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Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsGraeme Cremer struck his maiden Test ton to lead Zimbabwe’s recovery•Associated Press

A fantastic rearguard effort from Zimbabwe’s middle and lower order, led by Graeme Cremer’s maiden Test ton, helped the hosts avoid the follow-on and post 373 after they had slumped to 139 for 6 in the morning. Peter Moor put his wicketkeeping woes behind him to contribute with an 84-ball 79 and Donald Tiripano struck a composed 46.Cremer, batting at No. 8, played an attritional Test innings, waiting for anything overpitched. He received plenty such deliveries and drove elegantly to accrue seven of his ten boundaries through mid-off and extra cover. His timing was superlative and placement impeccable, important requisites for boundary scoring.The highlight of Cremer’s innings was his discipline with straight-bat strokes, even if the ball was short or wide. He milked the spinners, particularly with the spin to long-on or square on the leg side.On 58, Cremer was dropped at backward square leg by Asela Gunaratne. Other than that opportunity, Cremer looked impregnable with a tight defense – bat close to body, head over the ball and a good judgement of which balls to play at and which to leave. Such was his fluency that his hundred never looked in doubt as long as he didn’t run out of partners. Suspense arose around the ground when he needed No. 11 Chris Mpofu to block out one delivery from Rangana Herath.

Graeme Cremer on…

His hundred: “It has not sunk in yet. When play began, we wanted to get past the follow-on score, that was the main thing for us. But then, after I got fifty-sixty, I thought there could be a chance here and it just was my day today. We were struggling a bit in the morning and just to get us back into the game, that was a big thing for me.”
Zimbabwe’s plan for day four: “We ideally want to slow the game down a little bit. We’ll go with in-out fields tomorrow; we don’t want them to score too quickly and then we have too much time to bat, because we think that tomorrow the wicket might get quite tough to bat on.”

Moor was more selective in his choice of shots, opting to loft the spinners straight as opposed to opting for cross-bat strokes. He used his feet effectively and hit the slower bowlers through the line in the arc between long-off and long-on. When the bowlers compensated with a shorter length, the cut shot was productive.He reached his fifty off 49 balls, thereby forcing Herath to dispatch fielders to the boundary. At one point, Herath had five deep fielders off his own bowling.Just when Moor looked set for his maiden Test ton, debutant Lahiru Kumara worked him over with a pair of outstanding bouncers on a slow pitch. The first, directed at the neck, caused Moor to fend awkwardly. The ball lobbed over slip for four. Two balls later, another well-directed bouncer accounted for Moor. The ball ballooned up off the glove and gully raced in to complete a low catch, Kumara’s first Test wicket and Sri Lanka’s only one of the session.Kumara continued to trouble the batsmen with extra oomph in a testing spell. Cremer survived a nasty moment when Kumara’s bouncer hit and subsequently detached his helmet, which fell perilously close to the stumps.He added 92 with No. 9 Donald Tiripano, who was equally adept at keeping out the straight deliveries and accumulating runs against Sri Lanka’s tiring spinners. Against the run of play, Tiripano missed a straight one from part-timer Kusal Mendis – it was Mendis’ first wicket in first-class cricket.Despite the lower-order fightback, Sri Lanka still retained control of the Test. They would have been pleasantly surprised with the conditions that greeted them on the third morning. After the Harare surface offered nothing to seam or spin on the first two days, it started to behave differently. Variable bounce, pace and enough lateral movement for the seamers helped Sri Lanka run through Zimbabwe’s middle order in a five-wicket morning session.Overnight batsmen Tino Mawoyo and Hamilton Masakadza began the day with staunch defence, even with low bounce evident from the second ball of the morning. Mawoyo was uncertain against the short ball on the second evening, and Suranga Lakmal exploited that weakness by repeatedly employing the bouncer. Some flew off the surface, some looped to the keeper.In the fifth over of the day, a bouncer hustled Mawoyo for pace and an attempted pull resulted in a top-edge, which was taken by square leg placed halfway to the boundary.Sean Williams and Craig Ervine, Zimbabwe’s best batsmen, were visibly disconcerted by the bounce and chose to sweep Rangana Herath. Both batsmen struck boundaries but the stroke was always fraught with risk on this pitch. Williams attempted a hard sweep off Herath but the ball bounced extra and took the leading edge, which was snaffled at deep square leg. Zimbabwe had lost their third wicket of the day inside 12 overs, the second off a top edge.Dilruwan Perera capped an excellent morning for Sri Lanka with two lbws, both non-turning offbreaks. Ervine missed a straight delivery, his pad interfering with the bat’s contact with the ball. Malcolm Waller went back to what he thought was a long-hop, but the ball skidded on and beat his pull.

Jason Roy is little more than a year into his ODI career but he will be the senior opener as England take on Bangladesh this month. In the absence of Alex Hales, who pulled out of the tour over fears about security, Roy will take to the field alongside a new partner, beginning with England’s first warm-up match in Fatullah on Tuesday.Roy has opened with Hales in 27 of his 29 innings, building an impressive record together since the 2015 World Cup. The hugely impressive but uncapped Ben Duckett has been tipped to take Hales’ place, although England appear to be considering a return to the top of the order for Moeen Ali.”Whoever comes in deserves a go,” Roy said. “They are going to get a huge opportunity to state their mark on international cricket. Whether it’s Duckett or Moeen, I’ve been batting with a few of the guys, I don’t know yet – I just get on with it. We get on that well we don’t need to worry.”Joining up with the boys now, been away for a couple of weeks, it’s straight back in. We have great team cohesion. I won’t think of myself as the senior partner – we are all equal, just crack on and maybe try help whoever it is out. If it is the new man Duckett, he might be nervous, but he deserves to be here.”Moeen has only opened once in ODIs since the World Cup, when Hales hurt his back in the field against Sri Lanka at The Oval earlier this year. If he is asked to open, that could leave Duckett competing with James Vince for a spot at No. 3.Roy is among a handful of batsmen to have scored 1000-plus ODI runs at a 100-plus strike rate and he said that he will try to bat the way he has so far in his short career, in which he has found early success. He said he considers himself far from being the finished product as an international batsman and is focused on developing himself as a consistent match-winner.”I still have lots of work to do, loads more runs, a few more hundreds,” Roy said. “I don’t really settle for mediocrity. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I want to improve and win more games for England but I’m pretty happy with where my game is. I’ve matured playing in big games.”I probably won’t change my approach mentally, but maybe a couple of things technically. Really it’s all very similar, trying to get the team off to a good start – the first 15-20 balls are going to be huge, getting myself in. Like I said, we have just had one real net session today so we will assess how the game goes tomorrow and go from there.”Roy said that the hot and humid conditions in Bangladesh – the temperature was around 33C in Mirpur on Monday, with 75% humidity – will need some time to get acclimatised, but he hopes to be prepared for the first ODI on Friday. Roy suffered a dizzy spell in a game against Pakistan in August and will know the importance of taking on fluids.”You don’t really think about it too much,” he said. “You’ve just got to get on with your job. It can be draining but that’s what training days and practice matches are for, so that when we come to Friday we are ready.”You don’t realise how much you are sweating and the next minute you can feel a bit weird. Concentration will be key, just keeping yourself ticking over and batting for as long as possible.”

England 255 for 6 (Root 89, Morgan 68) beat Pakistan 251 (Sarfraz 105, Imad 63, Woakes 3-42, Wood 3-46) by four wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJoe Root again marshalled an efficient England chase•Getty Images

Joe Root’s fourth successive half-century in ODI cricket eased England to a deceptively comfortable four-wicket win over Pakistan at Lord’s.While Root fell just before the victory line – and just before he could record equal Kevin Pietersen’s record of nine ODI centuries (only Marcus Trescothick, with 12, has more for England) – he had done enough to assure England of victory with 15 balls to spare. They take a 2-0 lead in the five-match Royal London series and a 12-8 lead in the Super Series.While this game was not a rout in the sense of Wellington 2015 (where New Zealand thrashed England by eight wickets with an eye-watering 226 balls remaining), or Edgbaston 2016 (when England defeated Sri Lanka by 10-wickets) it never really threatened to be the contest on a glorious summer’s day and full house crowd deserved.A Pakistan team branded “behind the times” by their coach, Mickey Arthur, the day before the game was reduced to 2 for 3 within the first 19 deliveries and, despite a tremendous century from Sarfraz Ahmed, never fully recovered. Their final total of 251 was well below par on a very good surface for batting.While England lost two early wickets – Jason Roy, who played on having driven without sufficient foot movement, and Alex Hales, who snatched at a sweep shot – Root and Eoin Morgan added 112 in 21.3 overs to break the back of the challenge. Root, without ever having to move into top gear, than marshalled the chase with impressive maturity.

Morgan wants fielding improvement

Eoin Morgan hailed a “clinical performance” from his England side as they stretched their winning run to five ODIs in succession.
He was especially full of praise for his opening bowlers, who reduced Pakistan to 2 for 3, and Joe Root, for his fourth successive ODI half-century, but he said England would have to improve in the field.
“They bowled jaffas,” Morgan told Sky Sports in reference to Chris Woakes and Mark Wood. “It was an awesome way to start. The bowlers put in a great effort. But our performance in the field has to be the priority. We’re a better fielding side than we’ve shown in the first two games.”
Meanwhile Root insisted he would be fine for Tuesday’s ODI in Nottingham after a nasty collision with Adil Rashid. The pair collided when attempting to catch a lofted stroke from Hasan Ali, with Root ultimately holding on to the chance despite Rashid sliding into his legs.
“I should be fine for the next game,” he said. “I could see him in the corner of my eye. I’m pretty sure I put my arms out and shouted to say it was my catch but he mustn’t have heard.
“He hit me pretty hard actually. It’s surprising such a little guy would make such a strong tackle but no dramas, nothing serious. We were lucky, really, He nearly head-butted my knee.”

So comfortable was England’s chase that, once Root had reached 14, he did not strike another boundary until he had made 75. There were, in all, 53 singles in his innings. While it was impressively controlled, you sensed spectators may have yearned for more drama.The tone for the day had been set in the early moments. After Pakistan were quickly made to regret their decision to bat first on a green surface – a decision that pleased Eoin Morgan, the England captain, who admitted he would have chosen to bowl first anyway – Sarfraz was obliged to adopt a measured approach to his rebuilding operation.Pakistan’s first three batsmen could only manage one run between them. If Sami Aslam could count himself slightly unfortunate to be given out caught behind down the leg side – the on-field umpire, Marais Erasmus, originally gave him not out, but the TV umpire, Simon Fry overruled on the basis of a spike in the snickometer even though there was no Hot Spot – the other two batsmen were the recipients of fine deliveries.Mark Wood produced a beauty, pitching on leg stump and swinging late, to take the off stump of Sharjeel Khan, before Chris Woakes bowled one that nipped away down the slope and bounced to take the edge of Azhar Ali’s bat.But Sarfraz, with his second ODI century, posted half-century partnerships for the fourth, fifth and sixth wickets. Having also made a half-century in the first ODI in Southampton, he recorded his highest ODI score here, overtaking his unbeaten 101 against Ireland at Adelaide during the 2015 World Cup, as well as recording the highest score made by a Pakistan wicketkeeper in an ODI in England. It was also the first century by a Pakistan batsman in an ODI at Lord’s. The previous highest was 88, made by Mohammad Yousuf against Australia in 2004. There were 61 singles in his innings.While Sarfraz took a couple of early boundaries off Wood – once driving an over-pitched ball and once pulling a short one – he was generally obliged to adopt a low-risk approach. Pakistan could not pick up a boundary for almost 11 overs once the field went back at the start of the second Powerplay, losing Babar Azam, bowled off the boot as he tried to squeeze a full ball through midwicket, in the process.While Shoaib Malik skipped down the pitch and drove Moeen Ali’s second delivery for six, the reintroduction of Wood brought the breakthrough. Gaining steep lift and movement from a back of a length delivery, Wood took the edge of Shoaib’s bat to leave Pakistan in trouble once more at 125 for 5 in the 27th over.But Imad Wasim gave Sarfraz steadfast support and, in making his highest ODI score to date, helped add 77 in 16.3 overs for the sixth wicket. While Imad started slowly – his first 17 deliveries brought only three runs – he accelerated nicely once he had settled and took 14 off three deliveries from Liam Plunkett – a slashed six over point followed by two driven fours – at one stage.Sarfraz was reprieved by the TV umpire on 102 after Marais Erasmus had adjudged him leg before to a Plunkett slower ball. But he was unable to take advantage and succumbed to a catch on the mid-wicket boundary as he attempted a slog-sweep in the following over.While Hasan Ali was caught in the deep -Root looked in some pain after colliding with Adil Rashid in taking the catch, but was able to continue after treatment on his shins – and Wahab Riaz was brilliantly caught by Plunkett, flinging himself to his left at cover, Imad helped Pakistan take their total above 250.Perhaps the most fluent batting of the day game from Morgan. With an array of sweeps, flicks, cuts and pulls, Morgan recorded his first half-century in 13 ODI innings and his highest since November. Though he perished attempting to make room for a cut, Ben Stokes missed a horrid smear, Jos Buttler was run out by a direct hit when called for an optimistic single and Root holed out to mid-off, the sense was that England were cruising long before they reached the finish line.For Pakistan, the prospect of automatic qualification for the next World Cup is receding by the match.

ScorecardHaseeb Hameed’s unyielding style won a new fan in England selector Mick Newell•Getty Images

Lancashire’s resilience secured them a draw that is enough to take them back level on points with Warwickshire and ahead by virtue of having won one match more, although now behind Middlesex following their win at Scarborough. Nonetheless, at the halfway stage of the season, it is a position with which they are understandably delighted.They were helped by a docile pitch that was of little real help to any of the bowlers, to the frustration of the legspinner Imran Tahir, to whom Nottinghamshire were looking in particular to lift them out of the doldrums. They are without a win since the opening match of the season.Nonetheless, for all that conditions were not as testing as they might have been, Lancashire still had to pass a test of patience and concentration to come through. Five down at tea and only 51 in front, they lost their sixth wicket soon afterwards as Tahir winkled out Karl Brown for his only success but Steven Croft and Jordan Clark used up another 20 overs before Nottinghamshire made another breakthrough. Lancashire had a lead of 108 and 11 overs remained when handshakes were offered.Croft’s 141-ball 34 was a gutsy, captain’s effort, although it was the opening partnership between Tom Smith and Haseeb Hameed that was the key factor in saving the game. Nottinghamshire needed to part them early but it was almost an hour before Harry Gurney found some extra bounce to have Smith caught at first slip off the shoulder of the bat and there were no further losses before lunch.By then there had been confirmation that their young opener, Hameed, has the attributes required for such circumstances in abundance as he completed a second hundred in three matches.The 19-year-old from Bolton, who delivered an innings of similar match-saving qualities against Surrey in only his third appearance last season, continued until he had batted for almost six and a half hours for a career-best 122, his dismissal coming not until mid-afternoon, more than 24 hours after the innings began on Tuesday.Until that point he had made barely a mistake, certainly nothing that would offer much encouragement to the opposition. But then, faced with a change of bowler and possibly beginning to tire, he was drawn to play a good ball outside off stump and was caught behind.It was his second century in three matches, with an 89 in between. Only Alviro Petersen has made more Championship runs for Lancashire. Mick Newell, momentarily swapping his duties as Nottinghamshire spokesman for his England selector’s cap, described him as a player “born to open the batting in Test cricket.””He is a throwback,” Newell said. “An old fashioned type of cricketer who looks like he was made for Test cricket.”He’s gone out to bat 200 runs behind against bowlers of the quality of Stuart Broad and Imran Tahir and played exceptionally well. I thought he was absolutely terrific. I just hope that Test cricket lasts long enough for him to play!”The young right-hander admitted that taking on two such accomplished international bowlers was as tough a test as he has faced, revealing as he was asked questions that as well as batting with a maturity beyond his years he is as thoughtful and eloquent in his self-assessment, too, as someone much older.”It was a real challenge today against international players but to have that challenge motivates you and gives you that hunger to score runs because they mean more if it is against better opposition,” he said.”You could see how good they are in the spells they bowled. Broad came back with the new ball and got two quick wickets and we have seen in the past that once he gets a couple of wickets he can go through a side.”His patience and ability to concentrate for long periods come naturally, he says. “It is not something I’ve worked towards, it is the way I have always played,” he said.Taking the new ball at lunch, when Lancashire had eradicated their first innings deficit but only just, Nottinghamshire’s hopes were raised when Broad dismissed Luke Procter and Alviro Petersen in the space of four balls to leave Lancashire effectively 15-3 and when Brett Hutton followed up his dismissal of Hameed by having Liam Livingstone caught at mid-on they were five down and just 35 ahead.Time was always against Nottinghamshire achieving a win, even after a stunning catch by Brendan Taylor at short leg helped Tahir remove Brown just after tea.Yet Newell, switching to his Nottinghamshire director of cricket perspective, saw encouraging signs.”There have been parallels with last season in that we have reached the halfway stage looking back at games in which we haven’t batted well enough and not been able to fight back when we have been under the pump,” he said.”But I can’t fault us for effort and commitment and the skill we have shown over these four days. I can’t think of a dropped catch and in terms of batting and bowling we dominated the game.”Now we have to maintain this standard. That’s our challenge because we’ve only got six games left and others have more, and we’re in the bottom three. We do need quite a lot more points.”

Rilee Rossouw is set to return to South Africa from the Caribbean, to have surgery on the shoulder he injured during the tri-series match against Australia on June 7. Dean Elgar has been named Rossouw’s replacement. Elgar was picked ahead of David Miller, who was dropped for this series.Rossouw had injured his right shoulder while fielding in South Africa’s bonus-point win against Australia. The incident occurred when he crashed shoulder-first into the ground as he hauled the ball in after a chase from backward point. He was helped off the field by the medical staff and taken for scans with what seemed to be a dislocated shoulder.Rossouw had scored 68 runs in the two matches he played in the series, including an innings of 61 in the opening match of the tri-series against West Indies, which South Africa lost by four wickets.Elgar comes in to the squad having last played an ODI in October last year on South Africa’s tour to India. The left-handed batsman scored 608 runs in six matches in South Africa’s first-class competition, the Sunfoil Series, in 2015-16 and was the second-highest run-getter for South Africa in the four-Test series against England earlier this year. Against England, Elgar scored 284 runs in four matches, including a knock of 118 in the Boxing Day Test in Durban.South Africa are leading the table after the first leg of tri-series matches. After losing their opening match, they claimed a bonus-point victory over Australia, defending 189 for a 47-run win. Their next match in the series is on June 11 against Australia in Basseterre, St Kitts.

Mushtaq Ahmed, the former Pakistan legspinner and current National Cricket Academy head coach, has been roped in by the PCB as assistant coach, with a focus on bowling, for the four-Test series against England. He will be replaced by former allrounder Azhar Mahmood for the subsequent one-day and T20 series on the tour, while Australian Steve Rixon is likely to play the role of fielding coach, ESPNcricinfo understands. The appointments are yet to be announced formally.Pakistan visit England for four Tests in July and August this year, followed by five ODIs and a T20.Mushtaq had been a part of the Pakistan coaching staff and team management in various capacities since 2014. His coaching credentials are heavy on experience in England; he has worked with England as a spin-bowling consultant. He is presently working as head coach at the NCA in Lahore and will be released from those duties for the Test series. Mahmood has a playing contract with English county Surrey that ends in July. It is understood that the split in duties for Pakistan’s England tour with Mushtaq was conceived to allow Mahmood to complete his Surrey contract and then join the team; he has been offered a one-year contract with Pakistan following that.Rixon, a former Australia wicketkeeper, had been part of Pakistan’s new head coach Mickey Arthur’s coaching staff with Australia between 2011 and January 2014. During his tenure with Australia, he had been employed as fielding coach, spin-bowling coach and assistant coach at various times.The PCB had already extended the contracts of batting coach Grant Flower and trainer Grant Luden for the England tour, after they had already completed their two-year terms. Luden had been working as trainer-cum-fielding coach, but the PCB decided to hand him the specialist role of fitness trainer and get in Rixon as fielding coach on Arthur’s advice.

South Africa batsman Stiaan van Zyl has stated that he would like to return to the middle order of the Test side, and not as an opening batsman. Van Zyl opened the batting in Tests against India and England last season, but was dropped from the side in both series after poor results. He went back to the domestic circuit for his franchise, Cape Cobras, and batted at more familiar positions – Nos. 3 and 4 – regaining some of his form.”I don’t think I’ll give opening a go again. If opening is the only place then I’ll give it a go, but if I have a choice then I’ll go in the middle order,” van Zyl told ESPNcricinfo in Mumbai, where he is participating in a week-long spin camp held by Cricket South Africa. “I’m normally a No. 3 batter but the only opportunity was for me to open when Alviro [Petersen] retired. So I’m a No. 3 and I gave it a go. It didn’t work so well, there’s not a lot of difference between opening and No. 3. But I’ll put the opening aside now and try to focus to get into the middle order. If they pick me then I’d like to bat in the middle order.”No. 6 is a good spot, somewhere there, if there’s a gap. But we’ll see what happens because there are still good players there in the Test side. Maybe there’s some players that don’t want to play Test cricket anymore so that could open things. So I’m looking to bat in the middle order if I get an opportunity.”Van Zyl will not find it easy to slot into South Africa’s current middle order. The openers are followed by Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis, and there are two takers for the No. 6 slot in Temba Bavuma and JP Duminy. Bavuma, incidentally, had replaced van Zyl as an opener on the India tour last year, after the latter failed in the first three Tests of the four-match series. Van Zyl managed a total of 56 runs at an average of 11.20, and was dismissed by offspinner R Ashwin in all five innings.”It was quite a testing series in India, we played on spinning wickets,” he said. “We weren’t quite used to it. Maybe if I had this camp earlier, it would have been better. The spinners didn’t give us a lot of freebies so that made it quite difficult for us to score. What they did well was they kept you on one side, and then one ball would have your number.”He returned as an opener for the home Tests against England in December and January but started with a duck in the first Test Durban and scored 69 runs in the next four innings. He was dropped for the final Test in Centurion and replaced by Stephen Cook, who scored a century on debut. While it was spin that troubled van Zyl in India, against England, it was primarily his off-stump judgement.”Coming from India, my confidence was low,” van Zyl said. “England have a good attack and the first game in Durban I got a duck and 35 or something. They’re known for their seamers and Stuart Broad was on song. I didn’t have a great series and I’ve got to knuckle down again…like with the A side, probably go to Australia. If I get picked there, then maybe get a few runs and maybe have my name back again for the national side.”Once dropped, van Zyl played List A and first-class matches for Cape Cobras before heading to the Netherlands during the South African winter. He averaged 47.75 in five List A matches in the Momentum One Day Cup, but his returns in the five first-class matches in the Sunfoil Series were much lower. In nine innings, he scored 158 with a high score of 54 and an average of under 20.Now in India for the spin camp, van Zyl said he had been working on a few technical aspects to tackle spin better, especially in the subcontinent.”I think I’ve managed to pick two key points, I’ve tried them and I’m very pleased with that,” he said. “I need to take them further in my batting and [need] to knuckle my basics down and make it a habit.”I tend to be very upright in my stance. I need to keep my knees more bent, stay closer to the ground, and have quick feet to get into good positions quicker. That allows you to have more options while playing spin. [The second thing is] what guard to take when the ball is spinning, what guard when the ball is new and not spinning. Small stuff like that. It’s mostly to believe that you can play spin and in India.”Staying slightly lower against seamers, you get room to hit the ball. If the ball pops up then, you’ve got room to adjust but if you’re just upright there’s no room. When you’re a bit lower, you can pick the lengths slightly quicker.Van Zyl will head back to the Netherlands from India to continue representing the Dosti Cricket Club in Amsterdam.