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ScorecardDawid Malan’s century guided South to a thumping victory in Dubai•Getty Images

Dawid Malan made a high-class century and shared an unbroken opening partnership of 205 with Daniel Bell-Drummond as the South crushed the North by ten wickets in the first game of the new North-South Series in Dubai.The North were dismissed for 202 after winning the toss and choosing to bat, with three wickets for Tom Curran and two each for Toby Roland-Jones, Mason Crane and the especially impressive Liam Dawson in a fine all-round bowling performance by the South team.Malan and Bell-Drummond made short work of the modest target, with more than 16 overs remaining when the Middlesex left-hander sealed victory with his 16th four.Malan, who was included in an England T20 squad last summer after impressing with the Lions against Pakistan A in the winter of 2015-16, also hit a six as he ended unbeaten on 109 from 103 balls, while Bell-Drummond hit two sixes and 11 fours to reach 92 from 98.The match was watched by England coach Trevor Bayliss as well as selectors James Whitaker and Mick Newell, with assistant coach Paul Farbrace enjoying an initial triumph over fast-bowling coach Ottis Gibson – whose North team now need to win the second match, also at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, to stay alive in the three-match series.Malan and Bell-Drummond survived a searching new ball examination from Mark Wood and Tim Bresnan, Wood bowling a total of seven overs in two spells in his first competitive action since an ankle operation last autumn, and Bresnan having Malan dropped in his third over.But after that they were rarely troubled, although Northamptonshire left-arm spinner Graeme White claimed the small consolation of bowling the only maiden of the match in the penultimate over.The North suffered an early blow after their captain Keaton Jennings chose to bat first, when Curran claimed the scalp of Ben Duckett, edging a drive to Ben Foakes.Curran took one for 16 in his opening burst and Roland-Jones kept up the pressure in an excellent seven-over spell in which he earned the key wickets of Jennings and Liam Livingstone.Jennings steered to Malan at slip, and Livingstone, after launching Lewis Gregory into the stands for the first six of the series, was brilliantly caught by Curran running back from mid-off as he aimed for another big hit.Sam Hain survived a couple of dropped chances to make 33 from 55 balls until he was undone by the introduction of Crane, lbw sweeping against the spin.Then Jack Leaning ran himself out trying to take a second to Crane at deep cover, leaving the North in deep trouble at 91 for 5.Bresnan joined Joe Clarke in a counterattacking sixth-wicket stand of 63 in 10 overs, striking three sixes in making 40 off 41 balls. But the Yorkshireman was bowled behind his legs trying to reverse-sweep Dawson, the Hampshire allrounder who bowled his 10 overs straight through to earn the excellent figures of 2 for 29.Clarke, who struggled for runs in the England Lions’ recent one-day series in Sri Lanka, made a welcome return to form with a 49-ball half century including five fours and two sixes off Crane.But he was bowled for 57 aiming an ambitious ramp shot at the first ball of Curran’s second spell, triggering a lower-order collapse as the North’s last four wickets tumbled for nine runs inside three overs.Durham allrounder Paul Coughlin was Dawson’s second victim, lbw for 19 which included two cleanly-struck leg-side sixes.Then Curran deceived White with a change of pace to take a return catch, and finally Crane returned to have Harry Gurney snapped up at slip by Malan.”It’s nice to do it in front of the England selectors,” said Malan afterwards. “That’s what these games are designed for: it’s a sort of second chance for guys to push their case and show the selectors what they have been missing out on. I’m pleased with this knock and hopefully I can continue in the next two games and follow up on it. It’s nice to have the runs on the board and get the win too.”

Two wickets each from medium-pacer Navdeep Saini and left-arm spinners Manan Sharma and Varun Sood gave Delhi the upper hand in their first-round match as they restricted Assam to 132 for 6 on the first day in Vadodara.Only two Assam batsmen scored more than 30 – opener Rahul Hazarika struck 37, while Tarjinder Singh was unbeaten at stumps on 31. Assam suffered due to a lack of partnerships, and crumbled from a promising 62 for 1 in the 35th over to 65 for 4 in the 40th with Sood and Saini doing most of the damage during this period.A four-for from captain Varun Aaron helped Jharkhand bowl Maharashtra out for 210 in Delhi. In reply, Jharkhand finished the day at 33 for 2, having lost their openers to seamer Anupam Sanklecha.Aaron, along with medium-pacer Ajay Yadav, cut through Maharashtra’s top order leaving them at 31 for 3 in the 13th over. Kedar Jadhav (59) and Ankit Bawne (78) rallied through a 102-run partnership for the fourth wicket. After Jadhav was dismissed, Bawne stitched another half-century stand with Ravi Tripathi, but Maharashtra lost their last six wickets for only 22 runs. Aaron finished with 4 for 47, while seamer Ashish Kumar had 3 for 32, including the wicket of Bawne.Sanklecha then had Ishan Kishan caught behind in the second over, before dismissing Shiv Gautam in the eighth over. Saurabh Tiwary was unbeaten on 9.Biplab Samantray’s 53 not out held Odisha‘s shaky first innings together against Vidarbha in Visakhapatnam. Odisha finished the day on 134 for 6 in 70 overs with No. 8 Deepak Behera keeping Samantray company.The first breakthrough for Vidarbha, after Odisha chose to bat, came through spin. Left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate dismissed Ranjit Singh before Shrikant Wagh and Akshay Wakhare struck three times in the space of six overs to leave Odisha at 49 for 4 in the 24th over. Samantray and Subhranshu Senapati added 59 for the fifth wicket but a couple of late dismissals left Odisha on the back foot.Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah’s unbeaten 120 helped the side recover from 30 for 3 to 269 for 5 at stumps against Rajasthan in Vizianagaram. Shah was ably supported by Sheldon Jackson, who scored 76 and shared in a 119-run partnership for the fourth wicket.The pair came together in the 10th over of the match, after Rajasthan’s seamers Pankaj Singh, Nathu Singh and Aniket Choudhary had struck early. Both batsmen scored at a brisk rate. Jackson’s 76 came off 95 balls and included 10 fours and two sixes, while Shah scored 120 off 141 balls with 23 fours.Once Jackson fell, Shah kept Saurashtra steady with a 79-run partnership Samarth Vyas and steered the side past 250 in the company of Chirag Jani who was unbeaten on 13.

Moeen Ali has said that the security arrangements that dominated England’s planning ahead of their tour of Bangladesh never crossed his mind during their opening practice match against a BCB Select XI in Fatullah on Tuesday.”I didn’t think about it once. No one mentioned it and I can’t remember thinking about it,” he said on Wednesday, as the England players took a day-off from training.Moeen was speaking at the team hotel, which has been given several layers of extra security because of the presence of the England contingent. On their way to Fatullah, they were accorded VVIP security so that their long convoy could cut through Dhaka traffic at morning rush hour. There was no need for the fleet of vehicles to stop at any crossing or roundabout in the busy Bangladesh capital.The convoy flowed at one speed, before reaching the destination which was 25 kms south of their hotel. A typical ride takes about 90 minutes but this one took half the time.While the match was going on in Fatullah, the security agencies held their final rehearsal at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, where the first two ODIs and the second Test will be held. The forces involved in maintaining security in this series include the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, SWAT, Special Branch, Detective Branch, Rapid Action Battalion and the Bomb Disposal Unit.The Mirpur venue is now under full CCTV coverage. During the first ODI, there will be body checks at the main gate and at the gallery gate. When the England team’s convoy nears the stadium, at least 1 km is blockaded, and only those on foot can go through. The stadium perimeter wall has been raised too. All the shops in the stadium will be closed on the eve of the match and each shop owner has to sign a bond that declares that their shops don’t contain anything harmful.This is what the Bangladesh government, in conjunction with the BCB, assured Reg Dickason, the ECB’s security advisor, in mid-August. Based on this, Dickason and the ECB sanctioned the tour.Although England’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace had said that the security in Bangladesh isn’t as “in your face” as it was for him in Pakistan, the level provided this time is unprecedented, certainly for Bangladesh.And it must be doing a good job if Moeen didn’t notice it in Fatullah where fans had to go through two walk-through scanners to watch them play. He said that he was happy with the measures taken during this tour.”I’m pretty laid back about it. My theory’s a bit different. I think you’re probably not safe anywhere, if you’re meant to go you’re meant to go.”It doesn’t mean I’m going to go out but so far it’s been the best we’ve ever had in terms of security, and I think any other country would do well to beat it,” he said.A helicopter patrols above the stadium in Dhaka•Getty Images

Moeen said that if the security provided during the Bangladesh Premier League is up to the mark, the English cricketers should not feel unsafe although the PCA has, earlier this week, warned them against participating in the Bangladesh Premier League on security grounds.”It’s up to the guys. I know the PCA have sent emails and stuff around to the guys. I don’t see why they shouldn’t go. If the security’s fine and the guys are happy then they should come. It probably won’t be as tight as this but they would have good security still,” he said.Moeen has been in Bangladesh before, playing for Mohammedan Sporting Club in the 2010-11 Dhaka Premier League and later in the 2013 BPL for Duronto Rajshahi. He said that he understood what it would mean to people in this country when England arrive for their tour.”I know the people here. They are very nice, and generous. I’ve always got looked after here. I’ve got a lot of friends here. I thought it was important for us to come out. It’s a great experience playing out here.”

ScorecardMichael Hogan put a bit of a dampener on Essex’s promotion party•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Essex’s players set off for a night on the town to celebrate their Division Two title success after suffering only their third Specsavers County Championship defeat of the summer.Promotion to Division One having been sealed on Tuesday when they garnered the five bonus points required to put them in an unassailable position, they found Michael Hogan in party-pooping mood with five wickets for 45 to leave Essex 11 runs short of victory.It was the Australian’s second five-wicket haul in successive games, taking him to 44 Championship wickets for the season. He was well supported by the parsimonious Timm van der Gugten, who claimed four for 56 from 29.5 overs, and ended Essex’s obdurate last-wicket partnership with 19 balls to spare.At one point, Varun Chopra looked as if he might carry Essex to a seventh win on his own when he rattled up 79 out of the 138 scored while he was at the crease. His seventh Championship score in excess of fifty this season – the other six were for Warwickshire – came from 128 balls with 10 fours.

Masters calls it a day

David Masters, Essex’s veteran seamer, has announced that he will retire at the end of the season. His final match will be next week at Kent, the club where he began his career, with Essex set to be presented with the Division Two trophy.
A popular figure at Chelmsford, where he moved to in 2008, Masters has taken more than 900 wickets in his career. In the 2011 season, he claimed 93 first-class wickets, including a career-best 8 for 10 against Leicestershire – another former club. Speaking in front of the pavilion at lunch on the fourth day of Essex’s final home match of the season, he said he was looking forward to not waking up “hurting” every morning.
“It is always a difficult decision to call time on a career you have loved,” he said. “I have been fortunate to spend 20 years at the professional level with three fabulous clubs. After joining Essex in 2008 I feel I found my home. Everyone at the club has treated me brilliantly from the fans, to the coaching staff and the office staff as well.
“The members have been exceptional and the crowd here at Chelmsford really is the best in the country. I leave the team in a good place with the emergence of a number of fast bowlers at the club. To retire after winning the Division Two title is something you can only dream of.”

But with wickets falling all around him, and no one sticking around long after he had gone, Essex were always ahead of the rate but without enough men to see them over the line.Essex had been set 264 to win in a minimum of 91 overs, and the openers put on 92 fairly comfortably in 26 overs before three quick wickets fell. Nick Browne departed to the last ball before lunch, caught in the slips by Will Bragg off van der Gugten for 30. When he reached 20, flicking Morgan off his legs, he became the third Essex batsman to 1,000 Championship runs for the season.Tom Westley, who had passed the milestone in the previous game against Worcestershire, lasted just three balls after lunch before he fell lbw to Michael Hogan without score. And Essex lost another wicket in the immediate post-lunch period when Ravi Bopara was pinned in his crease by one from van der Gugten that kept low.At the other end, Chopra was compiling his highest score since his return to his first county. He despatched a full-toss from Kiran Carlson for his eighth four to reach fifty from 73 balls. He was particularly strong through the offside.But he was fourth out just after an involuntary edge by Dan Lawrence had taken Essex past the halfway point with 43 overs gone. Chopra was beaten by an inswinger from Hogan, who then accounted for Lawrence five overs later to another that swung in and took middle and leg.Essex were less fluent in an afternoon session of 38 overs in which they added just 62 runs. But ten Doeschate joined Adam Wheater just before tea and together they put on 40 in 12 overs before the captain became Hogan’s fourth victim, caught behind by Mark Wallace for 23.Wheater played second fiddle in the partnership, and it was not until the 58th ball he faced that he registered a boundary, stroking van der Gugten through the covers. But he then scooped a return into Hogan’s hands to leave Essex 64 runs away from victory with three wickets left.Glamorgan gave Graham Napier a guard of honour as he came out with runner Lawrence to begin his last innings after a 20-year career with Essex. He contributed 12 in an eighth-wicket stand of 23 with James Foster before he went lbw to van der Gugten. Foster then chased a wide one from Meschede to toe-end it to the wicketkeeper.David Masters received a similar welcome to Napier after confirming his retirement at the end of the season to the crowd at lunch-time. They were equally generous to the last pair when they dropped fairly routine catches in successive balls – Masters at short extra cover by Jacques Rudolph and Jamie Porter in the slips by Aneurin Donald. Van der Gugten took his fourth wicket when he yorked Porter to end a 23-run stand for the last wicket.Essex needed just 14 deliveries with the new-ball in the morning to take the remaining Glamorgan wicket. Not that they required any assistance from their opening bowlers, Masters and Bopara – Wallace decided to chance a second run to Lawrence on the backward square boundary and was run out by a long way.Wallace had added three runs to his overnight score to finish on 78. His 91-ball innings had been crucial in helping Glamorgan recover from 163 for seven, at which point they had been only 130 ahead.

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‘Milestones and numbers don’t matter to me’ – KL Rahul

While KL Rahul struck his second consecutive half-century of the tour, captain Virat Kohli and allrounder Ravindra Jadeja also struck form with fifties on the second day of the warm-up match against West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI in Basseterre. All of India’s batsmen except Shikhar Dhawan, who made a fifty in the first match, scored in double digits as the visitors made 364 to lead the hosts by 184 in the first innings. They looked set to score more when Rahul and Kohli were batting but offspinner Rahkeem Cornwall’s five-for restricted them.Resuming the second day at 93 for 3, the Indians were led by Rahul who marched from his overnight 30 to score 64 before retiring out. Rahul and Kohli put on a partnership of 88 for the fourth wicket as Kohli scored 51. But the captain was dismissed soon after Rahul retired, lbw to Cornwall, who had also dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara the night before.”That was the purpose of coming here early to get used to the wickets and conditions and I’m really happy with the way I’ve batted in the last two innings,” Rahul said after the day’s play. “The wickets here have been hard, the weather is hot and humid so it’s not very easy to go out there and get runs but [I’ll] try to use these two innings and the time before the Tests to prepare well for the Test series. So I’m really happy with the way I’m prepared.”Out here it was a little slow and the outfield’s heavy and the ball is getting really soft after 20-30 overs, so getting runs is kind of hard.”Ajinkya Rahane then led the visitors past 250 as Stuart Binny was caught behind for 16 off Cornwall. Rahane too fell to the same bowler for 32. The Indians were 254 for 7 and Wridhhiman Saha’s run-out made it 298 for 8. The innings was revived by Jadeja, who came in at No. 9, as he scored 56 off 61 with eight fours. He first put on 44 with Saha and then 47 with R Ashwin, who scored a patient 26 off 61. Jadeja was eventually caught and bowled by Cornwall, who finished with 5 for 118.”The pitch is offering a little bit so you have to be consistent with your lines,” Cornwall said. “No nerves whatsoever [against a strong batting line-up], I back my skills to do what I have to do and at the end of the day we’re playing a game of cricket, so they have to bat and I have to put the balls in the right areas.”It is very special, they are top quality batsmen, you have to do your best against them. This will take me a long way. Once you perform against the best, it will always urge you to perform better. This game taught me a lot – I think patience and the way some of these guys carry themselves. It kept me to go and improve on my game.”The hosts batted for eight overs before stumps and lost opener Leon Johnson, caught and bowled by Ashwin, for 17 in the last over of the day. They were 26 for 1 at the end of the day and trailed by 158 runs.