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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:01

Cullinan: R Ashwin not bowling full quota is a concern

Before Sunday, Kolkata Knight Riders had won three games out of three while bowling first. On Sunday, they chased again, won again, and went top of the table in a tournament where chasing teams had won 17 out of 20 matches. Chasing 161, they were coasting at 111 for 3 before they slumped dramatically, losing five wickets in 30 balls, and only sealed victory when Umesh Yadav struck a meaty straight six with five runs needed off the last four balls.Knight Riders’ slump began in the 15th over, when Rajat Bhatia’s stump-to-stump line, and Yusuf Pathan’s across-the-line response, ended a 51-run stand for the fourth wicket with Suryakumar Yadav. That partnership, coming on the back of Suryakumar’s stands of 31 and 29 with Gautam Gambhir and Shakib Al Hasan, had taken Knight Riders to a position where they needed 50 off the last 34 balls, with six wickets in hand.But when M Ashwin struck in the next over, defeating Suryakumar with a ripping googly, and particularly when Andre Russell – who struck two big sixes off Ankit Sharma in the 17th over – holed out to a slower ball from Thisara Perera, a one-sided contest turned into a thriller. Knight Riders kept in touch with the required rate with a boundary whenever they needed it, but they also kept losing wickets. In the end, they had Nos. 9 and 10 at the crease when Umesh slogged Perera high over long-on.In his post-match interview, MS Dhoni said he was happy with Supergiants’ total of 160, and thought his spinners had given the match away by bowling too full on a slow pitch offering plenty of turn. There were six sixes hit off the Supergiants spinners, and all six came off balls that were in the slot for lofted hits.It was a definite contrast to the way the Knight Riders spinners had operated, largely bowling just short of a good length, and extracting generous turn that made it hard to hit down the ground or against the break.Ajinkya Rahane came into the match with two half-centuries in his last four innings, and demonstrated his silky form with an effortless flicked six off Morne Morkel in the third over of the Supergiants innings, and two fours off the next six balls he faced.The introduction of Shakib Al Hasan, in the fourth over, revealed the extent of turn available, as he straightened one from wide of the crease to clip Faf du Plessis’ off stump. With Shakib bowling three overs by the end of the eighth over, and Gambhir introducing Piyush Chawla early as well, Rahane and Steven Smith spent a fair amount of time negotiating balls turning away from them, and sharply at that. They were busy in this period, working the ball into gaps and running frantically, and had put on 56 in 8.2 overs when Smith was needlessly run out, backing up too far down the pitch.Dhoni sent in the left-handed Perera and Albie Morkel ahead of him, and they both made cameos, hitting three sixes between them to lift the run rate alongside Rahane, who hit a couple of sixes as well, off Chawla and Umesh in the 16th and 17th over.Rahane’s dismissal at the start of the 18th over brought in Dhoni, and the Supergiants captain punished a wayward Morne Morkel in the final over, pulling him for six and four either side of a whipped boundary manufactured off a leg-stump yorker. Supergiants had taken 17 off the last over, and 70 off the last six.Albie, playing his first match for Supergiants, showed he had a fair idea of how to bowl on this pitch when he struck with his first ball, a slower offcutter that clanged into Robin Uthappa’s front pad in front of off stump. But his brother Morne’s tendency to bowl short also rubbed off on him, and Gambhir and Suryakumar hit him for three fours over the remainder of an eventful first over.When Albie overcompensated and fed Suryakumar two overpitched balls in the third over, Knight Riders were racing along at 29 for 1. But they lost Gambhir against the run of play, when he turned for a non-existent second run, and Supergiants were back in the contest.With M Ashwin and Ankit forming an inexperienced two-thirds of Supergiants’ spin attack, Dhoni needed R Ashwin to be at his best. But it wasn’t his day. Introduced in the fourth over, he struggled to find the right line, length and pace to bowl on this pitch. He bowled three leg-side wides that spun from outside off stump, fed two balls in Suryakumar’s six-hitting slot, went around the wicket to try and change his luck, and did all of this in the space of two overs.Two overs was all he would bowl. Dhoni ignored opportunities to use him outside the Powerplay, perhaps unwilling to use him against a succession of right-handed Knight Riders batsmen, but it showed, not for the first time in recent months, a lack of trust in a proven, experienced spinner.

Match facts

Saturday, May 7, 2016
Start time 2000 local (1430 GMT)4:10

O’Brien: Amla brings stability to KXIP

Big Picture

Delhi Daredevils narrowly avoided the wooden spoon, which went to Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2015. Both franchises reacted differently to their horrendous campaigns – Kings XI retained the core of their team, while Daredevils released 11 players, filled the void with largely untested talent and revamped their backroom staff too.Inventive leadership from Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid, attacking legspin from Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir and handy contributions from the younger players such as Karun Nair have given Daredevils the turnaround they wanted. Kings XI, on the other hand, are still struggling. On a positive note, Glenn Maxwell hit his second half-century in three matches and Sandeep Sharma’s yorkers are getting better by the game.Kings XI were happy with only three overseas players in their last game but Hashim Amla, their replacement for the injured Shaun Marsh, is likely to make his IPL debut tomorrow. Inconsistency has been the team’s biggest deterrent, and that might change with three of their next four matches taking place in the comfort of their home ground in Mohali.In their last match, Daredevils made four changes to their XI and lost to a team that has struggled this season, Rising Pune Supergiants. JP Duminy took over as captain, with Zaheer Khan resting, and he appeared a little fixed with his tactics. Daredevils won’t be too perturbed by the loss – it was only their third defeat in eight matches – but competition for the top four spots is high and they can ill afford to lose momentum.

Form guide

Kings XI Punjab LWLLL (last five matches, most recent first)
Delhi Daredevils LWWLW

In the spotlight

Sandeep Sharma’s inch-perfect yorkers have underpinned his good season so far. He has seven wickets in eight matches, with an economy rate of only 6.55, after bowling 27 overs. Importantly, Sandeep has shown he is unaffected by the reputation of the batsman he faces. In the last match against Kolkata Knight Riders, he restricted the big-hitting Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan to only four runs in the final over.Sam Billings has scored 78 runs in two innings at a strike rate of 159.18 and has been a valuable addition to the middle-order. His scoops and switch hits are capable of threatening the bowler’s composure, and he answered the questions about his ability against spin by smacking R Ashwin for successive sixes on Thursday.

Team news

Hashim Amla did not play against Knight Riders because he had arrived on the day of the match. His IPL debut is almost a certainty, partnering M Vijay at the top of the order. So Manan Vohra may become surplus and Marcus Stoinis could be pushed down to No. 3. With David Miller continuing to struggle, Farhaan Behardien might be given a go.Kings XI Punjab (probable): 1 M Vijay (capt), 2 Manan Vohra/Hashim Amla, 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 David Miller/Farhaan Behardien, 7 Gurkeerat Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Swapnil Singh, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 Sandeep SharmaZaheer Khan’s fitness is unclear, but it is expected that Quinton de Kock, who was rested on Thursday, is likely to return. Chris Morris has been one of their best players; only one out of him, Duminy and Carlos Brathwaite may play considering Tahir’s value on a slow pitch in Mohali and Billings’ enterprise with the bat and in the field.Delhi Daredevils (probable): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Rishabh Pant, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Karun Nair, 5 Sam Billings, 6 JP Duminy/Carlos Brathwaite/Chris Morris, 7 Pawan Negi/Shahbaz Nadeem, 8 Jayant Yadav/Zaheer Khan (capt), 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Imran Tahir

Pitch and conditions

Mohali has been a high-scoring ground. Like most venues this season, teams have enjoyed chasing, with Mumbai Indians the only team to successfully defend a total.

Stats and trivia

• Sandeep has sent down 74 dot balls in IPL 2016 – second only to Mumbai Indians’ Mitchell McClenaghan (85).
• Tahir’s wicket of MS Dhoni in Daredevils’ previous match was his 150th in T20s. Tahir became the first South African spinner to reach the landmark.

ScorecardNeil Dexter carried his score to 136•Getty Images

Leicestershire have decided against replacing Keith Piper on their coaching staff after the surprise announcement that the former Warwickshire wicketkeeper has left the club by mutual consent.Piper’s responsibilities as elite development coach under the direction of elite performance director Andrew McDonald will pass to Pierre de Bruyn, who is currently 2nd XI and assistant skills coach, with academy director Nic Pothas becoming more involved with the 2nd XI.Leicester-born Piper, who was part of Warwickshire’s treble-winning team in 1994, worked with the county last season and impressed enough to be appointed as McDonald’s number two in October but, according to the club, domestic distractions have impacted on his effectiveness this season.Chief executive Wasim Khan said: “It is a blow for us to lose Keith because he had done very well but unfortunately he has had some family issues and it just wasn’t working out.”Leicestershire would have had no shortage of applicants had they decided to advertise for a replacement for Piper, who also broke his ankle earlier this season during warm-ups on the second day of the tour match against the Sri Lankans. Graeme Welch, who recently quit as Derbyshire’s elite performance director, Chris Adams and Kadeer Ali, the brother of England allrounder Moeen Ali, might have been candidates.But Khan said Leicestershire would not be approaching anyone to fill the vacancy. “With the staff we have we feel we can cover for Keith’s loss,” he said. “Pierre and Nic will each move up a level and everyone will pitch in to cover any gaps.”Rain restricted play to 45.3 overs on the second day of the Championship match against Gloucestershire at Grace Road but there was long enough for Leicestershire to turn their overnight 252 for 7 to 334 all out, which they would probably feel was a reasonable outcome, given that the visitors chose to bowl first.Neil Dexter and Clint McKay, the not out batsmen overnight, extended their eighth-wicket partnership to 86 before Dexter fell on 136 to a fine catch at second slip off Liam Norwell, who then accounted for McKay when the Australian pace bowler, who had hit seven fours and two sixes in an aggressive run-a-ball 55, skied an attempt to launch another maximum.The benefits the pair’s experience brought to the innings underlined Khan’s belief that Leicestershire can be promotion contenders this season only a year after ending a 37-match winless streak and finishing in last place three seasons in a row.”We went into this match in joint third place and although the fact that only one team is promoted this season makes it more of a challenge we are ambitious,” he said. “We feel we have a competitive side this year with some depth in the squad.”The new signings – Paul Horton, Neil Dexter and Mark Pettini – have made a difference. They were on a list of targets we identified as having experience but also plenty of cricket in them and we were delighted that they all had belief in our vision and were hungry for the challenge. They were all offered new deals by their own counties but chose to join us.”The younger guys on the staff have been through the mill and the confidence among the batsmen in particular had taken some knocks.”But with the older players already here we now have a core of about five or six senior members of the squad who are leaders on and off the field.”Gloucestershire will resume on 69 without loss. Richard Jones, back at Grace Road for his second spell on loan from Warwickshire, shared the new ball with McKay but neither could make a breakthrough against Chris Dent and Gareth Roderick on a pitch that looked to have settled down as a good batting surface.

India coach Anil Kumble has said he is looking to cultivate a “feeling of Indianness” in the team. That, he said, would involve incorporating the “best practices” in Indian culture into the way the players play and interact with each other.”It is important we create an Indian way,” Kumble told . “I don’t mean to say sledging is not Indian culture or is somebody else’s culture. What I meant is, you would want to bring a feeling of Indianness – that is, extended family, respect for one another.”Take all the best practices in Indian culture, mesh them in a way that all of us own what we want to be seen as, known as, how do we want to play the game, how do we want to practice, how do we want to be seen as an Indian team.”The best practices in the Indian family would be, generally, follow whatever elders say, but here we want to be a bit more open and express our views even if they differ from that of the seniors. Here it is having family values and say, if a senior has taken a decision, I will follow it. However, you should also have the freedom to disagree but in a more civilised way, where everyone has the opportunity to express himself.”India left for the tour of the West Indies earlier this week, following a five-day training camp in Bangalore. Kumble said he was pleasantly surprised by the players’ receptiveness to new ideas during that camp.”This group is very open to ideas and, I must confess, given the current generation and the way they are perceived, I thought getting them into a room for an hour or so and seriously discussing certain issues would not be easy and after ten minutes or so, they won’t be listening or responding. But I was surprised to see that not only were they very receptive and embraced new ideas, but we spent more time than what was stipulated.”

Josh Hazlewood believes Australia have already opened up mental scars for Sri Lanka’s unsteady batting line-up that may smooth a path for the tourists on less helpful pitches later in the series.Hazlewood, who took 3 for 21 to play a major role in rounding up the hosts for 117 – Sri Lanka’s second-lowest total against Australia at home – in Pallekele, took advantage of some swing and seam with the new ball that he may not find in Galle or Colombo. However, the memories of this day, when numerous Sri Lankan batsmen looked out of their depth against Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and the spin twins of Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon, may now play in favour of Steven Smith’s team.”Anything you can get on the opposition is crucial,” Hazlewood, whose three wickets included that of Dinesh Chandimal, said. “If you can get it straight up on the first morning of a Test series, and get on top of a few of their top-order batters, it does open up some scars, hopefully, for the back end of the tour on some not-so-friendly wickets for us quicks.”We don’t know too much about these guys, we haven’t played them a lot, especially our bowlers, so we’ve worked out a few little things here and there in that innings, and we’ll look to keep on top of them with those plans throughout the whole series.”This was, arguably, a fortuitous toss for Smith to lose, as it had his opposite number Angelo Mathews electing to bat at a ground where there has always been a modicum of help for fast men. Several members of the touring party who were here for the Test team’s last visit, in 2011, including Nathan Lyon and Usman Khawaja, had spoken of some possible early assistance, and Hazlewood found it.”A few of the guys who were here on the last series mentioned that if the quicks are going to get anything out of it, it’s going to be this Test, especially with the new ball,” Hazlewood said. “We made the most of that, and hopefully, we do again in the second innings. I was happy to bowl turning up today, it was a good toss to lose, see how that wicket was going to play. I thought if we bowled well, which we did, we’d get a few wickets early.”It is [going to get harder], hopefully, we enjoyed that as much as we could. The next two wickets are probably going to suit the spinners and then Colombo could be quite flat, so it’s going to be hard work, but we’ve trained on some flat wickets in Colombo when we got here and tried a few different things here and there, so we’re as prepared as we can be. We may have to work on a few other things, and I think reverse swing will be a huge factor as well.”More than once, the Australians raised their eyebrows at how the pitch played on day one, with several deliveries shooting through low and variation in spin suggesting the pitch will only get harder to bat on. Smith had said before the match that one of his goals was for the team to only have to bat once, and by rolling the Sri Lankans so cheaply, they have a chance of doing so.”I thought we were quite patient, and just bowled the usual great lines and lengths,” Hazlewood said. “Mitch Starc was probably not at his best, but still very lethal, no matter when he bowls, and I think the spinners bowled beautifully on that wicket, it did offer them a bit of up-and-down bounce.”It swung a little bit more in our second spells than the first. I think it’s just that hardness, a couple balls nipped here and there, the wicket was a little bit tacky, spikes were going in quite easily, and then, with the spin, I don’t think it spun too much. It was just inconsistent, and that did the damage.”A couple did shoot through for a day-one wicket, so that’ll be interesting the longer the game goes. The spinners are going to come into it a lot more, and they’ve got some quality spinners, so first-innings runs are going to be crucial for us.”

The future structure of England’s T20 competition might be in doubt, but there is no doubting the success of NatWest Blast Finals Day.Tickets for the three-match climax at Edgbaston on Saturday 20 August have now sold out, with the exception of the allocation of 3,200 tickets reserved for the competing semi-finalists.This is the first time in the history of NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day that the event has sold out before all semi-finalists have been confirmed.The four teams that will qualify for two semi-finals and a final in a full day of T20 action receive an allocation of only 800 tickets for Finals Day.Should any of these tickets remain unsold, Edgbaston will release a final allocation at 1000 on Tuesday August 16.Notts Outlaws and Northamptonshire Steelbacks have already won through following the first two quarter finals. Gloucestershire meet Durham on Wednesday and Glamorgan face Yorkshire on Thursday.Gareth Roberts, Commercial Director of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, said: “NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day is the biggest day in the domestic cricket calendar and is growing in demand each year, with tickets for this year’s event selling out in record time.”This will be the eighth NatWest T20 Blast Finals that Edgbaston has hosted and is part of our long-term staging agreement, which sees the event played here in Birmingham until at least 2018.”Controversy surrounded the start of the tournament in May when Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, who favours a big-city competirion that would by-pass the 18-team county system, called the present competition “mediocre”.Despite that, attendances have shown a slight improvement this season, following a large leap in 2015, even though there has been additional competition from the European football championships and, latterly, the Olympic Games.

Quinton de Kock believes he’s played better innings than the brutal 178 that destroyed Australia’s bowlers to deliver victory for South Africa in the first ODI at Centurion.On a friendly pitch, de Kock was able to capitalise on Australia’s failure to mount a truly intimidating score after a fast start. He also took advantage of a visiting bowling attack that had been weakened by the resting of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.”It was the most free [flowing] knock that I’ve played,” de Kock told reporters after the match. “But I’ve played a couple of other knocks that I’ve enjoyed more, where I’ve had to work hard for the runs.”Those are the type of knocks that I enjoy. I had to work hard for the runs today, but it was just my day I guess. The wicket was quite nice to play on, it allowed me to play my natural game. Hopefully there will be a couple more wickets like that in the series. Then we can have some more fun.”Though he conceded the bowling was not up to scratch, Australia’s captain Steven Smith was more concerned by the way his batsmen were unable to mount a large enough total. In the absence of Starc and Hazlewood, Smith is aware big scores are required.”I thought we started off quite poorly with the ball, we gave him a few freebies to get away,” Smith said. “We were a bit too short and a bit too wide at times. And from there it just looked like he got in a rhythm, and it felt like every ball was going to the boundary at one point.”We got a nice wicket to bat on and we gave some opportunities away.We got a lot of starts and nobody was able to go on and get a big score like Quinton de Kock did. So going forward it’s the responsibility of one of our top four to post a big total, and if we do that then the team total is going to be big as well.”

The BCCI is likely to defer the bidding process for the IPL television and digital rights, which had been scheduled to open in Mumbai on October 25, in wake of the fresh order from the Supreme Court on Friday.The court order had directed the BCCI to route all tenders and contracts through the Lodha Committee. The committee has not yet decided when it will conduct its next meeting to decide its next step following the court order. It is understood that the BCCI has contacted the committee, which has not yet responded to the board; the BCCI needs to wait for its approval. If the BCCI decides to go ahead with the bidding process without the committee’s backing, it will be in danger of being in contempt of court.Within hours of the court pronouncing the order, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke sent an email to the Lodha Committee seeking direction on whether the IPL bids could be held next Tuesday. It is understood that BCCI also sent the committee all necessary details, including the paperwork submitted by the 18 bidders that had bought the invitation to tender (ITT) document.”We have sought advice from the Lodha Committee,” a senior BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo. The BCCI is already prepared for the bidding process to be postponed. The board official said that even if the committee were to give it the nod, the BCCI would be faced with “logistical” issues to conduct the bidding on Tuesday.According to the official, once the BCCI validated the 18 companies that had bought the ITT, it needed to send them an agreement. “First you issue the agreement. Then there are two rounds of clarifications. After the clarifications some points change and you revise the agreement. The revised agreement did not go out yesterday after the court judgement.”If they say go ahead, we will do that on October 25. But it would be a very big challenge for the board. So we will just change the date by one or two days.” The official said the board had not updated the 18 companies yet on the schedule, and would do so only after it heard from the Lodha Committee.In the order, the court had also asked the committee to appoint an independent auditor to oversee all existing and future finance-related issues, tenders and contracts of the board. The court also asked the committee to set a “threshold value” for contracts; whenever that limit was exceeded, the BCCI would need to seek approval from the Lodha panel before moving ahead in the particular matter.Shirke, in his email, had also asked the committee if the independent auditor would also be present for the bidding process. “We don’t know what the threshold value is. We don’t know who the auditor is. So we have submitted all the papers [relating to the tender] to them. And we await the directive from the committee now,” the official said.In September, the BCCI announced it would invite bidders to participate in an open-tender process to secure IPL rights for the next cycle starting 2018. With the IPL’s worth having soared astronomically over its nine seasons, and keeping in mind the changing trends in business dynamics, the BCCI had split the media rights into three categories: Indian subcontinent television rights, India subcontinent digital rights and Rest of the World media rights. Among those who bought the ITT were non-television players Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Reliance Jio.The case stems from the IPL 2013 fixing scandal. The court had initially appointed the Lodha Committee to determine appropriate punishments for those involved, and propose changes to the BCCI’s functioning to ensure best practices. In July the court accepted the majority of the committee’s recommendations, covering wide-ranging aspects of Indian cricket at the central and state level, making it binding on the BCCI to implement them. The BCCI has since questioned the benefits of some of these reforms – particularly the “one state, one vote” policy, the age cap on board officials, and the cap and cooling off periods on their terms in office – and missed some deadlines for their implementation, prompting the Lodha Committee and the Supreme Court to pursue the matter.

Rishabh Pant probably doesn’t intend to deliver punchlines, but does them anyway, and in style. Sample this: ” (There are no limitations in cricket. Everything is unlimited. I need to raise the limits of my performances).” The Delhi batsman said this after smashing a 48-ball century against Jharkhand in Thumba to add to his hundred in the first innings.With 799 runs, including four hundreds, Pant is also the leading run-getter so far in this Ranji Trophy season. The 19-year-old, though, doesn’t want to count the number of centuries he has scored. “Only performances matter – the bigger the better,” he tells ESPNcricinfo.Delhi’s top order responded strongly after being asked to follow on, scoring 214 for the loss of three wickets. When Pant’s turn came, he walked out to bat on an empty stomach, again. “I get very little time for breakfast,” he said with a laugh. “Because, every day I either have batting or wicket-keeping [drills before play]. That’s the system in every match.”That, however, didn’t stop Pant from creaming Jharkhand’s bowlers for 135 in 67 balls, with 78 runs coming in sixes. Pant was surprised to learn his 21 sixes in the match was the second-most in a first-class game. (I felt I wasn’t batting properly and that I had to play better, that’s all). I had got an opportunity to bat again; that hasn’t happened in the most of our matches,” Pant, who has batted in only seven innings from five games, says.Jharkhand left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who is Pant’s Delhi Daredevils team-mate in the IPL, was at the receiving end of some “unbelievable” strokes. “There was some rough and we were trying to land there, but he would step out and easily hit sixes off even those deliveries that were out of his reach,” Nadeem says. “In the first innings, he was batting on 99, and when Sunny Gupta, the offspinner, was bowling, he hit him against the spin over midwicket. That was a pretty huge six.”According to Nadeem, bowling to Pant was particularly difficult given how flat the pitch was. “There are the Virender Sehwag-types who believe in their strokes right from the start rather than taking singles. Pant belongs to that category,” he says. “There were fielders on the boundary line, but he was still clearing them easily.”For his part, Pant said when the shot is timed well, it doesn’t matter if the ground is small or big. Coach KP Bhaskar had called for better shot-selection from Pant after Delhi’s 160-run loss to Karnataka, but according to Pant, Bhaskar has asked him to back his natural game. He believes playing his natural game and batting responsibly aren’t mutually exclusive. “When you express yourself, it doesn’t mean you are not playing responsibly,” he said. “People generally think that when someone plays attacking cricket, he doesn’t bat responsibly. But, if you don’t play responsibly, there is only one outcome: you get out.”Does Pant think he could have scored the hundred in fewer deliveries? “Of course. I had reached 96 in around 42 or 43 deliveries. But then, they were bowling outside off, and I couldn’t force myself to go after those deliveries,” he says, and throws in another punchline for good measure: ” (Anything can happen in cricket).”

India batsman Rohit Sharma will travel to London next week for treatment on his thigh injury, which has ruled him out of cricket for at least 10 to 12 weeks. This means he is almost certain to miss the limited-overs leg of the England tour, and also puts him in doubt for the one-off Test against Bangladesh, which will be played early in February. It is possible he might have to undergo surgery.Rohit suffered the injury while batting in the last ODI of the five-match series against New Zealand in Visakhapatnam. He was on 46 when he hurt his quadriceps while diving into the crease to avoid being run-out. This happened in the 17th over and Rohit continued batting for five more without a runner because international cricket does not allow for such anymore. His 70 off 65 balls on a slow pitch was crucial to India winning the series 3-2.”He will travel to London early next week for specialist consultation with a possibility to undergo surgery, as a result of which, he is expected to miss at least 10 to 12 weeks of cricket,” a BCCI press release said. “The BCCI medical team will extend all support to Rohit Sharma, to regain full fitness and further contribute to Indian cricket.”There can be no good timing for an injury, but this one is particularly unfortunate because Rohit had just begun to cement himself in the Indian Test XI. In the series against New Zealand, he rescued India in the second innings in Kolkata. He was one of the only two batsmen to score at least one half-century in each of the three Tests, and was the fourth-highest run-getter overall.