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ScorecardDarren Bravo helped stabilise the innings after early strife•Cricket Australia

Darren Bravo’s unbeaten 46 helped West Indians reach 6 for 154 after Cricket Australia XI had reduced them to 5 for 83 on the first day of the tour game in Brisbane. Only 60 overs were possible, however, due to rain interruptions.West Indians opted to bat and their openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Rajendra Chandrika were cautious at the start, adding 32 by the 16th over. The good work was undone, however when both men fell within six overs to seamer James Bazley.Bravo and Marlon Samuels shared a 31-run partnership for the third wicket, but Samuels’ dismissal was followed by two more quick wickets. Jermaine Blackwood was caught off fast bowler Ryan Lees for 1 and Denesh Ramdin bagged a duck, courtesy medium-pacer Simon Milenko.Bravo kept steady at one end and inched his way to 46 off 135 deliveries with six fours and a six. He shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 32 with Jason Holder and then added an unbeaten 39 runs with Carlos Brathwaite – the highest stand of the innings so far.Apart from Milenko and Bazley, who took two wickets each, Lees and legspinner Cameron Boyce were also among the wickets.

Melbourne Renegades batsman Chris Gayle has come in for strong criticism for his comments towards a television presenter in an interview during his side’s victory over Hobart Hurricanes at Bellerive Oval, with Anthony Everard, the head of the BBL, promising action against the batsman., the broadcaster, also confirmed that Gayle would not be involved in their coverage for the rest of the tournament as a result of comments he made to their reporter Mel McLaughlin shortly after he had been dismissed.”I wanted to come and have an interview with you as well,” Gayle said to McLaughlin, when asked about how aggressively he had batted. “That’s the reason why I’m here, just to see your eyes for the first time. It’s nice so. Hopefully we can win this game and have a drink after. Don’t blush, baby.”Everard, who was at the game, was quick to sharply rebuke Gayle’s comments. “I heard Chris’ comments and they’re disrespectful and simply inappropriate,” he said in a statement.”We’ll certainly be talking to him and the Renegades about it. This league is all about its appeal to kids, families and females. There’s just no place in the BBL – or, for that matter, cricket anywhere – for that sort of behaviour.”Melbourne Renegades’ chief executive Stuart Coventry echoed Everard’s comments, saying “there is just no place for that sort of behaviour”.Channel Ten commentator Mark Howard, joined in the commentary box by former internationals Damien Fleming and Mark Waugh, quickly apologised for Gayle’s comments, but only after Ten’s official twitter account @TenSport had tweeted what Gayle had said, with the hashtag #smooth. That tweet has since been deleted.”We will be seeking an apology,” David Barham, Channel Ten’s head of sport, told , adding that he was “deeply offended” by Gayle’s comments. “We won’t be using him in the game anymore. Unless things change in the next few days, it’s not happening. It was totally inappropriate behaviour. Mel’s a working journalist doing a job.”Gayle has form in this department. In July 2014, when asked by a female reporter during the Caribbean Premier League about the surface the Jamaica Tallawahs, who he was captaining, would be playing on in their next game, Gayle responded: “Well, I haven’t touched yours yet so I don’t know how it feels.”On that occasion, a CPL spokesperson defended Gayle’s comments but he can expect shorter shrift this time, with Cricket Australia expected to make an official statement on the matter imminently.

Brad Hodge, the Australian batsman, will miss the next five weeks of the county season with Lancashire after signing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. It is a move that has come out of the blue and the player only learnt of the approach within the last 48 hours.Hodge is the leading scorer in Twenty20 cricket worldwide with 1649 runs at 42 and a strike-rate of 139 from 47 matches. “I was approached only 24-48 hours ago and I’m still in shock at the opportunity that has been presented,” he said.”Twenty20 is a format that I really enjoy and have a good record in, and to be part of the inaugural IPL tournament is something most cricketers would find hard to turn down. It’s been an extremely difficult decision to make, but Lancashire have been very understanding of my situation and I hope to repay them on the field when I return.””Brad is arguably one of the best Twenty20 players in the world,” said Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive. “Although it’s disappointing to be losing a player of his calibre for part of our season, we are very lucky at Lancashire to have depth in our squad and this is a great opportunity for someone else to step up to the plate.”Hodge will join his Victoria team-mate David Hussey at Kolkata, who will lose Brendon McCullum to New Zealand’s tour of England at the end of the month and Ricky Ponting to a training camp. He will leave after Lancashire’s current Championship game against Somerset and the first match he misses is the Friends Provident Trophy clash against Scotland. Lancashire have no current plans to bring in another overseas player for the period Hodge is away.

Scotland have called up 19-year-old fast bowler Bradley Wheal for their upcoming tour to Hong Kong in January 2016. Scotland will play an Intercontinental Cup match, two ODIs as part of the World Cricket League Championship, and two Twenty20 internationals between January 21 and 31.South Africa-born Wheal, whose mother is Scottish, took seven wickets in a match for a Scotland XI against MCC in August this year. He played his first season for Hampshire in 2015, taking eight wickets in four matches in Division One of the County Championship, including a four-for against Middlesex.The squad does not include Hamish Gardiner and Gavin Main from the team that played the Intercontinental Cup and WCL Championship matches against Netherlands in September. Main was unavailable for selection, after opting to play in New Zealand in early January and February. Ruaidhri Smith, the 21-year-old allrounder, cited unavailability for the tour due to exams in January. Both Main and Smith are available for World T20 selection, a release from Cricket Scotland said.Matt Machan scored 0 and 3 in the Intercontinental Cup match against Netherlands but enjoyed a strong county season with Sussex, finishing with 955 from 14 matches at an average of 39.79. Machan returns after missing the World T20 Qualifier earlier in the year.Scotland’s Intercontinental Cup match against Hong Kong will be played between January 21 and 24. The two ODIs will be played on January 26 and 28, while the T20 matches are scheduled for January 30 and 31.Scotland are currently fourth on the WCL Championship table with two wins from four matches, and two no-results after their Netherlands fixtures were washed out. They are yet to register a win in the Intercontinental Cup after two games – they drew their opening match against Afghanistan and lost to Netherlands by 44 runs – and are placed seventh on the points table.Scotland squad: Preston Mommsen (Captain), Alasdair Evans, Bradley Wheal, Calum MacLeod, Con de Lange, George Munsey, Josh Davey, Kyle Coetzer, Mark Watt, Matt Machan, Matthew Cross, Michael Leask, Richie Berrington, Rob Taylor, Safyaan Sharif.

Left-arm spinner Ajay Mandal’s second four-wicket haul helped Chhattisgarh bowl Haryana out for 178 in Guwahati. After Haryana elected to bat, the early damage was caused by seamer Pankaj Rao – who removed opener Nitin Saini and Himanshu Rana – and Mandal, who left them struggling on 63 for 6. Rohit Sharma, who top-scored with 45, and Harshal Patel (34) mended things slightly with a 64-run partnership, before Patel fell to the part-time medium-pace of Abhimanyu Chauhan. There were a few minor contributions from the lower order before Haryana folded up in the 55th over. Seamer Abhishek Tamrakar chipped in with two wickets.Chhattisgarh were solid in their reply, ending the day on 68 for 1.Opener Bishal Ghosh’s century and Smit Patel’s second successive ton were instrumental in Tripura racking up 305 for 2 against Himachal Pradesh in Kalyani. Sent in to bat, Tripura had a solid start courtesy a 65-run opening stand between Ghosh and Udiyan Bose. After Bose was bowled by Pankaj Jaiswal, Ghosh and Patel raised 230 runs for the second wicket. Ghosh, 20, however, fell four short of his 150 in the penultimate over of the day.Centuries from captain Sagun Kamat and debutant opener Sumiran Amonkar powered Goa to 333 for 2 at stumps against Services in Cuttack. Services’ decision to bowl was vindicated almost immediately as Diwesh Pathania had opener Swapnil Asnodkar caught behind in the first over. But, Kamat and Amonkar scored at a brisk pace while add 237 runs, before Amonkar was trapped lbw by Pathania for 101 off 195 balls. Kamat, however, put on an unbroken partnership of 91 runs with Snehal Kauthankar (35*), and remained unbeaten on 177 off 267 balls. That Services had a hard day was further illustrated by the fact that seven of the eight bowlers used had no success.Half-centuries from Sachin Baby and Jalaj Saxena steered Kerala to 223 for 4 after they elected to bat against Hyderabad in Bhubaneswar. After opener VA Jagadeesh was removed by left-arm seamer Chama Milind in the fourth over of the day, Bhavin Thakkar (38) and Rohan Prem (41) put on 75 runs for the second wicket. Hyderabad’s bowlers hit back with three quicket wickets; Sanju Samson and Prem were dismissed for the addition of merely two runs in the space of 6.5 overs. Baby and Saxena, however, arrested the slide and put on an unbroken stand of 114 runs.Opener Shubham Khajuria’s 90 held Jammu & Kashmir‘s innings together as Andhra‘s seamers reduced them to 205 for 6 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Electing to bowl, Andhra prised out three of J&K’s top-four batsmen for 51 runs. Khajuria and Parvez Rasool (45) then added 99 runs, but once D Siva Kumar had Rasool caught behind, J&K lost two more wickets for 36 runs. Seamers Siva Kumar and DP Vijayakumar, and left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt picked up two wickets each.

Free hit, free hit, and another free hit
Can’t beat this. Three no-balls in a row for Brett Lee. Three free hits for the batsmen. For the first one, Robin Uthappa stepped away, read the short one well and sent it crashing over long-on for six. The second he swatted straight to mid-off for a single, while Gautam Gambhir drove the third straight into the hands of Andrew Symonds at backward point, who took the catch, which, of course, didn’t result in a wicket as the delivery was a free hit.Matter of respect
Harbhajan Singh is used to the customary booing each time he walks out to bat and in fact thrives on the hostile atmosphere. The asking-rate was almost two runs a ball and Harbhajan didn’t buckle under the pressure. Stuart Clark bowled one short, slow and outside off, and Harbhajan slapped it effortlessly over cover. Next one he pushed to the vacant mid-on and scampered back for two but Uthappa had run one short. Clark showed his frustration by bowling wide down the leg side, giving away five runs. A straight delivery that followed was thrashed by Harbhajan over the bowler’s head for four. Another double was stolen and by the time he exited after a delightful cameo of 20, he surely demanded more respect.What the …
He went down on his knees with both hands clasped behind his head. No, it didn’t appear like a tennis champion after having won a Grand Slam, but more akin to the anguish of a footballer who’s just missed the last kick in sudden death. Ricky Ponting had that look of dismay when his brilliant stop and throw from mid-off failed to hit the stumps. Irfan Pathan had taken on one of the best arms on the circuit and was lucky to survive.Gilly scores a try, almost
Gautam Gambhir charged down the wicket to Nathan Bracken and got an inside edge, which sneaked towards the vacant fine-leg region. Adam Gilchrist was in hot pursuit, but when he realised he couldn’t catch up, he threw himself down like a try scorer in rugby about 10 metres from the target. The 37-year-old wicketkeeper’s slide was a little off the mark, but the effort deserved top rating.Powerplays can be confusing
Captains have their hands full trying to figure out Powerplays these days. The third one was nearing its end when Ponting pushed an extra fielder outside the inner circle. Three men are allowed to be positioned in the outfield during the third Powerplay but Australia were taking it a fielder too far. The fact wasn’t lost, fortunately, on the vigilant square-leg umpire – Daryl Harper – who signalled a no-ball.Thump
Gambhir went for a flat six over long-on off Brad Hogg, except it bounced a couple of yards inside the boundary then another bounce before clearing the hoardings. A couple of kids attempted to stop the ball, but deflected it right on to the forehead of the gentleman behind, who smiled gamely despite the rather unexpected blow.Outstretched
Sreesanth was wayward, and Gilchrist cashed in, smashing two successive boundaries. Gilchrist was cramped for room when one came back in to the body, and got an inside edge that raced toward Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s wrong side. Dhoni dived and caught the ball in his fingertips; though it remains to be seen if the illegal piece of webbing had given him an unfair advantage.Wake-up call
Rohit Sharma, who came up with some scintillating saves at point completely misjudged one that came off the leading edge from Ponting. Ishant Sharma once again squared up the Australian captain with one that moved away; Rohit stayed put, at first thinking the ball was coming straight to him, only to find it moving to his left. A late dive was futile, and Ponting, on 15, had been let off early.Too late
Rohit atoned for his previous faux pas by running out Matthew Hayden. Ponting pushed one into the covers off Virender Sewhag and called for a single. Rohit picked the ball with his left hand, switched it to his right while on the turn and threw it straight to the bowler, who triumphantly knocked off the bails. Unfortunately for Hayden, he was stranded mid-pitch as Ponting’s call to ‘wait’ had come too late.Cool down, Ishant
It’s difficult to be a fast bowler when the batsmen get after you. Ishant Sharma got whipped by Hayden and Ponting in his first spell. As the innings neared its end he had Andrew Symonds bowled off a slow ball, and duly let out his frustration by celebrating a wee bit excessively. Symonds didn’t like that, words were exchanged between the two, and it ended with Sharma pointing towards the dressing room repeatedly. Umpire Harper cautioned Dhoni about the 19-year-old, who has been summoned by match referee Jeff Crowe for a disciplinary hearing on Monday.

Umpire Richard Illingworth was “distraught” when he discovered that he had incorrectly called a no-ball that reprieved Adam Voges on the first day in Wellington, according to match referee Chris Broad.Voges went on to score 239 in a match-defining innings; he was on 7 at the time when he left a delivery and was bowled off the Doug Bracewell no-ball, despite a significant part of the bowler’s heel being behind the crease. Under the ICC playing conditions, a no-ball can be retrospectively called but not rescinded, so there was nothing that could be done about the call after Illingworth had made it.”Unfortunately Richard was distraught afterwards when he realised that it wasn’t a no ball,” Broad told the . “… I think when anyone is proved wrong in any decision that they make it’s clearly embarrassing at the time. But umpires, particularly on the elite panel have a great ability to be able to overcome that feeling and get on with the game.”There can be nothing done about it. The problem is that when an umpire calls a no-ball, you can’t change that decision because under the laws a batsman may change his shot when the no-ball is called. It was called – that’s the end of the matter. Richard is a Yorkshireman, he shrugs his shoulders and gets on with it. I’m constantly amazed at how the umpires, when they do make their occasional errors, are able to recover from it.”The mistake has led to debate about whether the on-field umpire is the best person to call no-balls, and whether the job would be better placed in the hands of the TV umpire. Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann, who sits on the ICC Cricket Committee which has discussed the matter in the past, said he would like to see the square-leg umpire take control of no-balls.”It’s a part of the game but I know it’s not right,” Lehmann said of Illingworth’s error. “We all make mistakes, I make plenty as a coach, umpires are going to make some. It’s heightened because he was on 7 and made 239 isn’t it? The no-ball situation is getting tough for umpires. I’d have the square-leg umpire do the no balls, but that’s me, that’s my cricket hat on.”Where do you go? How far do you go? How many no-balls are there in a game. How long will the day go, how many overs will we miss out on? All those questions have to be asked.””It’s something we’ve got to talk about at the ICC Cricket Committee. I sit on that so I have my views but there’s a lot of views and a lot of good players who have played a lot of cricket on that. We’ve got to get the solution right for umpires as well, there’s umpires on that commitee.”The incident occurred in the last over of the first day and was not replayed on the big screen at the Basin Reserve, so the New Zealand players did not realise the no-ball call was incorrect until they left the field at stumps. New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said he had spoken to Broad about the no-ball but the New Zealanders had moved on and tried to refocus on the match.”I just discussed it with Chris Broad after the game, as you do, but it became fairly clear pretty quickly that there’s not a lot that can be done about it, so you move on,” Hesson said on Tuesday morning. The spirit [among the players] was fine, there’s no doubt at the time we were disappointed, there’s no doubt about that. We moved on pretty quickly.”After New Zealand’s loss, captain Brendon McCullum indicated he would have no problem with taking no-ball calls out of the hands of the on-field umpires, and Hesson was also open to the possibility.”The more decisions right the better,” Hesson said. “If we can use more technology to do that then decisions like that become less influential. It’s something the ICC are aware of and will discuss … The game’s about swings and roundabouts, sometimes you get a bit of fortune sometimes you don’t. In this situation many batsmen get a reprieve but some are good enough to make the most of it and Adam Voges certainly made the most of it.”

England are “very likely” to take up an offer from Allen Stanford to play a multi-million dollar Twenty20 match during the tour of West Indies next year according to Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman.Clarke met with Stanford at Lord’s on Tuesday to discuss possible joint ventures which could include Stanford having a role in any future English Premier League plus the match next year, which could be worth as much as $20million, against an All-stars West Indies XI.”We did see Sir Allen – a date has not been fixed for when anything will be played, or what format it will take this year or going forward into the future,” Clarke told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. “I think that match is very likely to take place. Sir Allen is doing a huge amount for cricket in the West Indies and we are keen to help things develop there.”With no window in the current international schedule to allow England’s centrally contracted players to compete in the Indian Premier League (IPL) the ECB is eager to appease players who are keen to cash in on lucrative Twenty20 tournaments.Clarke added: “Of course we are also keen to give our players the chance to make a significant amount of money and these types of games can be tremendously dramatic. We are extremely interested in his ideas but there is a long way to go.”We need to confirm a lot of things with our friends in the West Indies. There is not a specific date at this moment of time and no specific structure at this time.”Clarke also admitted that the ECB are still formulating plans for an English Premier League. “I think what the IPL will achieve is remarkable given the time and speed with which it has been put together. We are spending a lot of time looking at creating a robust, sustainable and economically viable league that still protects our core revenues of Test cricket.”Stanford has previously tried to invite South Africa for a winner-takes-all match but it fell through after a clash with the West Indies board. Last year Stanford also offered to bring the World Twenty20 winners, India, to the Caribbean but the BCCI wasn’t keen on taking part in an unofficial event.

Somerset 139 for 4 (Gazzard 59*) beat UAE 138 (Khurram Khan 67) by six wickets
ScorecardSomerset cruised to a six-wicket win over UAE with almost 19 overs to spare in the Pro ARCH Trophy at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.On a day when Somerset’s attention was centred on Marcus Trescothick, who pulled out of this tour at the 11th hour, this one-sided match barely registered on the radar.UAE were always second best, slipping to 32 for 4 before a gutsy 67 from veteran Khurram Khan gave them respectability but nothing remotely close to a winning score. Khan was the last man out.Carl Gazzard, opening in Trescothick’s absence, made an unbeaten 59, including consecutive sixes to finish the match, while James Hildreth chipped in with a breezy 29.

A Tasmanian car containing a batch of egg throwers was fortunate to escape after pelting a small group of Sri Lankans in Hobart last week. Muttiah Muralitharan would have been in hot pursuit of the drive-by yolkers if he and his fellow tourists were not so shocked by the flying object, which hit a selector in the back, but they laughed it off as a random act.While the Sri Lankans reported the incident on Friday, Mahela Jayawardene, their captain, said a green light saved the car’s passengers, who were “probably drunk”, from being chased by the men in the group.”If Murali had a stone or something near him he would’ve thrown it back,” Jayawardene said in Brisbane. “By the time they had realised what had happened the car had raced down the road. It was lucky for the guys in the car that the traffic light was green, otherwise Murali said he would have chased them.”Jayawardene joked it would have been funny if the egg had hit Murali instead of a selector. “It was a just a random thing and not a big deal,” he said. “We all had a good laugh about it. We didn’t want the matter to escalate so we lodged the complaint and left it at that. Murali was part of the group and the only recognisable person, but we all are fine with the matter.”Muralitharan has received a lot of poor treatment in Australia and even though it was unlikely the occupants of the car recognised him, the fact that a group of Sri Lankan tourists was singled out is a poor reflection on the host country.Another spinner, India’s Harbhajan Singh, has also been targeted following his part in the race controversy involving Andrew Symonds at the SCG, and Symonds’ home crowd chanted “Harbhajan’s a w***er” during the opening ODI of the CB Series.Jayawardene said it was important to “block everything” out during tours of Australia. “When you come here it’s not just the players who are aggressive, it’s also the crowd who are as aggressive as their team,” he said. “Everyone wants to win here in any sport, so teams need to prepare for that.”We should block everything else apart from what needs to be done in the middle. The Indians showed that with the way they bounced back in the Test series recently after what all happened in Sydney.”