spin
Nathan Lyon started with a wide, but barely put a foot wrong thereafter, and played a vital role in the Stars’ stall. He tossed the ball up and gave it a rip, and went for only 18 runs in four overs. In the Sixers’ chase, Liam Bowe, the left-arm wristspinner, produced three outstanding overs – and even dismissed Moises Henriques – but was picked apart in his fourth, which turned the game.Haddin’s strange night
Brad Haddin, miked up by Channel Ten, began his evening by making a joke about the Brad Hodge controversy and his funny old evening continued. He stumped Gulbis via a triple-fumble, then off his helmet (which is legal in the BBL) took a wonderful one-handed diving catch to get rid of Gotch. Haddin’s innings was skittish too, and it happened in the middle of the Sixers’ collapse. He fell for 10 in the 14th over when he holed out to long-on. Two balls later, Nic Maddinson was caught at backward point, extending his poor form, and the Sixers’ season looked over.Sean Abbott is congratulated on the wicket of Ben Hilfenhaus•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Abbott’s expanding skillset
Everyone knows Abbott can bat, but he had not shown it so far this season. When he ambled to the crease, he had three more wickets (16, the most in the competition) than runs this season, and six of his 13 had come in one shot to beat the Heat. Here, he played a blinder. He knew that the Stars have struggled to replace John Hastings at the death, and that Michael Beer and Liam Bowe had an over each. He went after both Bowe and Beer. By then, the game was up; Ben Hilfenhaus was flayed for 12 too. In finishing terms, this was a mini-masterpiece.Where are they now?
It was a bad day for Melbourne in the BBL. Had the Stars won by 33 runs – a distinct possibility when Maddinson fell – they would have finished top. Instead, they slid to fourth. The Renegades finished fifth, and Sixers – who were top before their derby drubbing by Thunder a week ago – moved to third. As a result, if they and the Stars win their semi-finals, the SCG will host the final.

ScorecardFile photo – Jonathan Wells finished unbeaten on 113•Getty Images

Jonathan Wells and Adam Voges led Western Australia to a comeback victory over Queensland, their first of the season, in the day-night Sheffield Shield match at the WACA Ground.The Western Australia pair made short work of the runs required on the final day, finishing off a performance that was turned around in the first place by Simon Mackin’s pivotal 6 for 33 to bulldoze Queensland in their second innings. Mackin finished with 11 wickets in the match.Having started the season poorly, Western Australia are now back in contention for the back-end of the Shield season, which will follow the extended hiatus for the Twenty20 Big Bash League.

Australia’s captain Steven Smith has not given up hope of a redemptive fourth-innings chase at the WACA, particularly as South Africa have been shorn of Dale Steyn’s speed by a shoulder injury.The hosts were sustained by thoughts of putting pressure back onto South Africa’s bowlers, even as JP Duminy and Dean Elgar made Smith’s side pay for their latest shuddering batting collapse on the second day. Smith conceded that his bowlers had been placed under undue pressure by the fact the batsmen “didn’t do the job”, but looked to day four for better tidings.”We let ourselves down yesterday, to only get two runs in front of their score wasn’t good enough,” Smith said. “After the start we got with Davey (David Warner) and Shaun (Marsh) we got a great opportunity to post a big first innings score and we weren’t good enough. Credit to the South Africa bowlers at the same time, they came out yesterday morning and bowled really well, but the batters didn’t do the job.”[No Steyn] is certainly going to help us, he’s a quality bowler, and this isn’t the traditional sort of WACA wicket. It’s been pretty slow, the ball’s got soft very quickly. We’ve got to get the wickets in the morning, then if we an keep them out there, tie their two fast bowlers down and be a little more positive against the spin, there’s no reason why we can’t chase down a total on that. So far the balls that have misbehaved have been quite wide, so it’s still a pretty good wicket.”Smith, speaking at the end of a difficult day that has piled further pressure on his team after their failures in Sri Lanka, spoke also about his first innings dismissal, an LBW well down the wicket to Keshav Maharaj that resulted in a stunned response from the captain – something the ICC match referee Andy Pycroft may yet pursue further.”I was a bit disappointed at the time,” Smith. “When you come down the wicket like that you kind of think you’re going to be okay, but Aleem (Dar) made the decision and it was backed up by the Hawk-Eye. Not much I can do about it, just going to have to use my bat in future.”There had also been suggestions that the umpires had spoken to South Africa’s captain Faf du Plessis about the way the ball was being “looked after” on day two, and Smith said reverse swing had played an unusually large role in this match so far. That was his primary reason for ignoring Nathan Lyon until after lunch on day three.”It started to go pretty quick and the umpires handled it or whatever was going on out there,” Smith said of day two. “I think [reverse swing] has been a pretty big player during this game for both sides, very uncharacteristic of the WACA.”But when the ball’s reversing it’s a tough one, you want to bowl spin but the way he holds the ball can soften that side and stop the ball reversing. You’ve got to use the quicks as long as you can and make the most of the ball while it’s going.”Adam Voges appeared to suffer a hamstring strain midway through the day’s play, but Smith said he moved far more freely in the middle after going off the field briefly for strapping. “I’m sure the medical staff will be all over him,” Smith said, “and be able to get him okay.”

Bangladesh’s new bowling coach Courtney Walsh has said he wants to help his charges hunt in pairs much like he and Curtly Ambrose had done for West Indies for many years.”I don’t see myself too much as a coach as I see myself as a mentor,” Walsh said at a press briefing on Sunday. “I have always tried to get couple of fast bowlers under my wing to mentor when I played for Gloucester, Jamaica or West Indies. Curtly Ambrose was one of them. So if I can get a second Ambrose from Bangladesh, I will be happy. When he came into the team, he looked up to me. We formed one of the best striking partnerships in world cricket. If I can pass that to any two Bangladeshi fast bowlers, I will be very happy.”Walsh, who was the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Test history after a 17-year career, hoped to be a “father figure” to the Bangladesh bowlers and wanted to guide them much like his own seniors had done for him.”I can help them relive some of the situations they might find themselves into,” he said. “A player can sometimes help you get out of it. I remember Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner. When I just started, that’s what they did for me. I hope to pass that on to the Bangladesh team.”I want to pass on to the Bangladeshi guys that you have to be strong and be prepared for hard work, maintain physically and consistency. If we can work hand in hand with those two, we will be headed in the right path. It won’t happen overnight. We have to put in some ground work. Once we get the basics right, you will see a lot of improvement and consistency.”This was Walsh’s first time coaching an international team and he had been unsure about taking on such a responsibility.”The offer was something that I had to think twice about,” he said. “I remember when Nizam [Nizamuddin Chowdhury, BCB CEO] got in touch with me and said they were interested, I said let me think about it. We went back and forth but when he said, ‘you are our No. 1 target,’ that was something that I gave it a serious consideration. It showed that they wanted take the cricket to another level.”I want to thank Nizam for letting me know that I was their No. 1 target. He said the president wanted to ensure that I was here. I arrived here last night to do the best I can for Bangladesh cricket working with the head coach. Together we can achieve some good success for Bangladesh cricket.”Walsh was the second West Indian in a coaching role with Bangladesh after Gordon Greenidge had steered them to qualify for the 1999 World Cup by winning the 1997 ICC Trophy.”I didn’t get a chance to speak to Gordon [Greenidge] because I actually went away to play a game and he was in England,” Walsh said. “But beforehand, I used to quiz him about Bangladesh and he was happy to be a part of this. That would help me as well.”I am hoping that next time I speak to him, he will be happy with the state of Bangladesh cricket and the direction it is headed.”Walsh has signed a three-year deal with Bangladesh which would end with the 2019 World Cup.

Jack Taylor, the Gloucestershire allrounder, has been passed to resume bowling his offspin by the ECB. Taylor was suspended in June after being found to have an illegal action for the second time in his career.Taylor underwent remedial work after his bowling action was found to exceed 15 degrees. He was re-tested on July 28 and the ban has now been lifted with immediate effect.Even without his bowling, Taylor has continued to feature in Gloucestershire’s middle order. The 24-year-old has scored 602 runs at 43.00 in the Championship this season – behind only Chris Dent – and made his highest T20 score of 44 not out last week to help Gloucestershire top the NatWest Blast South Group table.He was previously called in 2013, missing the rest of the season to remodel his action with the help of Gloucestershire and the ECB’s national academy in Loughborough, before being cleared to resume bowling in February 2014.

In the absence of Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach, West Indies’ long-time new-ball pair, their fast bowlers are still “learning the art”, their bowling coach Roddy Estwick said after the second day’s play of the Antigua Test. With their captain Virat Kohli moving to his maiden double-hundred, India swelled their overnight score by 264 runs before declaring on 566 for 8. Having experienced another punishing day on the field, West Indies were 31 for 1 at stumps.”Yes, obviously it is a good wicket for batting but also we must bear in mind that as a bowling attack we have lost Jerome Taylor to retirement and we have lost Kemar Roach, who has not been selected, and when you look at our bowling attack, between them it is about 40-45 Tests,” Estwick said. “So the current bowlers are still learning the art of fast bowling and trying to get the combinations right. So it is going to be a long struggle.”And remember that India are a very good batting side as well. So it will be a tough series for us and we will continue to work hard and continue to stay disciplined and try and stay focussed as possible.”India went into the Test match with only five specialist batsmen, but that did not hurt them even after they had lost their first four wickets with only 236 on the board. R Ashwin, batting as high as No. 6 for the first time in his career, scored his third Test hundred, and Wriddhiman Saha, Amit Mishra and Mohammed Shami all made important contributions as well. Estwick said the success of the lower order came from the lack of scoreboard pressure rather than any failings on his bowling unit’s part.”It is a very good batting pitch and when you get to 400 for 4, the batsmen can come out and play freely, the tailenders can come and play freely, it is a big difference from if you are 50 for4, then the ball game changes. But when you get to that total and you have the license to go and play shots, obviously declaration is going to come. So there is no pressure on their batsmen at all. Hopefully we will see down the series what happens when they are under pressure.”West Indies chose a seemingly conservative bowling combination for the Test, picking only one frontline fast bowler in Shannon Gabriel, one specialist spinner, and two medium-paced allrounders in Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite in support. Apart from Gabriel, West Indies’ bowlers largely bowled defensive lines to defensive fields.Estwick refused to comment on the composition of the attack, saying he “had no say in selection”, and said West Indies had no option but to try and contain given how Kohli was batting.”Once Kohli was at the wicket, it was very difficult to attack,” Estwick said. “If you look at how he was playing, he was scoring at a run a ball and scoring freely. With containing you have a job to do and [offspinning allrounder Roston] Chase is in his first Test match, Carlos Brathwaite who has only played three Tests, Holder in his 15thTest.”We are still learning as young players. I heard a couple of weeks ago England lamenting the loss of Jimmy Anderson [to injury, against Pakistan], yet they have Stuart Broad with 99 Tests. So with a bowling unit it takes time and you have to be patient with a very young attack. And we are playing against a very good Indian batting line up on a pitch that is very good as well.”With West Indies facing a difficult task to save the follow-on before they can set their sights any higher, Estwick said someone in the top order had to emulate Kohli and play a big innings.”It is a simple thing,” he said. “We have to bat very well and bat deep into the fourth day and if we can do that, until just after tea on the fourth day, that will give us a chance of saving the game. But the first thing to do is avoid the follow-on and somebody in the top four will have to get a very big hundred like Kohli who got 200.”So it is important that one of the batsmen says, ‘Look, this is a good pitch, and I am going to capitalise here, and if they can come to our backyard and do it, we can do it as well.'”

ScorecardA staggering innings by Ashar Zaidi that defied both Middlesex, and more pertinently a tired Lord’s pitch, carried Essex to a crucial victory to keep their hopes of a top four finish and a place in the quarter finals alive.Zaidi hit nine boundaries, four fours and five sixes, in just 24 balls–one fewer than Middlesex managed in their entire innings–transcending the conditions to score 59 not out and single-handedly propel Essex beyond their target of 127 in a 16-overs-a-side match.Zaidi, who has been a key player in Essex’s T20 campaign, scoring 357 runs at a strike-rate of 167 and bowling economical overs, scored 38 off the last 9 deliveries he faced to reduce an equation of 37 runs required off 18 balls to a victory with three balls remaining.The 18th and the 19th overs of the run-chase brought 14 and 20 runs respectively–the first and second most expensive overs of the match as Zaidi launched his assault. Zaidi combined raw power with intelligent sweeps to do what no other player in the match could do and find the boundary with regularity.Truth be told, Zaidi’s pyrotechnics aside this was a disappointing evening. In yet another week in which incessant debate about the structure of England’s domestic T20 tournament overshadowed the actual cricket, a frenetic finish to a tight match failed to mask the reminder that whatever the make-up of the competition if it is played on tired, tacky pitches it is unlikely to be much of a hit.Exactly a week ago for a televised match in front of a record crowd Lord’s got things so right. Seven days later, again for a televised match and in front of a near-capacity crowd, things were just a little underwhelming in a 16-over-a-side contests.Lord’s is uniquely positioned in that it hosts so much cricket that preparing consistently good pitches can be a challenge, but for the richest cricket club in the world it is a challenge that should be overcome.It is not that the cricket was not skilled – if anything playing on pitches such as this, where the ball doesn’t come onto the bat, where cross-batted shots aren’t rewarded and where edges don’t fly for six demands more of a player than truer pitches – but they are skills that you suspect a big mid-week T20 crowd, even at the Home of Cricket, find harder to appreciate.Essex, who won the toss, opted to field, possibly due to the forecast rain, which proceeded to fall shortly after the toss and delayed then shortened the match. Middlesex, having picked two spinners, said they were happy to bat first but in the end the clarity provided by a run-chase on a pitch such as this probably gave Essex the edge.It was perhaps revealing of qualities that should have caught the eye of England’s selectors that Dawid Malan was the only Middlesex player who could cope with a pitch that required more than clearing the front leg and swinging. If it wasn’t for him they may have struggled to make three figures.Essex deserve credit for bowling intelligently, especially in the Powerplay when they used the large boundary towards the Tavern Stand by bowling lines to suit and Middlesex, Malan aside, struggled to mount a response.For the twenty or so overs between the end of Middlesex’s Powerplay and Zaidi’s assault there was a similar and underwhelming theme. The pitch was slow, the bowlers bowled tight lines, cutters and slower balls as the batsmen swung too hard, too often and were rarely rewarded.The defeat for Middlesex prevents them a home quarter-final but if this pitch is anything to go by, then that should be a relief for everyone.