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An unbeaten 92 from left-hander Sewnarine Chattergoon guided Guyana to a healthy 230 for four at the end of the first day of their three-day Busta Cup semi-final against Leeward Isles.In the morning, Guyana skipper Carl Hooper won the toss and elected to bat. Chattergoon and Azeemul Haniff made a steady start, adding 66 for the first wicket before Haniff was dismissed for 23.Lennox Joseph Cush and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who were the next two batsmen to follow, did not make significant contributions – Cush making 15 and Chanderpaul just 17.Then, followed, the tragic run-out of Ramnaresh Sarwan for no score; Guyana had suddenly slumped to 144 for four. But Hooper, who replaced Sarwan, was in fine touch.Combining well with Chattergoon, the skipper ensured that his side ended the day on a healthy note. When stumps were drawn, Hooper was batting on 52. Both he and Chattergoon will be hoping to carry on the good work and post mammoth scores in order to ensure their team a place in the final.

Former Australian wicket-keeping great Rodney Marsh said today in Kolkata that both Deep Dasgupta and Ajay Ratra had the potential to play for India. Marsh, who was in the city to watch the trainees at the Eastern Wing of the National Cricket Academy run by the BCCI told reporters that he had been impressed with both at the NCA in Bangalore. “However, I told them that wicket-keeping should be their first priority. They can think about their batting only after they have sharpened their keeping skills.”The burly Australian spent close to two hours with the boys of the Academy. He told them, “You have got to learn to dream as dreaming will make you more ambitious and propel you to greater heights. At the same time, you will also will have to work hard.” He offered himself as an example. “I was called iron gloves at the beginning of my career. That made me all the more determined to succeed. So I dreamt of success and worked hard and was rewarded for it.”Marsh also expressed his satisfaction at the way the camp was being run. He also had a detailed discussion with the chief coach Arun Lal and the assistant coaches, Barun Burman, Randhir Singh and Jimut Mohanty as to how the camp should be conducted. “I just gave them suggestions. Now they will decide what is better for the boys,” said Marsh. “However, I have asked them to monitor the off-season programme chart that has been provided to the cricketers.”Marsh, who had developed a notable partnership with the great Dennis Lillee said that there was plenty of talent in India. “Give them a chance to come up,” he said. When asked as to why India was not producing another Kapil Dev, Marsh snapped back, “Has Australia produced another Dennis Lillee? They are genius who come once in a while. India now has Sachin Tendulkar. Now after his retirement, if somebody asks why isn’t another Tendulkar being produced, it will be a difficult question to answer.”Later, talking to the aspiring talents, Marsh said, “Always see to it that the basics are right. Without that, nobody can succeed.” When Bengal’s under-19 wicket-keeper Ritesh Jaiswal asked Marsh as to how one should concentrate between overs, the latter said, “Between overs take off the gloves and flex your fingers continuously. That will keep your hands from getting tired.” He also corrected the bowling and batting techniques of a few others. Overall, it was a two-hour session that the students of the Academy will cherish for a long time.

Riyan Parag is confident of representing India at some point in the future. The 22-year-old is coming off a superb season with Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024, where he struck 573 runs at an average of 52.09 and a strike-rate of 149.21.”At some point, you’ll have to take me, right? So that is my belief, I’m going to play for India,” Parag was quoted as saying by . “I don’t really care when. [Even] when I was not scoring runs – I said this in an [earlier] interview as well that I am going to play for India.”That is me believing in myself. That is not me being arrogant. That is what my plan was with my dad [former Railways and Assam player Parag Das], when I started playing cricket when I was like 10-years old. We were going to play for India regardless of anything.”Related

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India will travel to Zimbabwe after their T20 World Cup campaign to play five T20Is, and Parag could be among the players to find a place in the side. His focus, currently, is on getting there.”Whether it’s the next tour, whether it’s a tour in six months, whether it’s a tour in one year… I don’t really put my thought behind when I should play,” Parag said. “That is the selector’s job, that is other people’s job.”Parag came into this IPL after failing to reach 200 runs in any of the five previous seasons. But his promotion from the lower-middle order to No.4, the spot in which he bats for his state, Assam, provided the point of familiarity from where he could lift off.”What you saw this year in the IPL is how I play domestic cricket,” Parag said. “I take the onus up to myself, I take the expectations, I take the burden upon myself to deliver and that is why I play the best.”I was not doing that in the IPL. I was taking way too much pressure, keeping my expectations way too high and not doing the basic things right. That is what I figured I had to do this year; of playing at my favourite position as well, No 4. I was like, okay, ‘I do this at domestic cricket, this is the same thing I’m going to do in IPL and let’s see how it goes’. It worked out perfectly.”I had a lot of rough seasons, more than nice ones and I feel having that constant belief in yourself, that you actually belong in this level, that you can actually do things that you [had] dreamt of, has been a constant and that will stay throughout.”RR won eight out of their first nine games this season but then lost four games in a row and finished their campaign with a loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator, one that Parag acknowledges was disappointing.”I’m still dealing with it. I got back home and I was super sad,” he said. “The night after the game, it didn’t really sink in. But then the day after the match and before the final, it was tough.”It’s tough, but then that’s how cricket goes. There are world-class sides that are playing the tournament, world-class players that are playing the tournament [and you can’t always win].”

Power-hitting allrounder Ashleigh Gardner is preparing for a promotion in the batting order in the absence of Rachael Haynes as Australia hope to wrest back the momentum in the T20 internationals against India starting on Thursday on the Gold Coast.Coming off her maiden Test half-century during Australia’s draw with India at Carrara, Gardner is likely to slide up the order having not batted higher than No.5 in Australia’s previous six T20Is.She batted behind Haynes in all six matches against New Zealand last summer with Australia’s hierarchy preferring to use left-hand right-hand combinations as much as possible during both series. But with the veteran absent due to a hamstring injury, Gardner knows a move up the order is possible.”I guess that’s just something I’ve got to be aware of.” Gardner said. “Obviously with Rach’s experience, she’s a big loss for us. She accesses areas different to everyone else and she obviously plays a very different game to what I do.”I know that top four have been pretty flexible over the past 12-18 months. We obviously really like to utilise the left and right combos and now with Rach missing obviously there’s a few more right-handers in that top six now which I don’t think is a bad thing with obviously me being right-handed, it hopefully pushes me up the order, but I’ll bat wherever the team needs me. I’m pretty clear on what my role is in T20 cricket.”Related

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Australia’s only other left-handed specialist batter in the squad is the uncapped Georgia Redmayne. Nicola Carey and Sophie Molineux do bat in the top order for their WBBL sides but are seen as bowling allrounders at international level. Most of Redmayne’s recent success in Australian domestic cricket has come opening the batting.”Georgia has obviously earned her spot to come into this Australian side,” Gardner said. “She’s had some really good Big Bashes. She’s played some really good cricket for Queensland as well. She also accesses different areas to a lot of the other top four, which obviously like to go down the ground. She accesses behind the wicket a lot. So completely different to what myself, Midge [Alyssa Healy], Moons [Beth Mooney] do. It’ll be interesting to see if she does get the nod for the T20s but I know whoever replaces Rachael in that batting order is going to do a fantastic job.”Australia are poised to welcome back tearaway quick Tayla Vlaeminck after she was held out of the ODIs and the Test match. Vlaeminck looks set to play in two of the three matches in order to manage her workload.”I think Tay is the quickest bowler in the world and someone that we love having in our arsenal,” Gardner said.”It’s just exciting to have her back in the set-up, fit and raring to go. I know she’s been terrorising all of our batters in the nets and people haven’t enjoyed facing her. But just knowing the impact she can have against this Indian side is really exciting. To potentially have Darcie Brown and Tayla Vlaeminck bowling from both ends is a pretty awesome sight.”Australia lead the multi-format series 6-4 on points but have struggled since winning the opening two ODIs. They were thoroughly outplayed in the third ODI and the Test match. But Gardner believes the shift to T20 cricket will help the hosts close out the series.”T20 is one of our best formats,” Gardner said. “We’ve won the past two T20 World Cups. So it just shows how good we are at that format.”We probably haven’t had the momentum go our way over the past few games but just taking confidence in what we’ve been able to achieve in the past in T20 formats is I guess positives that we can take out of it and I think everyone is going to be really excited to play some fast-paced cricket.”

Batter Lizelle Lee continued her run of fine form with an unbeaten 78 that ensured South Africa cruised to the target of 158 set by West Indies with 80 balls to spare in Coolidge in the third ODI. The win meant South Africa have an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series.South Africa made light work of the chase, mainly through an opening stand of 122 between Lee and Laura Wolvaardt, who scored a 68-ball 53, her second successive fifty in this series. Qiana Joseph took two wickets to finish with figures of 7.4-2-24-2.Earlier, South Africa’s bowlers continued to maintain their stranglehold on West Indies’ batters. South Africa dominated from the outset by reducing West Indies to 9 for 2 in the sixth over. Deandra Dottin top-scored with a patient 71 off 123 balls. She put on a 77-run partnership for the third wicket with wicketkeeper Rashada Williams (37 off 79 balls). But Dottin and Williams were the only West Indies batters to score in double digits.Shabnim Ismail led the bowling effort with figures of 3 for 31 in her 10 overs while Ayabonga Khaka and Sune Luus chipped in with two wickets apiece to restrict West Indies to 157.”I think the batters need to step up and make some runs for us, 157 runs in a 50-ver game, you’re only going at three runs per over which is easy pickings for a team like South Africa,” stand-in captain Anisa Mohammed said. “I thought Williams and Dottin played really well today but again, they need that support, a couple others to step up and stay there with them.”

Eoin Morgan has confirmed he will return to the Kolkata Knight Riders for the rescheduled second half of the IPL in the UAE in September-October following the postponement of England’s limited-overs tour to Bangladesh.Related

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Speaking after his London Spirit side were beaten by Northern Superchargers in the men’s Hundred at Lord’s on Tuesday night, Morgan confirmed that he intended to return to captain the Knight Riders in the rest of the IPL, and said that the involvement of other England players with contracts in the tournament would be a matter of personal choice.”It’s a complete individual decision,” Morgan said. “I think it was a win-win either way. If we went to Bangladesh we’d play in conditions that are foreign to us. If some guys go to the IPL, they’ll play in similar conditions [to the World Cup] or for guys that need a rest, they take a rest.”We’ve a lot of cricket to play between now and then. We’ve planned on the tour going ahead – that’s been part of our planning for a long time now – but equally, given the nature in which we now compete and live our lives, it’s not a bad thing for guys to either take time off or go to the IPL if they feel refreshed and have enough energy.”Jos Buttler, the Rajasthan Royals man, however, wasn’t too sure about making the trip to the UAE. Speaking to , he said, “I don’t know, to be honest. My family life is due to change – we’ve got a second child due to be born in early September. So unless I want to get away from a few sleepless nights, I might have to be at home.”England were due to play three ODIs and three T20Is in Bangladesh in September-October but the ECB and the BCB released statements on Tuesday morning confirming that they had “mutually decided” to postpone the tour until March 2023. The IPL is due to resume on September 19 after its postponement midway through the season earlier this year, with the tour’s postponement opening up the opportunity for England’s white-ball players to take part ahead of the T20 World Cup in the UAE.England’s only two remaining T20I fixtures before the World Cup starts on October 17 are due to be played in Pakistan on October 14 and 15, with the ECB and the PCB both confident that the tour will go ahead. The IPL final is also scheduled for October 15, creating a possible clash for players whose franchises reach that stage of the tournament.

Kamran Akmal has been recalled to the national team after three years while Ahmed Shehzad, who had been overlooked for a year, made a return to the T20I and ODI sides for Pakistan’s tour to the West Indies. Azhar Ali, who had been captain of the 50-over side as recently as January, has been dropped.The selection committee, headed by Inzamam-ul-Haq, also called up five uncapped players while fast bowler Mohammad Amir has been rested for the T20 format.

Pakistan squads for WI tour

T20Is: Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Fakhar Zaman, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir, Rumman Raees, Hasan Ali, Usman Khan
ODIs: Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Fakhar Zaman, Asif Zakir, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Fahim Ashraf, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Asghar

Kamran, 35, last featured for Pakistan during the 2014 World T20 and has not been in contention for the national side since his central contract was cut the same year. He was, however, prolific on the domestic circuit in the 2014-15 season, scoring 900 first-class runs at 52.94 and 576 List A runs at 52.36. In the subsequent year, he made 480 first-class runs at 60 and 576 List A runs at 72. He was the top-scorer with 1035 runs at 79.61 in the recent first-class season and was the leading run-scorer in the second edition of Pakistan Super League with a tally of 353.Shehzad, 25, has not been part of the Pakistan team since the 2016 World T20 due to disciplinary issues. He fought his way back into contention after hitting three hundreds in the departmental one-day cup, amassing 653 runs at an average of 93.28 earlier this year. He combined a number of low scores with a few impressive knocks in this year’s PSL and did enough to restore selectors’ faith in him. With Pakistan searching for openers after Sharjeel Khan’s suspension for his involvement in alleged corruption in the PSL, Shehzad has been given another opportunity.These squads were picked from a pool of 31 players who were in Lahore for a training camp and Inzamam said only one of them failed to pass a fitness test – Umar Akmal. Pakistan’s head coach Mickey Arthur himself had put the players through the paces at the National Cricket Academy and has been very vocal about his men being at the peak of their physical ability.”We had a set a fitness standard which isn’t really a tough one to start with,” Inzamam said. “But he still didn’t meet the average level. So whoever the player is, whatever his performance is like, we could not select him. Umar being dropped is a reprimand and it’s a major blow for any player. He is a good player, we needed him, but we had to take a decision.”Inzamam was sympathetic to Azhar’s cause as well and said the former ODI captain remained a part of their long-term plans. “He is still in our loop for Champions Trophy in England where, considering the conditions, we probably will need our senior batsmen. But for now we wanted to encourage our junior players who can have a future with Pakistan.”Leading the uncapped players were batsman Fakhar Zaman and legspinner Shadab Khan. They were both highly impressive in the PSL and found a place in the squads for both limited-overs formats. Domestic veteran Asif Zakir, who has been playing first-class cricket for 14 years and has 123 matches under his belt, has been trusted to translate that experience on the ODI stage. Rounding off the uncapped roster were left-arm spinner Mohammad Asghar and the leading wicket-taker from the 2016-17 departmental one-day cup Fahim Ashraf.”These young players are equally good and they are going to play international cricket for the country,” Inzamam said. “So they need to play at the highest level at some stage and I have full faith in them. They will perform, and conditions in the West Indies, we all know are similar to the ones in subcontinent and the West Indies team isn’t like the one in the 70s, 80s or even from the 90s. But still if they face tough competition there, this will obviously help them to develop.”For the T20Is, Pakistan have picked left-arm quicks for the T20s with Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz, Usman Khan, who had debuted in 2013, and Rumman Raees, who was part of the previous Pakistan squad that played West Indies in the UAE in 2016. Hasan Ali offered the option of variation.Pakistan play four T20Is, three ODIs and three Tests in the Caribbean starting on March 31.

West Indies allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Carlos Brathwaite as well as England batsman Alex Hales are among the prominent players who have been ruled out of the second season of Pakistan Super League which begins on February 9.Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh and Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, will only be only partially available. A number of reasons have forced the changes, from injury to some players to others not getting no-objection certificates to scheduling clashes with international cricket.

Squad changes

Peshawar Zalmi
In: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Marlon Samuels, Andre Fletcher
Out: Shakib Al Hasan, Alex Hales, Mohammad Shahzad
Quetta Gladiators
In: Moeen Ali, Nathan McCullum, Thisara Perera, Rilee Rossouw
Out: Carlos Brathwaite, David Willey, Rovman Powell, Mohammad Nabi
Lahore Qalandars
In: James Franklin, Chris Green, Jason Roy
Out: Anton Devcich, Shaun Tait, Dwayne Bravo

Each PSL team has a squad of 16, plus four supplement players. Overseas players among supplements are automatically available for selection. But the local players will only get to play if someone from the main squad is injured. A short player draft was thus held in Lahore on Monday to allow the five franchises to replenish their supply of overseas talent.Lahore Qalandars chose Jason Roy, the England opener, to fill in for Bravo for the first five matches. Bravo suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League earlier this month. He said he would be undergoing surgery and recovering in time for the PSL in February seemed unlikely.Lahore have also called up James Franklin, the New Zealand allrounder, to take the place of his countryman Anton Devcich, whose knee injury has flared back up. Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait was the third Lahore player ruled out – due to shoulder problems – and has been replaced by Sydney Thunder offspinner Chris Green.Andre Russell, who hurt his hamstring and knee in the BBL, is another high-profile player who might not play the PSL this season.Russell, who helped Islamabad United win the title last February, is also awaiting the verdict from an anti-doping hearing and if found guilty, he could be banned for a maximum of two years. Although Islamabad did not drop Russell at the draft, it is understood England fast bowler Steven Finn has been kept on standby.Quetta Gladiators decided to swap Brathwaite for England allrounder Moeen Ali after learning he would not be available for the entire duration of the league.Shakib Al Hasan has been replaced by Tillakaratne Dilshan by Peshawar Zalmi•AFP

With the WICB making it mandatory for players to take part in the domestic one-day competition to earn a national call-up, Brathwaite committed to the Regional Super50, which continues till February 18, nine days after the start of the PSL. Additionally, it is likely that he will be with the West Indies side when they take on England at home in the first week of March, which is when the PSL knockouts are scheduled.Quetta have also dropped England fast bowler David Willey and bought back a player they relinquished at the October draft – New Zealand offspinner Nathan McCullum. Sri Lanka allrounder Thisara Perera joined them as well, taking the spot of West Indies batsman Rovman Powell, who will be busy with the Regional Super50.Shakib and Tamim were set to miss the initial part of the PSL in any case, as they will be involved in Bangladesh’s one-off Test against India starting from February 9. Both men were due to fly out to Dubai and join Peshawar Zalmi the day after the Test ends. For now though the franchise has named former Sri Lanka batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan as a replacement for Shakib. Peshawar have also brought in senior West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels for Hales, who is nursing a fractured hand.PSL rules state that a team can keep five overseas players in the squad at any given time. With Hales ruled out Peshawar currently have six but on February 21, when Morgan leaves to captain England in the Caribbean, that count will dip again. It will sink below the required limit if a Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka in February is confirmed. While it is learnt Shakib and Tamim will ask the BCB’s approval to rejoin the team if they make it to the final, Peshawar are in talks with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and are expected to recruit one of their players on Tuesday.Mohammad Nabi and Mohammad Shahzad will miss the PSL since it runs parallel to the Afghanistan-Zimbabwe limited-overs series. Quetta have replaced Nabi with Rilee Rossouw, who recently ended his South Africa career by signing Kolpak deal, and Peshawar have called up West Indies opener Andre Fletcher as cover for Shahzad.The PSL will organise another draft in the final week of February featuring those foreign players who are willing to go to Lahore where organisers say the final will be staged.

Victor Trumper. Charlie Macartney. Don Bradman. Majid Khan. David Warner. The only five men ever to score a Test century before lunch on the first day. No Virender Sehwag. No Chris Gayle. Just five men in the 140 years of Test history, in the 2245 Tests that have ever been played. Warner’s achievement on the first day in Sydney, when he reached the milestone in the last over before lunch, was a surprise even to him.”It’s an honour to be alongside those names,” Warner said. “I had absolutely no idea about that stat. I knew about hundreds in a session, but not that stat at all.”It was not the only innings of significance on the first day against Pakistan. Warner’s opening partner, Matt Renshaw, went to stumps on 167, a remarkable feat for a man of only 20 years of age. The previous-highest score Test score by any Australian as young as Renshaw was the 164 made by Archie Jackson in Adelaide in 1929. In the last over of the day, Renshaw passed Jackson’s mark.It was a sign of how significantly Renshaw had accelerated that he was able to reach 167, for at the lunch break he was sitting on 25, while Warner had already reached triple figures. Warner said his first inkling that he might be able to bring up his hundred before lunch came when he was on 80, with about 25 minutes left in the session. In the end, he took it right to the wire, getting there off the second ball of the last over of the session.”I kept on saying to the youngster, ‘don’t worry about me, worry about the lunch break’,” Warner said. “And I think with about eight minutes to go I walked down to him and he was blocking and leaving, and I made sure to just tell him that if it’s there you’ve got to hit it, and if there’s a single take the single.”The penultimate over of the session had started with Warner on 94, and he took a single from the first ball, before Renshaw defensively played out the rest of the over from Mohammad Amir.”That’s probably the first time I’ve been booed and cheered for blocking a ball in the same over,” Renshaw said. “He told me to not change my game and just keep batting and try to get to lunch. I just tried to run as fast as I could when he was on 99.”Warner took two from the first ball of the next over, off Wahab Riaz, and then pushed the next delivery through point, where a misfield allowed Renshaw to call him back for the third run that took Warner to exactly 100. “I knew I was running to the danger end,” Renshaw said, “so I just tried to put the burners on and try and get there.”Although Warner missed out on the chance to turn his hundred into a double-century, dismissed for 113 soon after the break, Renshaw batted on and on, gradually lifting his tempo, and after tea he celebrated the first century of his Test career.”We saw it today, he’s got the mental capacity to get through the whole day, and get through those tough times,” Warner said of Renshaw. “There were parts when he accelerated and decelerated. But to his credit, at 20 years of age, to score a hundred like that and be not out overnight, he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”Renshaw said he had learnt from his previous three Tests alongside Warner that there was little point trying to match him for scoring speed, and he was content to play the backup role while Warner was entertaining the crowd.”That first session was all just a bit of a whirlwind,” Renshaw said. “Davey was absolutely smoking them and I was just trudging along on not many. I was trying not to keep up with him, like I have done in the past apparently. He keeps telling me that I’m not going to keep up with him too much, and I didn’t try at all today.”There was one moment of concern for the Australians when Renshaw, on 91, was struck a fierce blow to the helmet by a bouncer from Amir, and needed attention from the team doctor Peter Brukner. However, Renshaw passed the relevant concussion tests, batted on, and by stumps was eyeing off a potential double-hundred.”He asked me if I was okay,” Renshaw said of Brukner. “I was fine, so I just wanted to be out there. I didn’t want to retire hurt on 91 … he asked me the score, and who the last person out was, but I got them pretty right. I think I was four runs off the score, so not too bad.”

ScorecardSam Whiteman scored his third first-class hundred•Getty Images

Centuries to Jonathan Wells and Sam Whiteman gave Western Australia hope on the third day against Tasmania, where they turned a 140-run first-innings deficit into a 135-run lead by the close of play. Wells finished the day unbeaten on 107 and was batting with debutant D’Arcy Short, who was on 29, and their total had moved along to 5 for 275.The morning had started with Tasmania on 7 for 388, but that was effectively 8 for 388 as Alex Doolan, who had gone to stumps on 202, retired hurt overnight after being diagnosed with delayed effects of concussion from a blow to the helmet during his innings. The Tigers added only 14 to their total before being bowled out for 402, with Jason Behrendorff finishing with 5 for 80.Western Australia opener Cameron Bancroft then missed out on the chance to remind Australia’s selectors of his potential as a Test batsman when he was bowled by Simon Milenko for 11. Bancroft had managed only 2 in the first innings and has not posted a half-century in any of his six Sheffield Shield innings this summer.Milenko added the wicket of veteran Michael Klinger, who was caught behind for a duck, and Hamish Kingston chipped in with a couple of wickets to leave Western Australia in serious danger at 4 for 44. But then came a rescue mission from Wells and Whiteman, who put on 166 for the fifth wicket to ensure the Warriors stayed in the match.Wells was given an unusual reprieve on 13 when he was given out by umpire John Ward, who determined that the batsman had edged James Faulkner onto his pad and to slip. However, before Wells had left the field, Ward had second thoughts about his decision and reversed his call, deciding that in fact Wells had not edged the ball.Wells made great use of that chance and went on to score a long-awaited maiden first-class century, in his 39th match, and having debuted for Tasmania back in December 2008. An opening batsman who has often frustrated by not capitalising on his talent, Wells has finally broken through to score a Sheffield Shield hundred at the age of 28.At the other end, Whiteman brought up his third first-class century and perhaps gave Australia’s selectors something else to think about as they ponder wicketkeeping options and whether to persist with Peter Nevill. Whiteman, who played first-class games for Australia A this winter, was eventually lbw to Jackson Bird for 104, having already made 54 in the first innings.