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ScorecardFile photo: Chirag Khurana shared a 270-run partnership for the second wicket with Swapnil Gugale•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Swapnil Gugale and Chirag Khurana scored hundreds to keep Maharashtra’s pursuit of the first-innings lead on track, but Tamil Nadu pulled things back with a few late strikes to put the game in the balance.Maharashtra didn’t lose a wicket in the first session, Gugale and Khurana raising 270 runs overall before Gugale, who faced 282 balls and hit 28 fours, was removed by B Aparajith in the 52nd over of the day. Both batsmen scored at a reasonable pace, managing strike-rates of 50-plus each.Gugale’s dismissal gave Tamil Nadu an opening, seamer A Aswin Crist landing two blows in fairly quick succession. Rahul Tripathi was caught in front by Crist exactly five overs after Gugale was out. Crist struck again after 10 overs to have Khurana caught behind.At 330 for 4, Ankit Bawne and Kedar Jadhav proceeded to knit together a 45-run stand. Jadhav, who had raced away to 26 off 25 deliveries, was removed by Malolan Rangarajan. Bawne and captain Rohit Motwani, who faced 31 balls for his four runs, downed the shutters.Khurana said later that the wicket, while having slowed down, wasn’t unplayable. “It’s not that difficult. Both the batsmen at the crease [Bawne and Motwani] are determined to take us through,” Khurana told ESPNcricinfo. “They [Tamil Nadu] will come hard at us in the morning, so we need to be patient and not lose wickets in the first session. If we bat out the whole day, we will win. Today, Swapnil and me wanted to bat out the morning session without giving away a wicket. That gave the team a lot of confidence.”

Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Akram, Adam Gilchrist, Viv Richards and MS Dhoni are the leading contenders for the crown of the greatest one-day cricketer of all time, in an exercise conducted by the . The winner – determined by a jury of 50 players, commentators and cricket writers from around the world – will be announced in the March issue of the magazine, published next week.The jury’s choice of the five greatest comprise two game­changing keeper-batsmen, a magician fast bowler, and two colossal batsmen.Adam Gilchrist’s ODI career spanned only 12 years – 1996 to 2008 – but he set a benchmark for his breed. He rattled along at 97 runs for 100 balls and confirmed his status as an all-time great with a whirlwind 149 that won Australia the World Cup final in 2007.If Gilchrist reinvented the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman, MS Dhoni – the only current player in the top five – has emerged as one of the greatest finishers in ODI cricket. Mixing cheeky running with power-packed, inventive strokeplay, Dhoni has time and again taken India past the finish line. And he played a huge role in two big one-day finals – with the bat in the 2011 World Cup, and with inspired captaincy in the 2013 Champions Trophy.Through the late ’70s and ’80s, one cricketer dominated the limited-overs game like no other, and helped his side to two World Cups along the way. Viv Richards averaged 47 (at a time when batsmen in the top seven averaged 29) and scored at a strike rate of 90 (in an era when the norm was 66). Well before Powerplays and fielding restrictions, Richards punished bowlers with a wide and devastating array of strokes. His electric fielding and fierce captaincy could torment opponents too.If Richards could do anything with a bat, the same could be said of Wasim Akram with the ball. In a career that lasted nearly two decades Akram developed from a young tearaway to a masterful swing bowler who could bowl six different deliveries in an over. He finished with 502 wickets – still comfortably the most for a fast bowler. The day it mattered the most, in March 1992, he finished as Man of the Match.In terms of longevity and batting numbers Sachin Tendulkar has no equal. Starting as a teenage prodigy who batted in the lower middle order, Tendulkar went on to become the definitive one­day opener – fire­starting the innings and then settling down to bat long. He ended with a mammoth 18,426 runs and 49 centuries – records that may not be bettered for many years to come. And he won games with the ball too.The ‘s 50-member jury includes legendary cricketers Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Martin Crowe, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith; veteran commentators Tony Cozier, Mark Nicholas, Mike Haysman and Sanjay Manjrekar; and respected writers Gideon Haigh, Mike Coward, Suresh Menon and Mike Selvey.”No one does numbers better than us,” said ESPNcricinfo’s editor-in­-chief Sambit Bal, “but we also know that numbers don’t always tell the full story. Which is why we rely on the cumulative wisdom of those who should know for our awards.”And the World Cup was a good occasion to assemble a grand jury – drawn from different eras and countries – to pick the greatest ever one-day cricketer. It’s hard to argue with the top five the poll has thrown up: between them they encapsulate the best of ODI cricket across the ages and also its evolution.”The March issue of the published on Tuesday, 10 March, will include full results of the poll, celebrations of the top five, an interview with the winner of the title, and more.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:16

Agarkar: Good last over from Coulter-Nile under pressure

JP Duminy’s all-round brilliance set the foundation of Delhi Daredevils’ second win of the season but it still took remarkable presence of mind from Mayank Agarwal to close the doors on Sunrisers Hyderabad. The home team needed seven runs off the last two balls when Karn Sharma’s slice was headed over the rope behind point, but Agarwal leapt and parried the ball back into play to deny Sunrisers four runs. That save more or less sealed the result.That Sunrisers had managed to come so close was largely due to some late blows from Karn and Ashish Reddy, but they had already been put in an awkward position by Duminy. He had scored a 41-ball 54, one of the two key efforts that lifted Daredevils to their eventual 167, and his four key wickets were key in stalling Sunrisers.Duminy removed both David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan in the seventh over, just after the two had taken 30 off the previous two overs. Those strikes changed the momentum. Duminy pulled it towards Daredevils even further in the 17th over when he removed both Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara. It was only the fifth time a player had managed a fifty and a four-wicket haul in the same game.Batting was not easy on a tricky pitch. After their loss to Rajasthan Royals in their previous match, Sunrisers had asked the curator for a surface with more pace, but it wasn’t to be. The new pitch behaved exactly the way the other one did, with ball sticking and the bounce unpredictable. Throughout the game, seamers often used their slower ones, there were plenty of edges, while Dhawan took a couple of blows around the rib cage.Perhaps because of this unknown, Warner had said he wanted to bowl after Daredevils had opted to bat. As Agarwal edged to slip a rising delivery from Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, that decision seemed justified but Shreyas Iyer, after initial discomfort, showed that if a batsman was prepared to stick on, there were runs to be had.Iyer punched Dale Steyn, who was playing his first game of the season, for a boundary through cover in the bowler’s second over but was also lucky a couple of times as the edges evaded the fielders. Twenty-eight runs came in the first five overs but as Duminy held one end, Iyer went on the offensive, taking 12 runs off the sixth over, bowled by Praveen.Iyer reserved special treatment for Karn’s legspin, hitting the bowler for three sixes in the eight balls he faced off him, the last of which brought up his maiden IPL half-century, in 32 balls. That intensity manifested in the scores, as 52 runs came in the second five-over block.Iyer was dismissed soon after as he was fooled by a slower delivery, but Duminy, who had been patiently watching from the other end took the mantle of scoring, hitting two fours and a six off Bopara, then hoisting Steyn over long-on to reach his half-century off 39 balls.Such brilliance doesn’t ensure a win at times. Ask Yuvraj Singh, who has done that all-round double twice before, but his side lost the match in both instances. Today, however, Duminy had two critical supporting acts – Iyer with the bat and Agarwal, in that last over, down at the boundary.

As the man who struck the six that sealed New Zealand’s epic World Cup semi-final win over South Africa in March, Grant Elliott is no stranger to stressful situations. But even he was taken aback by the blizzard of headlines that have enveloped English cricket in the past 48 hours.”You guys are pretty intense over here,” he said at the launch of the Investec Test summer. “I asked Belly, ‘is it always like this?’ He said, ‘yeah, pretty much’.” Ian Bell, separated from Elliot by compere Nasser Hussain, was visibly braced for impact.The most striking aspect of the morning came in the contrast between Bell’s understandably guarded responses, and the utter relaxation of a New Zealand cricketer who, though he will not be featuring on this tour until the ODIs in June, is self-evidently qualified to speak for the mindset of his Test-playing team-mates. The afterglow of New Zealand’s extraordinary and captivating World Cup has yet to wear off and Elliott spoke with an openness and enthusiasm that must surely be the envy of any England player who longs for a chance to be truly judged on the field.”The cohesion and team environment we had could be seen through the television screen,” Elliot said. “But possibly the best accolade was having mums and dads come up to us, saying my son or daughter wants to play cricket next summer. It was great.”Respect for your team-mates would have played its part too, which is presumably the underlying, and still unspoken reason, for Kevin Pietersen’s blackballing from the England set-up. And yet Bell, who is part of the same management company, could shed no light on the dressing-room politics.”I played ten years with Kevin, we both went through highs and lows, we won a lot of cricket together,” Bell said. “I enjoyed my time with him but it’s very difficult to say anything. Kevin is a quality player, probably the best player I’ve ever played with so he does make any team stronger. But I haven’t sat in on any of these meetings, I don’t know what’s been said between Colin Graves and Kevin, and Tom Harrison and Kevin, and Andrew Strauss and Kevin.”It’s no good us as players talking about that and there have been no conversations in the dressing room about any of this stuff.”There’s no use blaming the players for the situation that their management has created for them, but whatever way you try to spin it, it’s not a good look for a sport that has rarely felt more distant from its public. As Elliott summed up, not without a degree of relish: “It’s complicated, isn’t it?”New Zealand shrugged off their internal politics long ago and throughout the World Cup, the connection between the New Zealand team and their fans was real and heartfelt, and stories abound to illustrate the warmth and the depth of that feeling – a primary school teacher in the Bay of Plenty won a bet (50 press-ups) with an incredulous Year Five student that, yes, she was in fact Trent Boult’s girlfriend, and, yes, if the class behaved for the rest of the term she would ask him to visit.There’s a significant difference in scale between England and New Zealand, of course – Elliott himself likened his home town, Wellington, to a “fishing village” – but the ECB can but dream of creating such a seamless connection between its team and its public.5:37

Elliott backs New Zealand IPL stars to fire in Tests

To that end, Matt Dwyer, formerly of Cricket Australia, has been appointed the ECB’s new director of participation and growth. It is a vital role, in spite of the lumpiness of the title, but nothing compared to the impact that a liberated, exciting, free-spirited national team could create.More’s the pity that, ten years ago, that’s exactly what England had. Though only a rookie at the time, Bell was a member of the 2005 Ashes team that won over the country with every bit as much élan as Brendon McCullum’s New Zealand have shown throughout their recent triumphs.”I remember Michael Vaughan saying he’d rather lose to Australia by taking them on than sit there and lose by playing passive cricket,” Bell said. “I see this summer as similar, we are going to have to be brave, take the odd gamble here and there, and if we play good cricket, we can start changing people’s opinions on the team and start getting people talking about cricket again, which is what we all play for.”But we’re certainly not in the place ideally that we’d like right now.”Indeed. If England are embarking on a long-term project – and Andrew Strauss appeared to imply that a five-year rebuilding mission is on the cards – then the first Test at Lord’s, now only seven days’ away, is probably too soon to hope that England can exorcise the negativity and find a new thrilling brand of KP-free aggression. But they ought to expect some handy pointers on the merits, and otherwise, of all-out attack, as Elliott fully expects Brendon McCullum to stick to the gameplan that has served him well in all formats and all conditions.”He’s a bit of a maverick, he’s risky, but it’s great to be a part of that and you have to buy into it,” he said. “I know that the bowlers turn around and think ‘where the hell are my fielders?’, and they’ll all be in the slips. But you can’t help but be endeared to him and want to play for him. He’s been an integral part of New Zealand’s success.”So too has the underlying recognition that cricket is only a game – as Elliott himself personified after booking New Zealand’s place in the World Cup final. Again, with echoes England’s endeavours in 2005, Elliott’s first instinct was to offer a hand to his beaten opponent. “I’ve got a perspective on the game now,” Elliott said. “That game could have gone any way, my middle pole could still be tumbling out of Eden Park. It’s a game of sport, and it’s about having that respect for your opponents.”

England and Sussex wicketkeeper Matt Prior has announced his retirement due to the Achilles injury which required surgery last year.Following the second Test against India, at Lord’s, Prior had an operation which ruled him out of the remainder of the 2014 season but retained hopes of resuming his career. However, he recently told ESPNcricinfo that his recovery was like “two steps forward and four steps back” and has been forced to concede he will not return.”Today is a very sad day for me as I am forced to announce my retirement from the game I love,” he said. “I had been hoping and expecting to be fit for the start of the 2015 season. Unfortunately, this has proved impossible, and I have now had to reach this decision.”I feel honoured to have played for Sussex and England as many times as I have and shared so many great times with both teams. I also feel privileged to have been involved in an era of such success for English cricket.”I would like to thank my family, team-mates, coaches and the people behind the scenes that have supported me throughout the years. I have created friendships that will last forever. It would also be remiss of me not to thank the fantastic support I have had from cricket fans both at home and abroad.”I have always tried to play with pride and passion and have a deep belief that the team will always come first. A value that will never leave me whatever I go on to do. Although I haven’t achieved all the goals I had set out to, I feel immensely proud of what I have done in my career. Sadly it is now time to move on.”Prior, 33, played 79 Tests, scoring 4099 runs and claiming 256 dismissals which left him second behind Alan Knott in the list of England’s wicketkeepers. He was part of three Ashes series victories and was also part of the England team which reached No. 1 in the Test rankings in 2011.He made a century on his Test debut against West Indies, at Lord’s, in 2007 and his top score of 131 not out came in Port of Spain in early 2009 following a recall to the side late the previous year after a gap of a year. That was one of seven Test hundreds – the last of which was the monumental rearguard against New Zealand in Auckland.Although he did not find the same success in white-ball cricket at international level, he played 68 ODIs and 10 T20s.Overall he played 249 first-class matches and scored 13,228 runs at 39.25 while claiming 683 dismissals.Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, said: “Matt has had a wonderful career as a wicketkeeper batsman for both Sussex and England. During a period where the Test team won three Ashes series and achieved the world No.1 ranking, Matt’s contribution, both on and off the field, was immense.”It is a huge shame that his career has come to an end in this way, although his athletic wicket-keeping and counter attacking batting will live long in the memories of both his team mates and England supporters.”Mark Robinson, the Sussex director of cricket, said: “It is a sad day when a cricketer of such talent and character and who has achieved so much, and has the ability to achieve so much more, is forced to retire through injury.”Matt has done great things for the club but more importantly, has done what we all dream of, which is play for his country with honour and distinction. On behalf of all the current playing side of the club, but also on behalf of all those who have played with him in the past, we thank him for the memories and wish him all the luck for the next stage of his life.”

ScorecardJames Burke’s maiden first-class half-century helped set up a three-day victory for Surrey•PA Photos

Much has been made of the players who are unavailable for selection by Surrey at the moment, rather less of the opportunities their absence affords to others. If Graham Ford, their coach, had been given a full-strength squad from which to choose, it is almost certain that neither Dominic Sibley nor James Burke would have got the nod for this game against Derbyshire, which Surrey won when they took three wickets in the extra half-hour as the home side’s later batsmen seemingly lost all contact with their powers of resistance or competitive spirit.Surrey captain Gareth Batty took the last four wickets in 6.5 overs on an evening when straight balls suddenly became lethal. From 78 for 6, when Wayne White was plumb as you like lbw to Tom Curran for 23, Derbyshire lost those last four wickets for 44 runs with Mark Footitt slogging 20 before he holed out to Burke at deep midwicket, thus ensuring that Surrey’s defeat to Glamorgan last week at Guildford could be consigned to the “blip” category much beloved of coaches everywhere.”We needed a reaction and we got it,” Batty said. “I think the boys to a man were magnificent and all of them should be really proud of themselves.”Yet the Surrey hierarchy should be careful. They will rarely encounter batting quite as gutless as some of Derbyshire’s was in the closing stages of this game. In his Daniel Defoe enthused that he found “a great deal of good and some gay company” in Derby. Well, Derby folk remain cheerful and welcoming in the 21st century but Defoe would have been hard-pressed to find the city’s cricket community in a sunny mood after they had watched the tripe their players served up on Tuesday evening. “Here we bloody go,” said a local, when Billy Godleman played on to Curran for 10 in the fifth over. The trouble was the old boy had it dead right. Thirty-five overs later the players were shaking hands.Yet when one’s shock at the craven submission of Derbyshire’s middle and lower order had subsided, it was clear that the challenge of scoring 348 in the fourth innings had proved far too much for Madsen’s batsmen. Perhaps this was hardly surprising given that the county have never scored so many to win a game in their history and that not since 1985 have they more than 300 for victory in the fourth innings.But in this chronicle of poor cricket, we are in danger of forgetting the excellent stuff served up by Sibley and Burke, and that will never do. It was the contrasting innings played by these talented young cricketers which seized a decisive advantage for Surrey on the third day before loanee Luke Fletcher’s accurate seamers rammed home the visitors’ superiority with the scalps of Hamish Rutherford and Wayne Madsen. Both batsmen edged catches to the slips and both, it should be noted, were got out; they did not present their wickets to the bowlers.Burke and Fletcher’s contributions will be fairly plain to anyone glancing at the completed scorecard in next year’s Wisden. In only his third first-class appearance, the 24-year-old Burke recorded his maiden first-class fifty and his 73 was the highest individual contribution of a match in which, irony of ironies, batting was particularly difficult until the third afternoon He then dismissed Chesney Hughes and Ben Slater as Batty’s bowlers ran amok in the sunlit evening.But the smooth ease with which Surrey asserted their dominance on the third afternoon and evening should not obscure the hard work done by Sibley to build his side’s winning position. When the morning session began, Surrey’s No. 3 had already batted for 88 minutes, almost all of it in Monday evening’s murk and drizzle.Sibley then gritted it out for another 95 minutes, adding just 26 more runs before he was fourth out, unluckily leg before to White for 46. By then, though, Surrey were 143 for 4 and their lead was 175. Foundations had been laid. Burke was able to make hay when the sun shone because Sibley had gritted it out when it had rained.At first, though, Burke did not have things all his own way. Rattled on the helmet by Footitt, he scored most of his runs behind the wicket before he grew in confidence. After the loss of Ben Foakes and Gary Wilson, both of whom were bowled by Derbyshire’s left-arm spearhead and England hopeful, Burke added 83 for the seventh wicket with Batty, whose savvy company probably helped him as he reached his fifty. The pair’s stand was the highest of the match and it broke Derbyshire.”Burkey copped a few in the chops from Footitt but he just kept battling through,” Batty said. “He played a magnificent innings and I think it turned the game.”As for Footitt, while he bowled all four of his victims and is undoubtedly rapid, he also sent down 11 no-balls and three wides. Nearly a quarter of the runs he conceded therefore required the batsmen to do no work at all. Charity runs are rarely a characteristic of Ashes Tests but then there can rarely have been a team quite as charitable as Derbyshire were on a remarkable Tuesday when 18 wickets fell. Happily for the club’s many supporters, Madsen and his players did not find their coach Graeme Welch in a particularly forgiving or benevolent mood when they returned to the pavilion. The doors remained locked for an over an hour while Surrey’s players celebrated both their win and an unexpected day off just a few yards away.

Imrul Kayes has said the greater freedom given by coach Chandika Hathurusingha has helped the Bangladesh batsmen perform better. They took on a full-strength South African pace attack and claimed 78-run first-innings lead in the Chittagong Test and Kayes himself was part of a world-record 312-run second-innings opening partnership against Pakistan in April.”The coach supports us a lot,” Kayes said. “He has given us all the freedom to play shots. Previously, we faced a situation where we had to play in a certain way. I like it now that he doesn’t put stipulations on us. He tells us to play like we want to. It is a positive thing.”Kayes isn’t the first batsman with praise for Hathurusingha. Mahmudullah, after his twin hundreds at the World Cup, had said Hathurusingha doesn’t blame a batsman for playing a bad shot when there is need for quick runs. Tamim Iqbal too, after his hundreds against Pakistan in April, credited the Hathurusingha for helping him get out of a slump in form. Equally important is that the Bangladesh batsmen have not misused the freedom from Hathurusingha. Almost all of them have enjoyed good form since the Zimbabwe series last October.Kayes has put a modest World Cup showing behind him and was looking good on 26 when he was stumped off part-time seamer Stiaan van Zyl. He fronted up to Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander for over an hour and blunted the new ball. Consequently, the middle-order batsmen were given a smoother entry into the game.”We are playing against the No. 1 team in the world,” Kayes said. “They hardly give a bad ball, always on the money. You could have survived on the Chittagong wicket but you couldn’t play shots.”Every batsman has an individual plan, what shots he will play, what his strength is. We want to play out the new ball. Our basic plan is to stay in the wicket for as long as possible. The more we spend time at the crease, the easier it becomes for the next batsmen and they can bat with more comfort.”Kayes added that the 150 against Pakistan in April helped increase his confidence. He also believed that handling South Africa’s bowling attack, one with more pace than Pakistan’s or India’s, will stand him in good stead moving forward.”When you can score against an attack that bowls at 140kph, you get a lot of confidence. You think, ‘that I can do it against them, I can do it against everyone else too'””The 150 [against Pakistan] was a turning point for me because I didn’t do well in the World Cup. The comeback was necessary for me. I want to hold on to this rhythm so that I can bat smoothly from now on.”Another factor responsible for Bangladesh’s performance, according to Kayes, is the level of competition within the team. He said that while someone like Liton Das is a talented batsmen, he knows that talent won’t guarantee him a spot in a Bangladeshi dressing-room environment that is rapidly changing due to better results.”Liton has a bright future. If he keeps batting this way, he can reach a higher standard. The team environment has completely changed. Now everyone knows without performing there’s no place here. We have to do well in every game. It is a positive sign for the team and Bangladesh cricket that newcomers are hungry to perform.”

The Delhi High Court has refused to permit the contentious RP Mehra Block of the Feroz Shah Kotla ground to be used for the first semi-finals of the World Twenty20, on March 30. This puts a question mark over the match venue, and officials of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) are due to meet the ICC on Wednesday to try and resolve the issue.On Monday the DDCA approached the court with a petition seeking to open the stand, in an attempt to avoid the semi-final being shifted to an alternate venue if the issue related to the Mehra Block was not resolved.Ravinder Manchanda, the DDCA treasurer, meanwhile said that the DDCA had sent a letter to Justice (retired) Mukul Mudgal, appointed as the observer by the court for the World T20 matches in Delhi, assuring him the safety of the Mehra Block. “We have withdrawn the petition. We have given an undertaking to the Justice Mudgal as far as safety of the structure is concerned, and the safety and security of the spectators is concerned. Justice Mudgal would do the needful now,” Manchanda told ESPNcricinfo.The court had, in an earlier oral order, said that the Mehra Block would remain an unauthorised structure until the DDCA had got the clearance from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). On Tuesday, the court reiterated that stand when it told DDCA that it would not open the Block for public use unless the SDMC granted the completion certificate.The court also reminded the DDCA counsels that Justice Mudgal was not there to give clearances, and it was the SDMC approval that the court wanted to see. “We can’t grant use of any building without completion certificate,” a two-judge division bench of the High Court told the DDCA counsel. Duly the DDCA withdrew its petition.According to a key official involved with the conduct of matches in Delhi, Justice Mudgal is highly unlikely to change his stance on the Mehra Block. “Since it [Mehra Block] is not an authorised structure, Mudgal has not permitted anyone else except the media. And that, too, because the angle of the cameras cannot change. The stand is right behind the bowler’s arm,” the official said.The official also clarified that Mudgal had not raised any issue with respect to hoardings in front of the Mehra block as certain media reports indicated. “He only said no person would be allowed there except for media,” the official said. It is understood that Mudgal made his stand clear to ICC chief executive Dave Richardson recently.

Match facts

Thursday, March 31, 2016
Start time 1430 local (09:00 GMT)Earmarked to carry the legacy of Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin forward, Hayley Matthews is yet to score big runs in the tournament•ICC/Getty Images

Big picture

West Indies have been the eternal bridesmaids at the Women’s World T20. Having failed to get past the semi-final stage in three previous attempts, they have a fourth chance at redemption when they take on Suzie Bates’ New Zealand, who are in rip-roaring form, having won all their group games with a touch of disdain.West Indies received a wake-up call in the one-wicket loss to England that left the team shattered. But the manner in which they put the loss behind them and knocked India Women out in a high-pressure game in Mohali showed the team’s character. When in form, they are one of the more watchable teams – their batsmen can make the ridiculously long boundaries look short, their athleticism has the typical Caribbean punch and they celebrate like no other team. These skills will be put to test against a side whose road to the final four has had little to do with luck or accident.New Zealand’s bowlers have adapted to the Indian conditions the best. A battery of spinners, led by Leigh Kasperek and Morna Nielsen, have weaved a web around batting units, giving a power-packed top order sub-par totals to gun down. West Indies, on the other hand, have had to make do with their plethora of medium-pacers, who have mastered the art of bowling cutters on pitches where the batsmen have had to force the pace.While both teams are high on entertainment value, there has been a conscious change in plans. Stafanie Taylor, the West Indies captain, and Deandra Dottin, who has the reputation of being one of the biggest hitters in the women’s game, have suddenly transformed themselves to play the role of anchors, allowing others to bat around them. New Zealand, meanwhile, have banked on the belligerence of their captain Suzie Bates to give them a flier at the start, while Sophie Devine mans the middle order. No total looks defendable on a Wankhede deck these days, however, and this could push both teams to go back to their firebrand approach. The semi-final could thus boil down to a contest between two top-heavy batting sides.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)

 New Zealand: WWWWL
West Indies : WLWWL

In the spotlight

A three-run loss to Australia in the Women’s World Twenty20 final in 2010 was particularly gut-wrenching for Sophie Devine. Chasing a modest 107, Devine’s unbeaten 35-ball 38 after a top-order collapse gave New Zealand a shot at victory, only for the side to be pipped at the post. Six years on, Devine, who holds the record for the fastest fifty in women’s T20 cricket, has the opportunity to set things right and enhance New Zealand’s chances of the title win.Hayley Matthews has been earmarked as the one to carry forward the batting legacy from Taylor and Dottin. But T20I figures of 174 runs in 17 innings at an average of 10.87 are not a reflection of why she is rated highly by her captain. Barring a knock of 41 against Bangladesh Women, she is yet to set the tournament on fire. A substantial score in a crunch game could go someway in erasing doubts in her own abilities as West Indies look to seal a spot in the final for the first time in the tournament’s history.

Teams news

New Zealand have been unchanged for the last three games, but that has had more to do with the confidence within the group than conditions, considering they have played in Delhi, Mohali, Nagpur and Bangalore. Barring any injuries or an early morning sickness bug, they are likely to go in unchanged.New Zealand (probable): 1 Suzie Bates, 2 Rachel Priest, 3 Sophie Devine, 4 Sara McGlashan, 5 Amy Satterthwaite, 6 Katey Martin, 7 Katie Perkins, 8 Leigh Kasperek, 9 Erin Bermingham, 10 Lea Tahuhu, 11 Morna NielsenKyshona Knight was summoned for the game against India, but failed in her only opportunity in the tournament. With the reserve batsmen also having failed, however, she may have another opportunity. Britney Cooper and Shemaine Campbelle could tussle for one spot, while there could also be a case for promoting the experienced Merissa Aguilleira a lot higher up the batting order.West Indies (probable) 1 Stafanie Taylor, 2 Hayley Matthews, 3 Kyshona Knight, 4 Shaquana Quintyne, 5 Deandra Dottin, 6 Stacy-Ann King, 7 Shemaine Campbelle/Britney Cooper, 8 Merissa Aguilleira, 9 Shamilia Connell, 10 Afy Fletcher, 11 Anisa Mohammed

Pitch and conditions

Judging by the tracks on which the teams have played in the tournament so far, the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium could be a belter, considering there is the semi-final clash between India and West Indies later in the evening. The heat and humidity that can go neck-to-neck in these parts of the world at this time of year could test the fitness of the players. Dew is unlikely to be a factor, so the toss may not have a great influence on the outcome.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have an impressive head-to-head record against West Indies with nine wins in 13 matches between the two sides, including a tied match in which New Zealand aced the Super Over.
• Deandra Dottin has alone hit 71 out of the 149 recorded sixes for West Indies Women in T20Is, which further underlines her importance in the batting line-up.

Quotes

“Brendon is from Otago, and I’m from Otago, so he’s always been, over the years, willing to talk about cricket and his leadership style. We had drawn upon a little bit of inspiration from the way he got the guys to go out there and express themselves, and we’re trying to do that in this tournament. “
“I think Twitter and Facebook is actually blowing up. To know that both of us are in the semis, everybody is just behind us 100% and given us good feedback. It is going to be a mental thing tomorrow. Seventy-five percent of the game is actually played there and I think, on that day who is more calm and more composed (will win). If we try to do that, we definitely can pull this off.”

The Cobras players will apply for the right to strike after failing to resolve concerns over coach Paul Adams with the Western Cape Cricket (WCC) board. The long-standing issues continue after the board refused to implement a recommendation by the country’s dispute resolution body, the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to appoint an independent assessor to look into Adams’ suitability for the job.While the CCMA cannot make a binding ruling, it can issue confirmation of unresolved matters which then allows for lawful and protected industrial action.”Any kind of industrial action is always a very last resort for players and we hope it doesn’t come to that,” Tony Irish, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA), said. “However the players have been asking the franchise to properly address this issue for many months, but to no avail, and have exhausted every constructive process available to them with the franchise. We will now seek Cricket South Africa’s assistance and intervention before considering what further steps to take.”At the end of the last season, the players expressed their concerns over Adams’ tactical acumen and man-management skills following a trophy-less summer – the first since he took over in 2012. Over the winter, Adams underwent a leadership course and was offered a new two-year contract, prompting the players to ask for SACA’s assistance.They players raised a formal grievance with the board, who brought in Paddy Upton, the former South Africa assistant coach, as a mediator. In a report which has not been made public, Upton recommended Adams be moved to another role at the Cobras and a new coach be sought.The WCC dismissed Upton’s ‘materially deficient’ report since he had not interviewed all the franchise players. Instead, they appointed Ashwell Prince as Adams’ assistant and Alan Dawson as convener of selectors. Dawson has since resigned, citing an inability to make an impact given the fundamental problem between the players and the coach.While the players have not made public their exact complaints about Adams, they continue to speak through SACA about their disappointment in what they see as WCC’s unwillingness to solve the situation.”SACA and the players are disappointed by the franchise’s response to our proposals on a process which we believe would have resolved the matter once and for all,” Irish said. We had proposed a process for an independent cricket person to monitor and assess the coach’s situation on the ground within the team over a three-week period and thereafter to make a recommendation as to what should happen with the coaching situation. His recommendation would be accepted by all, and binding on the players.”The franchise has however rejected the proposal out of hand without proposing any alternative, despite having indicated to us that they were in favour of some form of monitoring. It is very obvious that the franchise team is in disarray. The most frustrating aspect is that it appears that the board of the franchise simply refuses to acknowledge that there is actually a problem at all, despite everything that has happened, and is now happening, around it. “The unhappiness has spilled onto the field too. The Cobras have lost three of their first four first-class matches and are playing their fifth without captain Omphile Ramela, who is suspended following disciplinary action on an unrelated matter.